Acoustic cues for language dominance in bilingual speakers of High and Low German in East Frisia

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jörg Peters
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics ; General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 406518522

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

Low German is acquired today only within the context of bilingualism, alongside High German. The future of Low German depends on whether there is a balanced bilingualism with little functional overlap between the two languages, or if dominance of one language over the other leads to incomplete acquisition of the latter. The research project aimed to explore whether there has been a shift in dominance in favor of High German in the younger genera-tion and whether speakers experience an increase in cognitive load when speaking Low German. It was expected that speaking Low German would result in higher cognitive load than speaking High German, and that this difference would be greater the younger and more High German-dominant the speakers are. Building on findings from cognitive psychology and research on multilingualism, the project focused on acoustic effects of variation in cognitive load in speaking High and Low German. Acoustic variables were examined in the areas of voice quality, vowel realization, and oral fluency. The data collection was carried out in 14 of the 19 villages of the municipality of Krummhörn in western East Frisia. Seven speaking tasks were performed by 95 bilingual speakers aged 15–88 in both languages. Information on dialectal competence in Low German was obtained from a translation task. In addition, a questionnaire was used to assess the relative dominance of the two languages based on age of acquisition, frequency of use, and situations of use. As expected, the dominance of High German was found to increase with decreasing age of the participants. The acoustic analysis revealed differences in voice quality and oral fluency between Low German and High German, and this difference was more pronounced in speakers who were younger and had a stronger dominance of High German. These results suggests that younger and more High German-dominant speakers of Low German had a higher cognitive load when speaking Low German than when speaking High German. On the other hand, vowel realization has proven to be less suitable for assessing cognitive load. The methodological approach developed in this project offers new perspectives for research on multilingualism and will be of particular interest for assessing the degree of endangerment of regional and minority languages, since cognitive load in language use, alongside language competence, is likely to play a crucial role in determining whether an endangered language is established as a family language and is passed down to the younger generation.

Publications

• Effects of cognitive stress and cognitive load on vowel production in High German (L1) and Low German (L2). 16. Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum (P&P), Trier/online, 11.09.2020
  Frank, M.; Rohloff, M. & Peters, J.
  
• Fluency as an indicator of language proficiency and task difficulty in learners of Low German as L2. 16. Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum (P&P), Trier/online, 11.09.2020
  Rohloff, M.; Frank, M. & Peters, J.
  
• Pitch Range Variation in High German (L1) and Low German (L2). Speech Prosody 2020, 650-654. ISCA.
  Peters, Jörg; Frank, Marina & Rohloff, Marina
  
• Sprachdominanz bei bilingualen Sprechern und Sprecherinnen des Hoch- und Niederdeutschen in Ostfriesland. DoktorandInnenkolloquium der FK III, Universität Oldenburg, 08.01.2020
  Frank, M. & Rohloff, M.
  
• Effects of cognitive stress and language dominance on vowel productions in bilingual speakers of High German and Low German. 17. Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum (P&P), Frankfurt/online, 30.09.2021. [Poster]
  Frank, M.; Rohloff, M. & Peters, J.
  
• Prosodische Variation beim Gebrauch des Niederdeutschen als L2. 10. Kolloquium Forum Sprachvariation der IGDD und 9. Nachwuchskolloquium des VndS, Bonn/online, 23.01.2021
  Frank, M. & Rohloff, M.
  
• Sprechgeschwindigkeitsmaße als Indikatoren für Sprachkompetenz und Aufgabenschwierigkeit bei Niederdeutschlernenden. 10. Nachwuchskolloquium des Vereins für niederdeutsche Sprachforschung, Oldenburg/online, 6.10.2021
  Rohloff, M. & Frank, M.
  
• Akustische Indikatoren für kognitive Belastungsreaktionen beim Gebrauch des Hoch- und Niederdeutschen. 7. Kongress der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Dialektologie des Deutschen (IGDD), Salzburg, Österreich, 07.07.2022
  Peters, J.; Frank, M. & Rohloff, M.
  
• Akustische Indikatoren für Sprachdominanz im Kontext hochdeutschniederdeutscher Zweisprachigkeit. Ein Forschungsprojekt an der Schnittstelle zwischen Regionalsprachenforschung, Mehrsprachigkeitsforschung und akustischer Phonetik. 22. Norddeutsches Linguistisches Kolloquium, Oldenburg/online, 08.04.2022
  Peters, J.
  
• Fluency as an indicator of language dominance in bilingual speakers of High and Low German. Small languages, big ideas: the smaller Germanic languages from a theoretical, general and comparative perspective (SLBI), Oldenburg, 01.07.2022
  Rohloff, M.; Frank, M. & Peters, J.
  
• Fluency as an indicator of language proficiency and task difficulty in learners of Low German as L2. Workshop Dialects across Borders, RU Groningen & University of Oldenburg, 16.06.2022
  Rohloff, M.
  
• Objectives and motivation of the research project “Acoustic indicators of language dominance in bilingual speakers of High and Low German in East Frisia”. Workshop Dialects across Borders, RU Groningen & University of Oldenburg, 16.06. 2022
  Peters, J.
  
• Effects of Cognitive Load on Vocal Fold Vibratory Patterns in Bilingual Speakers of Low and High German. Journal of Voice.
  Peters, Jörg; Frank, Marina & Rohloff, Tio
  
• Effects of cognitive load on vowel production in bilingual speakers of High and Low German. (Poster). 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Prag, Tschechien, 07.–11.08.2023.
  Frank, M.; Rohloff, M. & Peters, J.
  
• Effects of cognitive load on vowel production in bilingual speakers of High and Low German. ID 216. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Prague, August 7-11, 2023, 2815–2819.
  Frank, M.; Rohloff, M. & Peters, J.
  
• Neue Wege zur Erfassung kognitiver Belastung beim Zweit- und Fremdsprachengebrauch: Eine Studie zu bilingualen Sprecher*innen des Hoch- und Niederdeutschen. 15. Nordwestdeutsches Linguistisches Kolloquium, Oldenburg, 01.12.2023.
  Peters, J.; Frank, M. & Rohloff, T.
  
• Vocal fold vibratory patterns in bilingual speakers of Low and High German. 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Prag, Tschechien, 07.–11.08.2023
  Peters, J.; Frank, M. & Rohloff, M.
  
• Vocal fold vibratory patterns in bilingual speakers of Low and High German. ID 212. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Prague, August 7-11, 2023, 1731–1735.
  Peters, J.; Frank, M. & Rohloff, M.
  
• Akustische Indikatoren kognitiver Belastung beim Gebrauch des Hochund Niederdeutschen. Linguistisches Kolloquium, Philipps-Universität Marburg, 17.01. 2024
  Peters, J.
  
• Zur aktuellen Lage des Plattdeutschen in der Krummhörn. Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojekts. Rathaus Pewsum, 01.02.2024.
  Peters, J.; Frank, M. & Rohloff, T.