Den unga skånskan. Dialekt och platsanknytning hos gymnasieungdomar i norsvästra Skåne.

Abstract

This dissertation aims to contribute to research on young people’s dialect use in contemporary urban environments. In this study, quantitative and qualitative linguistic methods are used to in- vestigate, (both in terms of form and content), the dialect use of a group of twenty-one adolescents in northwest Scania. Their realization of dialect and standard variants of twelve selected linguistic variables is mapped. A measurement of dialectal use obtained from this survey is then related to the informants’ degree of attachment to the place where they live. The result of the linguistic variation is operationalized through a dialect index. The linguistic variation is then related to place attach- ment by analyzing interview questions and using an index of local attachment. I have also investi- gated if the linguistic variation is affected by other non-linguistic variables, such as gender, where one lives, how one talks about one’s place of residence, and the attitude towards one’s dialect. The results show that one group of informants is both dialect-speaking and has a high local attachment score. One conclusion regarding the linguistic variation is that the standard feature retroflexion seems quite frequent in the material. Still, only the most standard language-speaking informants use this particular feature. Retroflexion and standard language alveolar r are prominent signs of dialect leveling in this study. In the discussions regarding staying or moving in the future, i.e. mental mobility, it is my im- pression that several informants are trying to conform to some kind of mobility norm. Those who are convinced that they want to stay do additional interactional work by adding laugh or discourse markers to show an awareness that their preferred position is not necessarily the expected stance. I discuss this in relation to the new mobilities paradigm. The young Scanian is the title of this dissertation. The term could be used to describe the Sca- nian spoken by young people in Scania today, but in this dissertation, it is also a quote from an informant who says this is the variety of her generation: the young Scanian. Several informants sta- te that they and their peers speak this new, young variety of Scanian. For the young people in this study, dialect seems to be something belonging to the past, not to the young generation. For them, the young Scanian is something other than “dialect” and can be understood as a variety of its own.