Die Entstehung des Einheitsplurals: Diachronie der westoberdeutschen Dialekte

The present work examines the emergence of the uniform plural paradigm, known as the „Einheitsplural“, a morphological phenomenon in which the three plural suffixes in the present indicative are leveled into a single suffix. In addition to the Low German varieties, this phenomenon is widely attested in the West Upper German area, including Switzerland, where it coexists with paradigms featuring two or three distinct plural suffixes. The aim of this research is to trace the developmental trajectory of the “Einheitsplural”, focusing on its evolution and on those dialects that deviate from this pattern across the diverse dialectal regions of the West Upper German area. The development of the „Einheitsplural” is explored from a multidimensional perspective, intertwining diachronic variation with differences along diatopic and diaphasic dimensions. The data analysis adopts a novel methodological approach within long-term diachrony, tracing the emergence of this phenomenon from the Old High German stage to its attestation in the late 19th century, as recorded in Georg Wenker’s linguistic atlas (WA). The reconstruction of this process relies solely on written sources, with the research area divided into smaller dialect regions. This approach is further supported by devising a textual classification that approximates the plural suffixes used in spoken language at specific time periods. Two stylistic registers are considered to differentiate the process of standardization in written German from the morphological variation observed in historically attested dialects. The three reference corpora laid the groundwork for a detailed documentation of developmental changes, supplemented by largely digitised, unannotated texts. The analysis follows a corpus-based linguistic approach within the framework of modern historical linguistics, making a significant contribution to the use of large corpora in the study of regional linguistic variation in historical dialectology. Ultimately, new insights into the emergence of the uniform plural paradigm in the West Upper German area were gained through a synthesis of results, illustrated by self-compiled maps, and an analysis of the factors that offer explanatory power for its development.