Dictionary of Standard German Varieties

The aim of the project "Variantenwörterbuch des Deutschen - NEU" is a complete revision and expansion of the first edition. The project is organized in a trinational structure with autonomous research units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and in cooperation with international experts. The dictionary`s first edition was published in 2004 after six years of research (Ulrich Ammon [et al] 2004). It documents national and regional variants of Standard German in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and of other German speaking areas where Standard German is the official language (East Belgium, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, South Tyrol). The documentation of national and regional variants of a standard language is of fundamental scientific importance and has not been realized for any other language in such an extent. It promises new insights into the internal linguistic structure as well as into sociolinguistic processes of differentiation of standard languages. Furthermore, it supports comprehension among the different German speaking regions by considering their variants in a balanced way - in contrast to the previous practice of codification. As a work of basic research of lexicographic exploration, it offers the necessary foundation for the evaluation of national and regional variants. It provides thus an empiric basis for the discussion of central theoretical research problems within the field of lexical variation and norms oriented towards standard language. The dictionary`s first edition aroused great interest within the scientific community as well as among a broader public (more than 10,000 sold copies). The research results from the first edition have been and are considered for the revision of other dictionaries and have influenced the design of teaching material for German as a Foreign or Second Language. Also in countries outside the German speaking area, the dictionary has become a recognized standard and reference guide, which resulted, e.g., in a licenced Chinese edition of the dictionary (published 2009) and a portable version of that edition for handheld computer. Based on extensive empirical analysis, the second edition aims at an in depth revision and expansion of the first edition as well as a revision of the central theoretic terminology (such as the term "standard language(s)" from a lexicological perspective) that takes regional variation into account.

The aim of the successfully completed D-A-CH project was the creation of the new edition of the Variantenwörterbuch des Deutschen VWB-NEU (Dictionary of Variants in Standard German). The dictionary was finalized in March 2016 and is now in print at the publishing house De Gruyter. The completely revised and updated second edition of the Dictionary of Variants in Standard German includes about 12.000 words and phrases of Standard German with nationally and regionally restricted distributions or differences in use as well as their common German equivalents. In addition to documenting the standard language in regions where German is an official language, the dictionary includes German-speaking minorities. The dictionary was developed and realized in a tri-national research project in cooperation with further external experts and is based on an extensive source corpus. In its second edition, the German language areas in Rumania, Namibia and Mexico are included in the dictionary for the first time. The D-A-CH project was conducted at the University of Zurich (CH), Duisburg Essen (GER), and Vienna (AUT). It was the responsibility of the Viennese research team to revise and extend the entire word inventory of the dictionary with regard to Austrian and Rumania-German variants. For the corpus linguistic validation of the data concerning Austria, the project worked in cooperation with the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and was able to use and analyze the AMC (Austrian Media Corpus) and its regional sub corpora. The VWB can be used as a unique source of information ? for translators and interpreters, belletristic authors, journalists, politicians or copywriters, in short: the VWB is useful for the creation of any text in which national and regional variation of German is relevant; ? for teachers of German as a first or second language; ? for readers of German literature who are interested in the national and regional differences of the texts or who need information for understanding the texts; ? for tourists who want to know more about the German variety spoken at their travel destination; ? for employees of companies with branches in different German-speaking countries and regions who want to know more about linguistic differences in those countries; ? for other German language enthusiasts and all people interested in the German language; ? for linguists with an interest in the national and regional variation of the German Language.