Subjective and Objective Parameters Determining 'Salience' in Long-term Dialect Accommodation

In this article, we will present empirical results of a longitudinal study on long-term dialect accommodation in a German dialect setting. An important model of explaining which linguistic structures undergo such convergence and which do not makes use of the notion of 'salience'. Dialect features which are perceived by the speakers as 'salient' are taken up and given up more easily and faster than those which are perceived as 'less salient'. The notion of salience has a tradition which goes back to the 1920s. We will discuss this research tradition, apply the criteria for salience that played a role in it to our results, and discuss the question of whether perceived (subjective) salience can be explained in objective (structural-phono logical or phonetic) terms.