How, how much, and why do Danes in norway accommodate Linguistically to norwegian? Main results from a Sociolinguistic Study Shown by use of Correspondence analysis.

Abstract

In my paper I present some main results from my study on linguistic accommodation to norwegian among Danes in norway, living in Bergen, Kristiansand, and Oslo. I also present a new method in socio - linguistic research: Correspondence analysis. This method has been used by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and became internationally well known and recognized because of his analyses of the French society. Correspondence analysis is a unique, flexible, dynamic, and holistic method which can be used in all kinds of studies. My analysis deals with the lexicon and the pronunciation of 49 Danes and their social characteristics. My analysis shows 1) that the two types of accommodation partly go hand in hand, 2) that the lexical accommodation is rather limited (less than 5% of a vocabulary of approx. 3900 words is norwegian), and the pronunciation accommodation (with regard to the vowel a) rather extensive (up to 67%). My analysis also shows that important social factors influencing the accommodation, are marital status, the number of years in norway, and geography. Surprisingly, gender and identity do not seem to be so important. However, most interesting is perhaps the complexity and variability of the linguistic accommodation and the fact that several factors are interrelated and playing a role at the same time.