Sprachliche und politische Grenzen im (ehemaligen) Dialektkontinuum des Alemannischen am Beispiel der trinationalen Region Basel (Schweiz) in Karten von SprecherInnen

Abstract

A group of Swiss informants of the trinational Basel region were asked to draw maps of the regional language borders. Thus, the subjective assessment of language borders could be visualized. By means of these maps, changes in the former Alemannic dialect continuum in the Upper Rhine Area become transparent, which have developed by nation building, standardizing processes and diglossia. The experiment demonstrates in what way linguistic landscapes are perceived and what means informants use to visualize them. On the basis of this material, a tentative typology of linguistic maps can be established, ranging from "cognitive" maps to "geographic" maps.