(Im)politeness in Bavarian dialects (based on South German political discourse material)

Abstract

Dialect is used not only as a means of spoken interpersonal communication, nowadays it can be found in advertising, media and political discourse. Dialects, not being the main language of political communication, can be used in contrast to the standard language for explicit and implicit transmission of emotions and evaluation as well as (im)politeness strategy in regional political discourse. The article examines the dialect as means of reflecting (im)politeness in political communication. It analyzes examples with Bavarian dialect inclusions selected on the basis of the its morphosyntactic features and Bavarian dictionaries data from articles on political issues published in South German media, plenary session transcripts in the Bavarian State Parliament, Salvator festival speech transcripts and speeches of the Bavarian politicians at the Political Ash Wednesday and the Gillamoos Festival published between 2003 and 2023. Thus, the linguopragmatic analysis of dialect in political communication showed that dialect inclusions can be used to represent both polite and impolite attitudes towards the interlocutor. Politeness is performed by the speech etiquette formulae (greetings, farewells and other polite expressions), because dialect defines belonging to the Bavarian culture and is associated with homeland, contributing to the creation of a trusting environment. In other cases, impoliteness, especially in relation to political opponents and / or non-dialect speakers, is expressed through emotional-evaluative vocabulary with pejorative meaning, appeal to non-Bavarian origin and disrespect for regional traditions.