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The present paper adds empirical evidence to the observation that dialect contact can lead to language change, and in particular, structural simplification. Empirically, the paper maps out the differences in the speed of the transition from stage II to stage III in different Middle Low German scribal dialects (Schreibsprachen) and proposes an account for these differences.

The present paper focuses on conservative and innovative (transitional) dialect areas and the questions of 1) how such areas can be methodologically visualized and 2) how the outcomes can be interpreted. In the first part of this paper a geostatistical method of representing phonological features in space will be introduced: interpolation. This method is not entirely new to dialectology; it has been quite neglected, though, in comparison to other methods of mapping, such as the isogloss or dot symbol method that was mainly used in traditional dialect atlases. The interpolation method will be applied to a large corpus of spontaneous speech data from rural dialects spoken in southwest Germany. Methodological steps in data processing will be described, resulting in a data set that can be used as input for statistical analysis and the visual depiction of variation in space as interpolated grid plots. In the second part results will be discussed. The major outcome consists of an aggregate interpolation plot that includes variables from fifteen different etymological sound classes. These sound classes can be used for demonstrating the distribution of receding phonological variables in space. The interpolation shows two conservative areas where receding forms are still widespread. They lie within the centers of the two major dialect groups of southwest Germany: Alemannic and Swabian. The conservative areas are separated by a broad transitional zone characterized by intense variation between receding and innovative variants. It will be argued that this transitional zone is not due to the horizontal spread of the dialects into each other’s areas alone. Rather, variation is triggered by vertical standard influence that supports any dialect form to spread out horizontally as long as it is phonologically identical or similar to the standard form.

Länderschwerpunkt Niederlande: The Siegfried Unseld Archives and Dutchliterature In 2009 Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach (DLA) acquired the Siegfried Unseld Archives (SUA). SUA covers the period from 1945-2002 and includes material from the publishing houses such as Suhrkamp Verlag, Insel Verlag, Jüdischer Verlag and Deutscher Klassiker Verlag. The archive constitutes an important resource not only for the historians of literature and science, but also for the sociologists of literature dealing with literary translation. Scholars interested in Dutch literature will also find a wealth of research data in the archive. Suhrkamp Verlag, next to the publishers such as Hanser and Klett- Cotta, played a very important part in shaping the reception of Dutch literature in Germany. The paper discusses three stages in the production of literary translations in Suhrkamp Verlag between 1957-1990, focusing in particular on the selection procedure and the participation of the individual actors of the transfer.

The ideological position of Standard Dutch in Flanders: the standard language ideology under pressure? In this paper, the results of a perception study in Flanders are reported. 80 informants were subjected to a qualitative interview, to gain insight in the way Flemish language users judge on the situational appropriacy of several Dutch language varieties. The reported beliefs of the informants were compared to language ideological frameworks and they show an evolution in the standard language ideology (Milroy & Milroy, 1985), an ideology in which the standard language is considered to be the ideal and to be the only appropriate variety for formal and public situations. The informants still consider the standard language to be important and to be superior, but the variety according to them is not necessary for formal and public situations. Instead Tussentaal, lit. ‘in-between language’, has gained a position in the situational spectre.