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Helen Christen: Ein Dialektmarker auf Erfolgskurs: Die /l/-Vokalisierung in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz

The present article investigates the extent to which the so-called vocalization of /l/, which is so much a characteristic feature of western Switzerland as to be almost a cliché, spreads eastwards. To this end, the realizations of the phoneme /l/ in the speech of five informants representing a locality in Canton Nidwalden in central Switzerland and a locality in Canton Uri, both areas in which the linguistic atlas of German-speaking Switzerland indicates a consonantal realization of /l/, were examined.

In the case of the informants from Canton Nidwalden, which is a direct neighbour of the area where vocalization traditionally occurs, we find the rate of vocalization is 80%, whereas in Canton Uri, which lies further east, this happens in only 20% of the cases where it might be expected. In both areas, the articulatory features which often accompany /l/ vocalization differ quite clearly from those in the areas in which vocalization is traditional. In western Switzerland, vocalization can trigger the rounding of palatal vowels, whereas it merely results in the velarization of preceding /a/ in the dialects of the informants from Canton Nidwalden and Canton Uri. This is probably a consequence of the differing phonological systems. It might be tentatively suggested that the limited geographical area covered by /l/-vocalization and the articulatory features which accompany it may be the reason for the "success" of this feature in German-speaking Switzerland. /l/-vocalization occurs neither in all dialects nor in the standard language, and is, therefore, an appropriate way of marking off local speech from that of other areas.