German dialect regions as spatial units: a data analysis instrument

Abstract

Although Standard German is the official language and the language of the majority in Germany, regional varieties of German are prominent in the country. German dialects show a regional distribution that does not coincide with administrative borders. In this article, we present an instrument that we created for analyzing linguistic survey data regionally. This instrument can also be used for analyzing data for non-linguistic purposes. Our method is built on Lameli’s (2013) classification of dialect regions in Germany. German districts were manually assigned to these regions using maps, and shapefiles were created to visualize survey data. As an example of the use of our instrument, we use data from the Socio-Economic Panel’s Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS) 2017/18 and analyze self-reported dialect competence and its spatial distribution. Reviewing this data, the impact of the use of different areal units is evident. Dialect regions are also relevant for non-linguistic research. We present previous research, showing that dialect regions can be understood more broadly as cultural areas and invite other researchers to use the dialect regions and shapefiles for their purposes. By introducing a novel instrument for mapping dialect regions onto administrative data, this study provides a valuable framework for integrating linguistic geography and socio-economic research.