Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.64.1.1
Attitudes Toward German Loanwords in Zagreb
Maja Anđel
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of German Language and Literature, Croatia
Elenmari Pletikos Olof
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Phonetics, Croatia
Abstract
German loanwords are one of the hallmarks of the Zagreb city dialect. During
the last decades, a receding trend can be observed, but it was only covered by a handful of
empirical studies. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of the trend and to examine
implicit and explicit attitudes towards German loanwords, as possible triggers of the perceived
shift. Moreover, we investigated the possible origins for the change in attitudes, notably the
age of the speakers and their linguistic background, as a function of their regional ties. The
focus of the study is primarily the attitudes that the speakers of the Zagreb variety of Croatian
themselves have towards this feature of their own dialect, but we also compared them with
speakers of other varieties. Our results show that the receding trend is real and mostly founded
on generational differences. While the older Zagrebians still perceive the German loanwords as
features of a fully functional dialectal variety with relatively high overt prestige, for the younger
generation, they are merely a warm and endearing token of their heritage, as well as a symbol
of their regional origin and belonging. However, they still manage to keep their covert prestige.
Keywords
German loanwords; Status vs. Solidarity; Zagreb dialect; matched-guise task; language attitudes
Hrčak ID:
350334
URI
Publication date:
25.8.2026.
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