Edited by Alastair Walker, Eric Hoekstra, Goffe Jensma, Wendy Vanselow, Willem Visser and Christoph Winter
[NOWELE Supplement Series 33] 2022
► pp. 217–234
This article discusses the effect of standardisation on language ownership. Starting with examples from German, it reflects on how the verticalisation of linguistic varieties in the Early Modern period resulted in the separation of correct / incorrect linguistic variants, depending on whether they were included in or excluded from the newly emerged standard German. Thus, speakers who continued to use ‘incorrect’ features, lost ownership of their mother tongue and their language use was considered unsophisticated and bad. In a striking parallel, the same can be witnessed for Modern North Frisian, where grammatical features have become marked as alien or incorrect by self-appointed norm authorities. The current process of standardising North Frisian demonstrates the same verticalisation as German in the past and may result in the same separation of two types of native speakers: those who own the language and can adjudicate on correct language and those who simply speak it.
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