The possibilities of using the real-time and apparent-time method in insular German dialectology for describing lexical variability

Traditionally, insular German dialects existing in various regions of the world (Russia, Romania, Hungary, Brazil, Argentina, the USA, Canada, etc.) are studied from the perspectives of classical dialectology, language history, historical semantics, and linguistic contactology. The aim of this study is to define the range of phenomena of lexical and semantic variability in dialectal vocabulary, in the investigation of which the real-time and apparent-time methods can be employed. This method has only been fragmentarily used in domestic German studies for examining phonetic variability in Low German dialects in Russia. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time in domestic Germanistics, the possibility of applying this method to the lexical system of insular German dialects is demonstrated on specific linguistic data obtained by researchers during dialectological expeditions conducted over various periods (from the 1930s to the present). As a result, it is proven that the use of this method allows tracing the dynamics of linguistic processes by comparing different periods of development of insular dialects, taking into account the particular sociolinguistic and linguistic situations of speakers of various dialect groups in conditions of a foreign-language environment and inter-dialectal mixing.