Petrenko D. Sociophonetic Pronunciation Variability of German politicians.

The present thesis is carried out following the tendency of a new trend in sociolinguistic research - socially determined phonetic-phonological variability of the national language taken as an integral structure. The thesis focuses on the actual problems of modern phonostylistics and sociophonetics, the research also defines variation peculiarities of the native speakers? speech in Germany at the phonetic level. The subject of the given research is sociophonetic variability of the modern German language - the realisation of the segmental composition depending on social situations of communication (phonostylistical aspect) and social factors - social status of the speakers?. German political figures? speech served as the object of investigation. Key method of investigation employed is situational method, i.e. speech pronunciation peculiarities are analysed in varios communicative situations (formal-informal) and choice of definite pronunciation styles made by informants determined by the above mentionedfactors.