Diglossia in Switzerland? A Social Identity Analysis of Speaker Evaluations

Abstract

Ferguson (1959) cites German Switzerland as a defining case of diglos-sia; however, little or no research has been conducted to substantiate this claim. The present paper discusses diglossia, describes the language situation to be found in German-speaking Switzerland, and reports an experimental study adopting the matched-guise technique in which language variety (Swiss vs. High German) and situational formality (formal vs. informal) are orthogonally manipulated in a within-subjects design. Speaker evaluations revealed an upgrading with respect to formality of context only on status variables, and an interesting two-way interaction on solidarity dimensions, whereby less solidarity is felt for a speaker of High German in a formal context. The results uphold the experimental hypotheses derived from a social identity perspective (Tajfel, 1982a), but disconfirm predictions from Ferguson's diglossia. It is concluded that an adequate taxonomy of language situations must include a consideration of the identity function of language.