Dialekt-Standard Situationen als embryonale Mehrsprachigkeit. Erkenntnisse zum interlingualen Potenzial des Provinzlerdaseins.

The article presents information about relations between multilingualism and speakers of both standard language and dialects. Dialect-standard competency is discussed in terms of its presence in German areas of Switzerland. It is described as a form of bilingualism in two related languages or language varieties, often found in children who absorb both the standard language and its regional dialect during their speech-learning process. Results are included from a study seeking to determine whether inhabitants of provincial areas with dialect-standard competency more easily learn foreign languages than speakers of pure standard language or pure dialect.