Immigration and dialect stability: The case of Freiburg im Breisgau, 1600--1750 (Germany)

During the seventeenth century, Freiburg im Breisgau lost and regained nearly two thirds of its population. Surprisingly, the subsequent dialect contact did not result in significant changes in Freiburg's dialect. An analysis of texts produced in Freiburg between 1600 and 1750 shows that while immigration-induced changes did occur in the dialect, they had begun before 1600. In order to account for this remarkable linguistic stability, I examine the social conditions in Freiburg during the Early Modern Period. The main factor promoting linguistic continuity were the guilds—they bound much of the population into dense, tightly knit social networks which suppressed variability and reinforce local norms.; My analysis of a large corpus of texts written in Freiburg, dating 1600–1750, as well as of synchronic dialect data, shows that some changes—the Early New High German diphthongization and the southward recession of [x], a product of the Second Consonant Shift—did enter Alemannic during the Early Modern period as a result of southward immigration. The existence of a group of diphthongized words in modern Alemannic has not yet been explained as part of a systematic development in Alemannic; I argue that these words are a residue of the ENHG diphthongization, which advanced into Alemannic at the end of the sixteenth century, but was ultimately leveled out. The southward recession of [x], however, continues in modern Alemannic.; An orthographic analysis of the representation of MHG [uo] and [ye] shows that certain groups of inhabitants were potential conduits for innovation. Both government administrators and academics were in a position to be exposed to different orthographic systems, and they were not bound in the same densely knit social networks as guild members.