"Look, who we once were". Closeness and distance to dialect on poetic grave inscriptions of the Baroque period between Danube and the Bohemian Forest
2014
Abstract
Based on a corpus of anonymous rhymed grave inscriptions of the Baroque period from northern Lower Bavaria, this paper looks into the regional diachronic use of dialect and standard language in lyrical texts. It answers the question (1) to which extent the regionally socialized poets were aware of a discrepancy between oral and written language use and clearly distinguished in this respect and (2) to which extent dialect and standard language competed or supplemented and overlapped each other offering a spectrum of variants the poets could use forming their language more or less closely connected to dialect.