Gertrud Reershemius
Biographic Data
| ID | 1110028 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gertrud Reershemius |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gertrud |
| FAMILY NAME | Reershemius |
| SIGNATURE | REERSHEMIUS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Aston University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0906-6199 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Digital writing in Low German: Between elite and grassroot literacies
This article analyses digital writing in Low German, a regional language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and currently undergoing a process of language shift towards German. Since medieval times, a substantial body of Low German literature has been written; however, today, the language serves mainly as a vernacular. The aim of this study is to examine whether digital writing could become a new domain for Low German speakers, thus forming a buff…
Soziolinguistische Perspektiven auf Praktiken des Semiotic Landscaping in Zeiten der Coronavirus-Pandemie: Ein Stadt-Land-Vergleich
The Covid-19 pandemic has left an impact on the semiotic landscapes of both rural and urban environments. The present study analyses two corpora of signs which emerged as a direct result of the pandemic in the rural environment of Krummhörn, a municipality in northern Germany, and in the city of Essen (Ruhr Metropolis) between March and July 2020. In addition to regulatory and informative signage, the data revealed a high proportion of affective …
Semiotic rural landscapes and the performance of community in villages: A case study from low German-speaking northern Germany
This article analyses the semiotic landscapes of 19 villages in Low German-speaking northern Germany, thus contributing to the growing body of research in the field of semiotic landscapes in rural settings. Drawing from Blokland’s (2017) typology of community, it analyses the semiotic landscapes of the villages as material manifestations of communicative practices and performances which create fluid, flexible configurations of community. The anal…
Language Shift Revisited. Linguistic Repertoires of Jews in Low German-Speaking Germany in the Early 20th Century: Insights from the LCAAJ Archive
This paper analyzes the linguistic repertoires of Jews in the Low German-speaking areas in the first decades of the 20th century, as a contribution to historical sociolinguistics. Based on fieldwork questionnaires held in the archives of the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry (LCAAJ), it addresses the question of whether the Jewish minorities spoke a supralectal form of standard German or Koiné forms of dialects, relating this to issu…
Lamppost networks: Stickers as a genre in urban semiotic landscapes
This paper examines the pragmatics of stickers as a genre prominent in communication in urban public space. Although normally small in size, stickers may quantitatively dominate signage in certain areas of cities. Stickers are examined here as localized communicative events that mediatize social practices through a range of complex multimodal and linguistic processes, based on data from the Digbeth area in central Birmingham, UK. An analysis of t…
Multilingual repertoire management and illocutionary functions in Yiddish signage in Manchester
Autochthonous heritage languages and social media: Writing and bilingual practices in Low German on Facebook
This article analyses how speakers of an autochthonous heritage language (AHL) make use of digital media, through the example of Low German, a regional language used by a decreasing number of speakers mainly in northern Germany. The focus of the analysis is on Web 2.0 and its interactive potential for individual speakers. The study therefore examines linguistic practices on the social network site Facebook, with special emphasis on language choic…
Think small. The construction of imagined tradition in German "Land"-magazines
In the Demon's Bedroom: Yiddish literature and the early modern
Research cultures and the pragmatic functions of humor in academic research presentations: A corpus-assisted analysis
Reconstructing the past? Low German and the creating of regional identity in public language display
This article deals with language contact between a dominant standard language – German – and a lesser-used variety – Low German – in a situation in which the minoritised language is threatened by language shift and language loss. It analyses the application of Low German in forms of public language display and the self-presentation of the community in tourism brochures, focusing on bilingual linguistic practices on the one hand and on underlying …
A new role for Low German? Language insertion as bilingual practice in the process of language shift: A New Role for Low German
n This article analyses language insertion as a bilingual communicative practice, applying a functional, speaker-focused approach to the study of sociolinguistics and language contact. The article is based on a study of contact phenomena in a formerly diglossic region in Northern Germany, where the previously spoken language ? Low German ? is in the process of being replaced by the dominant standard variety, German. It examines regional publicati…
Post-Vernacular Language Use in a Low German Linguistic Community
In a time of rapid shift and loss of smaller, regional and minority languages it becomes apparent that many of them continue to play a role as post-vernacular varieties. As Shandler (2006) points out for Yiddish in the United States, some languages serve the purpose of identity building within a community even after they have ceased to be used as a vernacular for daily communication. This occurs according to Shandler through a number of cultural …
Soziolinguistik. Ein Arbeitsbuch
The German-Speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues
The German-Speaking World is an accessible textbook that offers students the opportunity to explore for themselves a wide range of sociolinguistic issues relating to the German language and its role in the world. This new, second edition has been fully revised to reflect the many political and social changes of the last 20 years including the impact of technology on language change. It continues to combine text with practical exercises and discus…
“Token Codeswitching” and language alternation in narrative discourse: A Functional-Pragmatic approach
This study is concerned with two phenomena of language alternation in biographic narrations in Yiddish and Low German, based on spoken language data recorded between 1988 and 1995. In both phenomena language alternation serves as an additional communicative tool which can be applied by bilingual speakers to enlarge their set of interactional devices in order to ensure a smoother or more pointed processing of communicative aims. The first phenomen…
Word order in Yiddish narrative discourse
Lamppost networks: Stickers as a genre in urban semiotic landscapes
This paper examines the pragmatics of stickers as a genre prominent in communication in urban public space. Although normally small in size, stickers may quantitatively dominate signage in certain areas of cities. Stickers are examined here as localized communicative events that mediatize social practices through a range of complex multimodal and linguistic processes, based on data from the Digbeth area in central Birmingham, UK. An analysis of t…
Autochthonous heritage languages and social media: Writing and bilingual practices in Low German on Facebook
This article analyses how speakers of an autochthonous heritage language (AHL) make use of digital media, through the example of Low German, a regional language used by a decreasing number of speakers mainly in northern Germany. The focus of the analysis is on Web 2.0 and its interactive potential for individual speakers. The study therefore examines linguistic practices on the social network site Facebook, with special emphasis on language choic…
Reconstructing the past? Low German and the creating of regional identity in public language display
This article deals with language contact between a dominant standard language – German – and a lesser-used variety – Low German – in a situation in which the minoritised language is threatened by language shift and language loss. It analyses the application of Low German in forms of public language display and the self-presentation of the community in tourism brochures, focusing on bilingual linguistic practices on the one hand and on underlying …
Research cultures and the pragmatic functions of humor in academic research presentations: A corpus-assisted analysis
A new role for Low German? Language insertion as bilingual practice in the process of language shift: A New Role for Low German
n This article analyses language insertion as a bilingual communicative practice, applying a functional, speaker-focused approach to the study of sociolinguistics and language contact. The article is based on a study of contact phenomena in a formerly diglossic region in Northern Germany, where the previously spoken language ? Low German ? is in the process of being replaced by the dominant standard variety, German. It examines regional publicati…
Multilingual repertoire management and illocutionary functions in Yiddish signage in Manchester
“Token Codeswitching” and language alternation in narrative discourse: A Functional-Pragmatic approach
This study is concerned with two phenomena of language alternation in biographic narrations in Yiddish and Low German, based on spoken language data recorded between 1988 and 1995. In both phenomena language alternation serves as an additional communicative tool which can be applied by bilingual speakers to enlarge their set of interactional devices in order to ensure a smoother or more pointed processing of communicative aims. The first phenomen…
Word order in Yiddish narrative discourse
The German-Speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues
The German-Speaking World is an accessible textbook that offers students the opportunity to explore for themselves a wide range of sociolinguistic issues relating to the German language and its role in the world. This new, second edition has been fully revised to reflect the many political and social changes of the last 20 years including the impact of technology on language change. It continues to combine text with practical exercises and discus…
Soziolinguistik. Ein Arbeitsbuch
Post-Vernacular Language Use in a Low German Linguistic Community
In a time of rapid shift and loss of smaller, regional and minority languages it becomes apparent that many of them continue to play a role as post-vernacular varieties. As Shandler (2006) points out for Yiddish in the United States, some languages serve the purpose of identity building within a community even after they have ceased to be used as a vernacular for daily communication. This occurs according to Shandler through a number of cultural …
Reconstructing the past? Low German and the creating of regional identity in public language display
This article deals with language contact between a dominant standard language – German – and a lesser-used variety – Low German – in a situation in which the minoritised language is threatened by language shift and language loss. It analyses the application of Low German in forms of public language display and the self-presentation of the community in tourism brochures, focusing on bilingual linguistic practices on the one hand and on underlying …
A new role for Low German? Language insertion as bilingual practice in the process of language shift: A New Role for Low German
n This article analyses language insertion as a bilingual communicative practice, applying a functional, speaker-focused approach to the study of sociolinguistics and language contact. The article is based on a study of contact phenomena in a formerly diglossic region in Northern Germany, where the previously spoken language ? Low German ? is in the process of being replaced by the dominant standard variety, German. It examines regional publicati…
Research cultures and the pragmatic functions of humor in academic research presentations: A corpus-assisted analysis
In the Demon's Bedroom: Yiddish literature and the early modern
Think small. The construction of imagined tradition in German "Land"-magazines
Autochthonous heritage languages and social media: Writing and bilingual practices in Low German on Facebook
This article analyses how speakers of an autochthonous heritage language (AHL) make use of digital media, through the example of Low German, a regional language used by a decreasing number of speakers mainly in northern Germany. The focus of the analysis is on Web 2.0 and its interactive potential for individual speakers. The study therefore examines linguistic practices on the social network site Facebook, with special emphasis on language choic…
Language Shift Revisited. Linguistic Repertoires of Jews in Low German-Speaking Germany in the Early 20th Century: Insights from the LCAAJ Archive
This paper analyzes the linguistic repertoires of Jews in the Low German-speaking areas in the first decades of the 20th century, as a contribution to historical sociolinguistics. Based on fieldwork questionnaires held in the archives of the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry (LCAAJ), it addresses the question of whether the Jewish minorities spoke a supralectal form of standard German or Koiné forms of dialects, relating this to issu…
Lamppost networks: Stickers as a genre in urban semiotic landscapes
This paper examines the pragmatics of stickers as a genre prominent in communication in urban public space. Although normally small in size, stickers may quantitatively dominate signage in certain areas of cities. Stickers are examined here as localized communicative events that mediatize social practices through a range of complex multimodal and linguistic processes, based on data from the Digbeth area in central Birmingham, UK. An analysis of t…
Multilingual repertoire management and illocutionary functions in Yiddish signage in Manchester
Semiotic rural landscapes and the performance of community in villages: A case study from low German-speaking northern Germany
This article analyses the semiotic landscapes of 19 villages in Low German-speaking northern Germany, thus contributing to the growing body of research in the field of semiotic landscapes in rural settings. Drawing from Blokland’s (2017) typology of community, it analyses the semiotic landscapes of the villages as material manifestations of communicative practices and performances which create fluid, flexible configurations of community. The anal…
Soziolinguistische Perspektiven auf Praktiken des Semiotic Landscaping in Zeiten der Coronavirus-Pandemie: Ein Stadt-Land-Vergleich
The Covid-19 pandemic has left an impact on the semiotic landscapes of both rural and urban environments. The present study analyses two corpora of signs which emerged as a direct result of the pandemic in the rural environment of Krummhörn, a municipality in northern Germany, and in the city of Essen (Ruhr Metropolis) between March and July 2020. In addition to regulatory and informative signage, the data revealed a high proportion of affective …
Digital writing in Low German: Between elite and grassroot literacies
This article analyses digital writing in Low German, a regional language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and currently undergoing a process of language shift towards German. Since medieval times, a substantial body of Low German literature has been written; however, today, the language serves mainly as a vernacular. The aim of this study is to examine whether digital writing could become a new domain for Low German speakers, thus forming a buff…
Linguistics (15 works) · Sociology (12 works) · German (11 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Linguistic research and analysis (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Linguistic Education and Pedagogy (5 works)