Language maintenance studies argue that introducing a standard variety will improve attitudes toward endangered vernaculars, e.g. Brenzinger et al. (2003) and Fishman (1991). However, a speech community can opt for different ways to introduce a standard variety with endogenous and exogenous standardisation processes, resulting in varying linguistic distance between a standard variety and its endangered vernacular, e.g. Auer et al. (2008). To-date, language aintenance
research has not taken into account these differences in linguistic distance for a standard variety’s positive attitudinal effect.
This thesis investigates the conditions for a standard variety’s purported positive impact on attitudes towards endangered vernaculars. The hypotheses of this thesis draw on social psychological attitude theory and distinguishes between explicit attitudes based on deliberate processes vs. implicit attitudes based on automatic processes, e.g. Wilson et al. (2000). Social psychological research on implicit automatic attitudes implies that the more attitude objects resemble each other, the more likely they are evaluated in the same manner. I suggest that the
resemblance of a standard variety and its endangered vernacular is governed by their linguistic distance, a result of the different nature of standardisation processes, i.e. exogenous and endogenous. Consequently, the first hypothesis of this thesis states that linguistic distance between a standard and its endangered vernaculars influences implicit attitudes towards the latter (H1a). Furthermore, the second hypothesis refines this influence, positing that only a close, endogenous standard variety will resemble its endangered vernaculars, share its prestige and thus positively impact on implicit attitudes towards these vernaculars (H1b). These hypotheses were investigated in two endangered speech communities of Moselle Franconian, where speakers opted for two different ways to introduce a standard variety: While Luxembourg created an endogenous, close standard variety for Moselle Franconian vernaculars, i.e. Standard Luxembourgish, Standard German constitutes an exogenous, linguistically distant standard of Moselle Franconian vernaculars in the Belgische Eifel in Belgium.
Implicit attitudes were measured in Luxembourg and Belgium in two quantitative studies applying measures based on automaticity, i.e. Affective Priming and the Implicit Association Test (Fazio,1995; Greenwald, et al., 1998). Results of the first study support the hypotheses: The speech community with its unique standardisation process was the strongest predictor of implicit attitudes towards endangered vernaculars (H1a). In addition, speakers’ implicit attitudes towards their endangered Moselle Franconian were more positive in Luxembourg (close standard) compared to implicit attitudes towards Moselle Franconian in Belgium (distant standard), (H1b). Surprisingly, the study also found that Luxembourgish participants implicitly preferred their vernacular over their standard variety, despite an abundance of sociolinguistic studies showing the prestige of standard varieties, e.g. Rosseel et al. (2018) and Speelman, et al. (2013). The second study failed to elicit implicit attitudes, but provided valuable insights for the Affective Priming paradigm in Linguistics. A third study explored explicit attitudes towards the standard variety and its vernacular, and additional standardised contact varieties with a survey in the speech communities. It investigated the unexpected results of study 1 and hypothesised that explicit attitudes towards Standard Luxembourgish would be more negative compared to Standard German due to its lower degrees of standardisation. This hypothesis was partially borne out. In addition, the lower degrees of standardisation of Luxembourgish also emerged in more positive attitudes towards other standardised contact varieties, such German and French. The investigation into low linguistic distance influences a standard’s positive effect on explicit attitudes towards endangered vernaculars remained exploratory, since the thesis could not draw on social psychological insights. Results may suggest that linguistic distance might influence the standard variety’s positive effect only on implicit attitudes towards endangered vernaculars, not explicit.
Overall, three factors emerged in this thesis to potentially influence a standard variety’s positive attitudinal effect on its endangered vernaculars: a) linguistic distance, resulting from the different nature of standardisation processes, b) degrees of standardisation, and c) attitude type, i.e. explicit and implicit. Consequently, a standard variety’s positive effect has clear limitations.