The perception of multiethnolectal Zurich German: A continuum rather than clear-cut categories

Since about 2000, the emergence of so-called ‘multiethnolects’ has been observed among adolescents in German-speaking Switzerland; however, a systematic description these varieties is lacking at present. The few existing perception studies multiethnolects other European countries are usually based on two or more predetermined groups that compared. This paper investigates which labels used for multiethnolectal Zurich German and how this way speaking perceived by adolescents; we adopt perceptual sociolinguistics approach focuses conceptualizations lay people rather than those linguists.
 In rating experiment, 40 listened to short speech samples 48 pupils recorded different schools city were asked rate speakers 7-point Likert scale according they sounded (not all – very strongly). results yielded continuum clear-cut binary categorization [±multiethnolectal]. A smaller follow-up experiment with 12 adult raters (using same stimuli) highly significant correlation between mean scores raters.