This study investigates the phonaesthetics and perceptual dynamics of Swiss German dialects, focusing on how particular sound features influence subjective assessments and, in doing so, contribute to dialect stereotypes. By examining 24 linguistic features of Bern and Zurich German, including nine vowels and15 consonants in single-word utterances, we aim to fill a research gap that has been previously overlooked, despite suggestions of importance. In an online perception study, we gathered evaluations from three distinct groups of raters (N = 46) from Bern, Zurich, and Hessen, Germany, across six categories from aesthetic dimensions to stereotypical dialect attributions. The findings reveal that rater origin determines the levels of importance on evaluation categories and that certain linguistic features can be identified that are closely linked with specific perceptions (e.g., stupid or arrogant), which may foster negative biases against dialect speakers.

In Switzerland, the way of speaking Standard German is subject to heated debates on the extent to which speakers phonetically mark their dialectal origin. However, there is little evidence of factors influencing the articulation of the standard language. This paper focuses on two variables (/ç/ and /k/) which may indicate the degree of dialect- vs. norm-oriented articulation of the standard. We analyzed data from 1,000 speakers from 125 localities using auditory coding and acoustic measures. Besides sociodemographic factors, our models suggested influences of language attitudes and political leaning: less favorable attitudes to the standard language and a right-leaning orientation were associated with higher rates of dialectal articulation of the standard. These findings contribute to our understanding of the links between attitudinal factors and speech, suggesting that phonetic features may be indexical of local dialect identities or political positioning.

Matched-guise paradigms, which are used extensively in speaker and accent evaluation studies, have long been hampered by empirical holes. We offer a solution by incorporating deepfake technology, which greatly reduces the number of potential confounds. We constructed a sociophonetic experiment whereby high-rising terminal (a.k.a. "uptalk”) – and the lack thereof – was superimposed onto a deepfaked "beautiful” and "less beautiful” female guise. The resulting four guises were incorporated into a 2x2-factor between-subjects experiment tested on female evaluators. Each evaluator assessed their respective guise against a list of prescribed attributes and offered free-form comments. Results align with studies on high-rising terminal as well as intuitions concerning conventional beauty, which validates the technique and motivates its wider adoption.

German-speaking Europe is known to feature substantial regional variation in the articulation of /r/.According to historical surveys, this is particularly true for the most southwestern fringe of the region, i.e.German-speaking Switzerland.Large-scale, multilocality studies that show an updated picture of regional variation in this region are lacking, however.To this end, we coded /r/s of almost 3,000 speakers from 438 localities on a predominantly auditory basis, using data crowdsourced through a smartphone app.We report substantial regional variation, with uvular articulations especially dominant in the Northwest and the Northeast and alveolar -particularly tapped -articulations prevalent in the Midlands.We further provide exemplary evidence of an urban ([ʁ]) vs. rural stratification ([ɾ]) in the Northwest.This contribution further discusses (a) issues related to the coding of /r/, given the volatile articulatory and acoustic properties of /r/s and (b) the benefits and pitfalls of the crowdsourcing methodology applied more generally.

Crowdsourcing technologies such as the use of web or smartphone applications enable the collection of large linguistic corpora. Such corpora allow for an analysis of various linguistic features. In the present contribution we analyzed data of >1500 speakers that were crowdsourced with the smartphone application ‘Dialäkt Äpp’ to examine one such feature: the articulation of /kh/ as [kx] in Swiss German. We compared our results with findings from historical dialectological surveys. Results showed evidence for sound change in progress in Northern Switzerland with [kx] diffusing towards Zurich but retreating from the Northeast. We discuss the findings against the backdrop of methodological caveats of crowdsourcing audio data through smartphone applications.

It has been widely reported that speech provides cues to a speaker's regional background.Little is known about how such cues influence human behavior, however.In the present study we used a matched-guise design to test how speakers' regional accents affect listeners' decision-making.In three scenarios, 72 subjects from three regions in Switzerland were asked to choose either the Standard German, Bern, or Zurich German speaker when asked to select a secretary, surgeon, or travel companion.Results revealed that preferences differed depending on the scenario.We further report two results that have not been described before: (1) the Standard accent was least preferred in all scenarios; (2) in-group favoritism seems to apply only partially to the Swiss context: the Zurich variety was the most preferred variety for all listener groups.We discuss implications from the point of view of accent prestige and social identity theory.

Can the foreign accent of a speaker be recognized based on suprasegmental temporal information?For a perception experiment we created stimuli based on German sentences read by six French and six English speakers.These foreignaccented sentences were manipulated by (1) applying a lowpass filter with a cutoff frequency of 300 Hz and (2) applying the same lowpass filter and monotonizing F0.In a between-subject 2AFC perception experiment we tested the accent recognition ability of 15 Swiss German listeners per signal manipulation condition.The results showed that speakers' native language could be recognized above chance in both conditions.However, listeners obtained significantly lower recognition scores in the monotonized condition.Furthermore, higher recognition scores were obtained for French-accented speech in the monotonized condition, a result that is discussed in light of research on speech rhythm.We further report an effect for speaker within each accent group.The results suggest that suprasegmental temporal information allows for foreign accent recognition to some degree.

Speakers' voices are to a high degree individual.In the present paper we report about an ongoing research project in which we study how temporal characteristics of human speech (e.g.segmental or prosodic timing patterns, speech rhythmic characteristics and durational patterns of voicing) contribute to speaker individuality.We report about the creation of the TEVOID-Corpus (Temporal Voice Idiosyncrasy) that we are currently creating in our lab at Zurich University.8 speakers producing 16 spontaneous sentences each are currently in the database which is rapidly growing.The paper gives an overview of the general ideas for the data collection and first results showing that there are significant rhythmic differences (%V, %VO, VarcoPeak) in spontaneously produced sentences between speakers of Zurich German.

This study examines declarative sentence intonation contours in 8 vastly different Swiss German dialects by the application of the Command-Response model. Fundamental frequency patterns of a controlled declarative sentence are analyzed on the global and local level of intonation. The results provide evidence of a different patterning for the dialects in the context of how global and local level F0 is modulated. Findings of previous studies on natural Swiss German speech are essentially confirmed, at the same time, however, new trends emerge.

Previous studies on the perception of language prosody and dialectal prosody have shown that languages and regional dialects can be identified by prosodic cues alone. This pilot study tests this for 4 Swiss German dialects. 70 participants were presented with filtered speech material devoid of segmental cues. The filter was applied for frequencies between 250 Hz.7000 Hz. Despite this filtering, 3 of 4 dialects were recognized by the participants. Identification rates were considerably higher for dialects which present distinct prosodic features, in this case relatively slow speech rate in one instance and high pitch range in the other.