ABSTRACT
Speakers’ use of linguistic features to index social meaning and construct individual identities exerts a powerful counterforce to processes of language standardization and supraregionalization. This chapter examines the indexicalities of dialect identity, interlocutor accommodation, and geographic mobility on speakers’ choice of standard, regional, and local dialect variants. As the situation in Swabia shows, indexicalities of social meaning are so formidable that they can usurp all other social and linguistic factors and slow the rate of language change. Young, highly educated speakers with strong Swabian identities and limited geographic mobility see the dialect as “totally cool” and “friendly,” which they are proud of, suggesting a “Swabian Renaissance” may be underway – a revalorization and renewed interest in an aspect of their culture that they fear is in danger of being lost.
