Enregistering ‘Austrian German’ on YouTube: A qualitative socio-semiotic analysis

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses how the social meaning of ‘Austrian German’ (AG) is mediated through YouTube videos. To many Austrians (and also Non-Austrians), AG is a socially meaningful register which indexes national linguistic identity in discourse. It includes features of standard, colloquial, or dialect repertoire as well as style shifting between those levels. The discursive process of creating the register through metacommunication (enregisterment) often involves the stylisation of linguistic features and practices but also relies on the utilisation of numerous other semiotic resources (multimodality). Yet, there is little research on the enregisterment of AG in online environments, let alone its multimodality. This article provides the first in-depth investigation into the enregisterment of AG on the large video-sharing platform YouTube. A qualitative socio-semiotic analysis of widely viewed videos on AG reveals relevant discursive topics and ideologies, genres, technical modes, and linguistic stylisations of this national register, such as the ironized sociolinguistic dominance of Germany’s German and the interplay of linguistic features and visual as well as musical stereotypes.