Research interests

  • Sociolinguistics, especially dialectology and variation linguistics as well as historical sociolinguistics, with a focus on the German, English and Lithuanian-speaking regions
  • Diastratic and diaphasic varieties in Switzerland (especially multiethnolects and youth language), multilingualism - also from a diachronic perspective, Swiss language history
  • Computational linguistics and NLP
  • Machine learning and deep learning, especially their use in the humanities, including the ethical and philosophical discussion surrounding their applications
  • Digital editions and their potential for linguistics

Publications

Jump to: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013

2023

Hodel, Tobias; Schneider, Christa (2023). Vom Crowdsourcing zu Co-Design. Ansätze zum Einbezug der Öffentlichkeit in die geschichtswissenschaftliche Forschung. In: Smolarski, René; Carius, Hendrikje; Prell, Martin (eds.) Citizen Science in den Geschichtswissenschaften. Methodische Perspektive oder perspektivlose Methode? DH&CS. Schriften des Netzwerks für digitale Geisteswissenschaften und Citizen Science: Vol. 3 (pp. 41-68). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 10.14220/9783737015714.41

Hodel, Tobias; Prada Ziegler, Ismail; Schneider, Christa (2023). Pre-Modern Data: Applying Language Modeling and Named Entity Recognition on Criminal Records in the City of Bern. In: Digital Humanities 2023. Collaboration as Opportunity (DH2023). Graz. 13.07.2023. 10.5281/zenodo.8107616

2022

Hodel, Tobias; Gasser, Sonja; Schneider, Christa; Schoch, David (2022). Zugang zu Informationen in digitalen Sammlungen: Fokus Archive. Informationswissenschaft - Theorie, Methode und Praxis, 7(1), pp. 27-91. Bern Open Publishing 10.18755/iw.2022.5

2021

Schreier, Gero; Loosli, Ursula; Janka, Anna Katharina; Hodel, Tobias Mathias; Schneider, Christa (2021). Data literacy: Metadaten und Datenstandards [Movie]. ILIAS: Universität Bern

Bülow, Lars; Büchler, Andrin; Rawyler, Nicolai; Schneider, Christa; Britain, David (2021). Linguistic, social, and individual factors constraining variation in spoken Swiss Standard German. In: Werth, Alexander; Bülow, Lars; Pfenninger, Simone E.; Schiegg, Markus (eds.) Intra-individual Variation in Language. Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]: Vol. 363 (pp. 127-174). Berlin/Boston: Mouton de Gruyter 10.1515/9783110743036-005

Hodel, Tobias; Schoch, David; Schneider, Christa; Purcell, Jake (2021). General Models for Handwritten Text Recognition: Feasibility and State-of-the Art. German Kurrent as an Example. Journal of open humanities data, 7(13), pp. 1-10. Ubiquity Press 10.5334/johd.46

Schneider, Christa (17 March 2021). (Written) language in Early Modern Bern (Switzerland) (Unpublished). In: HiSoN 2021 Conference. 17.-19.03.2021.

2020

Schneider, Christa (13 November 2020). Regional distribution of contemporary Lithuanian dialects – An approach towards a different method (Unpublished). In: 27th Jonas Jablonskis Conference. Vilnius. 13.11.2020.

Schneider, Christa; Hodel, Tobias (6 November 2020). Ist uß gnaden unnd barmhertzigkeyt enthouptet worden – Ein historisch-soziolinguistisches Projekt zum Berndeutschen der Frühen Neuzeit (Unpublished). In: 11. Tage der Schweizer Linguistik. Fribourg. 06.11.2020.

Schneider, Christa (2020). Can you English? Das Steak auf des Berners Teller im Berner Mittelland. Germanistik in der Schweiz, 16, pp. 50-70. Schweizerische Akademische Gesellschaft für Germanistik

2019

Schneider, Christa (13 December 2019). Urban dialects in the city of Bern (Unpublished). In: Languages in Urban Spaces. Bern. 11. - 13.12.2019.

Schneider, Christa (December 2019). Berndeutsch in Neuenegg – damals und heute. Der Achetringeler. Die Chronik für die Region Laupen, 94, pp. 3008-3010. Achetringeler-Kommission

Schneider, Christa (9 November 2019). Sprachwandel im historischen Lexikon des Berndeutschen (Unpublished). In: Sprachwandel im historischen Lexikon des Berndeutschen. Salzburg. 7. - 9. Nov. 2019.

Schneider, Christa; Kardelis, Vytautas (3 October 2019). Mapping linguistic variation now and then (Unpublished). In: 26th Jonas Jablonskis Conference. Vilnius. 03.-04.10.2019.

Schneider, Christa; Kardelis, Vytautas (28 June 2019). Regional distrubition of contemporary Lithuanian dialects (Unpublished). In: IClave 10. Leeuwarden. 26.-28.06.2019.

Schneider, Christa (26 June 2019). Changes in the historical lexicon of Bernese Swiss German (Unpublished). In: IClave 10. Leeuwarden. 26.-28.06.2019.

Schneider, Christa (13 May 2019). Almost everybody buys the same milk in Lithuania (Unpublished). In: PRA 17 / IV Incontro di Baltistica. Pisa. 13.-14.05.2019.

Schneider, Christa; Grossenbacher, Sarah; Britain, David (2019). Quotative variation in Bernese Swiss German. In: Villena-Ponsoda, Juan-Andrés; Díaz-Montesinos, Francisco; Ávila-Muñoz, Antonio-Manuel; Vida-Castro, Matilde (eds.) Language variation: European Perspectives VII: Selected papers from the Ninth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE9), Malaga, June 2017. Studies in Language Variation: Vol. 22 (pp. 192-201). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company 10.1075/silv.22.12sch

2018

Schneider, Christa; Heer, Martina (29 November 2018). Änneli, gimer es Müntschi. The use of Bernese Swiss-German personal names in the works of Jeremias Gotthelf (Unpublished). In: Namn i skrift. Names in Writing – NORNA:s 48:e symposium. Göteborg. 29th – 30th November 2018.

Schneider, Christa (27 September 2018). Language variation and change in Lithuania (Unpublished). In: 25th Jonas Jablonskis Conference. Vilnius. 27.-28.09.2018.

Schneider, Christa (13 September 2018). Ein Regiolekt im Berner Mittelland? Ein Arbeitsbericht. (Unpublished). In: IGDD-Tagung.

Schneider, Christa (23 June 2018). Foreign Influences in Bernese Swiss German (Unpublished). In: 23. SIDG Conference. Vilnius. 23.-27.06.2018.

Kardelis, Vytautas; Schneider, Christa (23 June 2018). A study in modern dialectology in Lithuania (Unpublished). In: 23. SIDG Conference. Vilnius. 23.-27.06.2018.

Schneider, Christa (20 June 2018). Ein Regiolekt im Berner Mittelland? (Unpublished). In: 25. Language Variation: Research, Models, and Perspectives. München. 20.-22.06.2018.

Schneider, Christa (6 June 2018). Language variation and change in Bernese Swiss German (Unpublished). In: IClave 9. Malaga. 06.-09.06.2018.

2017

Schneider, Christa (10 September 2017). The Gender of the Numeral Two in Bernese Swiss German (Unpublished). In: SLE- Tagung. 10.09.2017.

Schneider, Christa (7 August 2017). Numeral Gender in Bernese German (Unpublished). In: Methods in Dialectology XVI. Tokyo. 07.-11.08.2017.

Schneider, Christa; Britain, David; Grossenbacher, Sarah (9 June 2017). U när i so, es geit ume dialäkt hie: Quotative Variation in Bernese Swiss German (Unpublished). In: International Conference on Language Variation in Europe 9. Malaga, Spain. 06.- 09.06.2017.

Schneider, Christa; Britain, David; Grossenbacher, Sarah (6 June 2017). U när i so, es geit ume Dialäkt hie: quotative variation in Bernese Swiss German (Unpublished). In: International Conferene on Language Variation in Europe 9. Malaga. 06.- 09.06.2017.

Britain, David; Schneider, Christa; Grossenbacher, Sarah (June 2017). U när i so, es geit ume Dialäkt hie: Quotative variation in Bernese Swiss German (Unpublished). In: International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE9). University of Malaga, Spain.

Schneider, Christa; Bichsel, David (9 May 2017). Can you English? Anglizismen im Berndeutschen. In: 19. Arbeitstagung zur Alemannischen Dialektologie. Freiburg/Deutschland. 11. bis 13. Oktober 2017.

Schneider, Christa (9 May 2017). Revitalizing Baltic Linguistics in Bern (Unpublished). In: Revitalizing Baltic Linguistic in Bern.

Schneider, Christa (6 May 2017). A Dialect App for Lithuanian Dialectology (Unpublished). In: Revitalizing Baltic Linguistics. Bern. 06.- 08. 05. 2017.

Schneider, Christa (20 April 2017). Sound Change in Bernese German - Illustrated by Staub's Law (Unpublished). In: 4th Workshop on Sound Change. Edinburgh. 19.04.2017-22.04.2017.

Britain, David; Schneider, Christa (28 February 2017). Veranstaltungsporträt David Britain und Christa Schneider [Videointerview]. In: Universität Bern YouTube.

2016

Schneider, Christa; Britain, David (27 September 2016). How to play with linguistic data (Unpublished). In: 4th international conference of applied linguistics, Language and people: Diversity and harmony. Vilnius. 27.-29.09.2016.

Schneider, Christa (22 September 2016). New methods used in a traditional field. Also in Lithuanian dialectology? (Unpublished). In: 23rd International Scientific Conference of Jonas Jablonskis: Meaning in Language and Culture. Vilnius.

Schneider, Christa (1 February 2016). Neuer Sprachatlas des Berner Mittellandes (Unpublished). In: Kolloquium Namenforschung Schweiz. Olten. 01. 02. 2016.

2015

Schneider, Christa (28 October 2015). Dialect prestige in contemporary Lithuania. A pilot study. (Unpublished). In: 12th International Congress of Baltistics. Vilnius. 28. – 31. 10. 2015.

Schneider, Christa (16 October 2015). Dialect Variation in Bern. Driven by Public Transport? (Unpublished). In: Transcultural Urban Spaces: Where Geography Meets Language.. Bern. 16.-18. 10. 2015.

2014

Schneider, Christa (5 June 2014). Neologismen im Litauischen (Unpublished). In: Wortbildungskongress. Bern. 5-6. 06. 2014.

2013

Schneider, Christa (12 October 2013). Das Staubsche Gesetz in Hasle-Rüegsau (Unpublished). In: Phonetik und Phonologie 9. Zürich. 12.10.13.

Presentations

_
11.–13.10.2017 „Can you English? – Anglizismen im Berndeutschen“
19. Arbeitstagung zur alemannischen Dialektologie, Freiburg
07.–11.08.2017 „Numeral Gender in Bernese German“
Methods in Dialectology XVI, Tokyo
06.–09.06.2017 „Language variation and change in Bernese Swiss German“
ICLaVE 9, Malaga

Lebenslauf

_
since 2020 Lecturer, head of doctoral programme (from FS 2021), research assistant (development of MA programme)
Digital Humanities, Universität Bern
2018–2020 Lecturer and research assistant
Institute of German Studies, University of Bern
2018 Research assistant
Deutsches Seminar, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i. Br.
2017–2020 Director of studies and research assistant
CSLS, University of Bern
2013–2016 Assistentin
Institute of German Studies, University of Bern
2012–2016 Librarian
Basic Library UniTobler, University of Bern
2012–2013 Sociolinguistics Programme
at the Universities of Bern and Vilnius (Lithuania)
2007–2012 Studies in historical linguistics and musicology
University of Bern

Activities

Memberships

  • Indogermanische Gesellschaft, Internationale Gesellschaft für Dialektologie des Deutschen (IGDD)
  • Vereinigung für angewandte Linguistik in der Schweiz (VALS-ASLA)
  • Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Geisteswissenschaften (SAGW)
  • Societas Linguistica Europea (SLE)
  • Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum (DHd)
  • Konferenz der Westschweizer Universitäten (CUSO)
  • Historical Sociolinguistic Network (HISON)
  • Graduate School for the Arts and the Humanities (GSAH)
  • Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS)

Other academic activities
since 2014: Expert for the cantonal Matura examination in German

Projects

Bernese German in the pre-modern prison: language(s) and linguistic history in early modern Bern

The Bernese tower books record crimes of the past. They were mainly created in the early modern period and consist of interrogation records from Bern's Käfigturm, which are now generally available for public inspection in the State Archives of the Canton of Bern. At first glance, it is therefore surprising that neither (legal and social) historical nor historical-sociolinguistic research has benefited from this wealth of sources to date. However, given the size of the corpus (at least 250,000 pages) and the fact that the handwriting of the former Bernese town clerks can only be deciphered by experienced readers, the lack of comprehensive research on the Bernese Tower Books is not surprising. In addition, there is practically no research not only on the source itself, but also on the language of writing in early modern Switzerland and on the history of language in the city-state of Bern.

The proposed Early Postdoc.Mobility project (title: Bernese German in the pre-modern prison: language(s) and language history in early modern Bern) will for the first time conduct in-depth research into linguistic variation in Bernese German and Bernese language history on the basis of around 20 criminal case files (approx. 300 pages) from the Bernese Tower Books. The aim is to clarify whether a chancery language was written in Bern in the early modern period, how it was presented, how and whether dialectal variation manifested itself in the written language at the time and whether the written language used can be compared with other cases from German-speaking countries.The Bernese German dialect of the time will also play a role:What did it look like?Is it possible to grasp it at all and, if so, what does it teach us about the history of the Bernese language?A unique feature of this project is that the influence of the respective town clerk on the written dialect can also be included in the investigations. 
Thanks to the records in the Bernese Easter Books, the identity, origin and education of the respective town clerk can be traced.

From autumn 2020, parts of the Bern Tower Books will be digitised using new methods of digital humanities and prepared for analysis (use of so-called ScanTents for digitisation, automatic manuscript recognition and machine-readable transcription using Transkribus). This enables an extremely time-efficient approach, so that results from the project can already provide initial answers to the questions posed above in selected publications during and, above all, after its duration. 

The results of the project represent a desideratum in several respects:Firstly, for the first time it will be possible to make statements about a written variety used before the introduction of Standard German and, secondly, the results will ideally complement our knowledge of local language history.The fact that Swiss German dialects allow a glimpse into the linguistic past of their respective regions is nothing new, but this project will make it possible for the first time ever to look so far back into the dialect/writing tradition of the early modern period.

Youth language in the Canton of Berne (completed)

Although youth language has not yet been categorised as a uniform age-related phenomenon, it is an attractive field of research in sociolinguistics. Youth language combines linguistic variation of a standard language with the social factors of age, gender, level of education, regional origin and migration background. Youth language has also given rise to research into de-ethnicisation.

This investigates why young people without a multicultural background also use the ethnolect elements used in youth language.In Germany, England, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Spain in particular, research into youth language is increasing, and corpora on youth language are already available in some cases.
As a multilingual country, Switzerland is an ideal breeding ground for the development of ethnolects and youth languages. Despite this, only a few studies have been carried out on these two areas to date, most of which are small-scale pilot studies that are not followed up after completion. 

The first corpus on youth language in Switzerland is to be created at the University of Bern between 2019 and 2022. This corpus will be available to the international research community and will enable systematic sociolinguistic and social anthropological studies on a diastratic-diaphasic variety for the first time.

Further information on the project and access to the database: www.jugendspracheschweiz.com

Gvätterlisch or spiusch? Dialect change and dialect variation in the Bernese Mittelland (completed)

This dissertation project aims to uncover and analyse dialect change and dialect variation in the Bernese Mittelland on the basis of the Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz (SDS) and the Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reiches (DSA).
For comparison with the data from the two language atlases, new data on 120 variables was collected at 20 locations in the Bernese Plateau and visualised in dialect maps. Unlike in the language atlases, however, not only NORMs were included in the analyses, but people from 3 different generations (young-middle-aged) and one occupational group (farmers). The aim of the project is to document dialect change in apparent and real time and to show the external and internal linguistic reasons for these change processes. 

The publication of the work is expected in 2024.