Pennsylvania German in West Virginia: Language variation and language attrition

This dissertation represents a synchronic study of the remaining Pennsylvania German (PaG) speakers in Pendleton County, West Virginia. The goals were twofold: (1) to determine the existence of dialect variations between the primary (Pennsylvania) and the secondary settlement (West Virginia) of Pennsylvania German. (2) to focus on the structural consequences attributable to the processes of language attrition.;The investigation is divided into two major sections: the first part provides general background information (past and present research, history and geography, field research and profile description of informants), while the second part examines the phonological, morphological, and syntactic changes that have occurred.;Even though claims have been made that the greatest influence of English has been, first and foremost, on the lexicon and syntax and to a much lesser extent on morphology and phonology, the data from West Virginia contradict these findings. Not only were manifestations of structural decay displayed at all linguistic levels, but the field work also confirmed the existence of archaic features suggesting linguistic forms prior to the dialect leveling in Pennsylvania.;Dying languages provide many opportunities for the study of universals of language change and the relationship of linguistic structure to the function of language. While the present study hopes to add new insights into the process of language attrition and the field of language death studies in general, it expects also to contribute to the areas of Dialectology, Germanic Studies, Historical Linguistics, and Sociolinguistics.