Chronological overview
1912: Appeals in newspapers and magazines to recruit collectors
Sending out questionnaires (and instructions) to these collectors, who in turn conducted surveys with the local dialect-competent population
From 1912: very heterogeneous compilation of excerpts from dissertations, monographs, dictionaries, grammars, collections, historical sources and dialect literature
1913-1933: Main surveys (so-called “large questionnaires”)
1927-1937: follow-up surveys (“supplementary questionnaires”)
1927-1990: field research trips (small questionnaire, until 1965) and further questionnaire surveys (until 1990)
Questionnaire Surveys
Questionnaire Surveys
The empirical basis of the Dictionary of historical Bavarian dialects in Austria and South Tyrol is the so-called “main catalog”, a collection of approximately 3 million paper slips.
This consists for the most part (approx. 54%) of material collected between 1913 and 1937 based on 109 “large questionnaires” (cf. Figure 1) and nine “supplementary questionnaires” (cf. Figure 2). In total, these questionnaires consist of around 70 subject areas with almost 17,800 detailed questions. Most of this data was collected with the help of collectors (the proportion of women was just under 6%). These dialect-competent volunteers from the entire study area conducted interviews with the local population based on the questionnaires that had been sent out or answered them themselves. In addition, the volunteers received a copy of the instruction for collectors of Bavarian-Austrian vocabulary, containing the most important information on correct handling of the paper slips and correct dialectal phonetic transcription. However, as not all questions were or could be asked during the processing, there is an imbalance within the data as to which questions were preferentially used.
The questionnaire-based collections were supplemented by surveys carried out by trained dialectologists in the form of field research trips (the so-called “Kundfahrten” 1927-1965) and question book surveys (until 1990).
The excerpts
The excerpts
In addition to the questionnaire data, excerpts from dialectological literature (e.g. dissertations, monographs and regional dictionaries) and other written sources (such as dialect collections and historical texts) were compiled (approx. 46%), and literature, prose and poetry written in dialect were also included in the collection of material. In this way, it was not only possible to fill gaps in the documentary material, but also to include older German language levels (up to Old High German) into the data collection, which explains the extremely heterogeneous composition of the data. A bibliography and list of sources can be found here.