From Piensport and Pienerei. Masematte in Münster today

Abstract

The special language Masematte is a local Rotwelsch dialect in Münster, which has been considered extinct since the Second World War due to the destruction of the speakers’ neighbourhoods and the deportation of a majority of the speakers. Researchers can only speculate as to how the Masematte vocabulary is still used today in various contexts by speakers in Münster. So far, special language research has focussed on preserving the original language form by interviewing the last primary speakers. The aim of this article is to conduct the first empirical exploratory study of the current occurrence of masematte lexemes in the language use of Münster speakers. The data basis for the study are friend conversations of young people from Münster on the social network Facebook. The Masematte lexicon used is analysed and compared with the primary vocabulary. It turns out that although a reduced lexicon of the special language is used in the 21st century, a productive use of the original vocabulary can still be observed, which is reflected in changes and further developments of the vocabulary, among other things.