Ponomarova G. Social Heterogeneity of Essen Citizens' Speech (Germany).

The thesis is devoted to the analysis of phonetic and lexico-semantic speech peculiarities of citizens of Essen in the sociolinguistic aspect. Under consideration is contemporary linguistic situation in the city of Essen and the influence of extralinguistic factors on its development. The role of the regional colloquial language in the local communicative environment of Essen has been clarified. The phonetic, morhpological, syntactic, lexico-semantic and word-formation features of Ruhr regional dialect have been determined. Language peculiarities typical of Essen citizens' speech have been revealed, the universal and specific features of the local speech in Essen have been pointed out. On the basis of the sociolinguistic analysis the relationship between phonetic and lexico-semantic characteristics of the informants' speech, on the one hand, and the extra-linguistic factors, i.e. the speaker's age, gender and social status, on the other hand, has been established. A comparative study of lexico-semantic speech peculiarities of residents in other cities of Ruhr area permits a conclusion about heterogeneity of the regional dialect. The analysis of the collected language corpora proves an assumption about the existence of the Essen urban vernacular with unique vocabulary features.