Vowel convergence and divergence between two Swiss German dialects

Short-term accommodation is considered as one of the main factors in dialect levelling and the spread of linguistic innovations. This study investigates how speakers of Grison and Zurich German two Swiss German dialects shift their productions of short vowels after being exposed to each other's dialect in a dialogue. We found asymmetrical behaviour in accommodation between the two dialects: on the whole, speakers from Zurich converged towards Grison German, while Grison speakers tended to diverge from Zurich German. The degree of accommodation for both dialects was most marked in low vowels in words that also served as stimuli in the dialogue. The findings confirm lexical effects found in previous studies and suggest that phonetically more distant vowels are more prone to accommodation.