The macro-level social meanings of late-modern Danish accents

The paper reports on the main findings of the LANCHART language attitudes studies. These studies were designed to falsify (or modify) the picture of adolescent language ideology – and its role in language change – that had emerged from previous sociolinguistic studies in Denmark. This picture is formulated as three hypotheses: (1) There are two value systems at two levels of consciousness, (2) Language change is governed by subconscious values, (3) Copenhagen is Denmark's only linguistic norm centre. Following strict guidelines for data collection among 9th graders (aged 15–16) in Copenhagen, Næstved, Vissenbjerg, Odder, and Vinderup we obtained subconsciously offered attitudes that could be compared with consciously offered attitudes. The results neither falsify nor modify the established picture but strongly confirm it.