Bohr L. Sociolinguistic Peculiarities of Production Workers' Pronunciation in the Ruhr Industrial Region of Germany.

The thesis is devoted to the analysis of variability of mining workers' pronunciation in the Ruhr region of Germany on the segmental level of the German phonetics. The study is based on the situational-stratification principle, which implies consideration of the interaction of social and situational factors in the aspect of language variability. As follows from the data obtained, due to the changes in the situation of communication a complex of phonetic features at the vowel and consonant level develops, which is related to regiolectal, sociolectal and phonostylistic features of speech. Phonetic variants of pronunciation were recorded in two opposite situations of communication (formal and informal). The target group of informants was divided into subgroups according to their age and the level of professional education. The statistical data of occurrences were used to derive the variable rules of the phonological occurrence in the speech of the informants depending on the position in the word and the situation of communication. According to the numerical data of the variable rules differential features indicative of the frequency of the occurrence of the variables and their variants typical of the speech of mining workers in the Ruhr region of Germany were revealed. The results of the research confirmed the working hypothesis that the speech of mining workers of the Ruhr area is characterized by wide variability of vocal and consonantal components being a sociolect on the phonetic level with the inherent distinctive features determined by the regional pronunciation.