Popular perceptions of standard language: Attitudes to ‘regional standards’ in Denmark

This paper is concerned with popular perceptions of standard language in Denmark. It presents the results from an empirical study of folk linguistic awareness in which subjects listened to five different versions of (regional) Standard Danish (SD) and filled in a questionnaire. The results show that the subjects’ perception of SD correlates with their own regional background, and that prosodic features appear to be particularly important for the identification of varieties of speech. The study further shows that the absence of regional affiliation, as well as a clear and precise articulation, are important criteria in the subjects’ attempts to define SD. Finally, it is argued that folk linguistic awareness should be incorporated as a valuable resource in the linguistic description and classification of varieties of speech.