Intra-speaker variations in sociolinguistic interviews with informers in Szeged

Abstract

The paper examines the language use of two respondents from the Szeged Sociolinguistic Survey (SZÖSZI). In the framework of the Szeged Sociolinguistic Survey (SZÖSZI) structured sociolinguistic interviews were done – and within it tests of language use – involving residents of Szeged. The fieldworkers, native speakers of the dialect, consistently spoke in the regional dialect using the “ö” sound. The two respondents also predominantly used the “ö” language variant during the interview. The analysis of the interviews can shed light onto the correlation between the circumstances of the informants’ linguistic socialization and their attitude towards the Szeged dialect. Another aim of this paper was to analyse whether their language use regarding the “ö” sound changed, and to what extent, according to the topic of conversation (school, work, courtship). Both respondents’ language use was affected not only by the topic but also by their attitude to the dialect or the standard Hungarian. However, some conversational modules (e. g. family, danger of death) did not show the expected results, namely, their speech did not shift towards the vernacular language.