Anna Havinga
University of Bristol

Non-Dominant varieties and invisible languages: the case of 18^th- and early 19^th-century Austrian German

Keywords: Austrian German, 18th and early 19th century, invisibility, historical sociolinguistics

The study of non-dominant varieties poses a particular challenge to historical linguists as often only dominant varieties were used in writing. Consequently, there is very few direct historical evidence, i.e. texts, for non-dominant varieties: they remain literally invisible to both contemporary readers and modern historians (cf. Havinga & Langer 2015). In order to provide an account of the fullness of actual language use at a particular time in the past, historical sociolinguists have identified a number of methods and sources to obtain a picture of language use and language perception which takes account of non-dominant varieties (see Langer 2012). In my doctoral research, I focus on the case of Austrian German as a stigmatised variety in the eighteenth century. Austrian German can certainly be described as being ‘invisible’ in formal writing from the late 18^th century onwards, especially after Empress Maria Theresa (1740-1780) propagated the use of the Upper Saxon language norms while dismissing Austrian German features as ‘incorrect’. This active process of stigmatization, which prevented particular Austrian German features from being written down, can be referred to as ‘invisibilisation’.
In this paper, I will focus on 18^th- and early 19^th-century Austrian German morphology and lexis to explain the concept of ‘invisible languages’ clearly and address the following questions:

• How can historical linguists reveal non-dominant, invisible languages?
• Which text types are particularly suited for finding ‘invisible’ features?
• What are the wider implications of the ‘invisibilisation’ of certain varieties and variants?
• Can the term ‘invisible languages’ be applied to other non-dominant varieties?

References:
Havinga, Anna & Langer, Nils (eds.). (in print). Invisible Languages in the 19^th century. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Langer, Nils. 2012. ‘Finding non-dominant languages in the nineteenth century – problems and potentials from historical sociolinguistics.’ In: Rudolf Muhr (ed.). Non-dominant varieties of pluricentric languages. Getting the picture. Oxford: Peter Lang. 83-107.