Abstract
Growing up in a diglossic situation, where a High (H) and Low variety (L) coexist in the same community, has a similar impact on children's linguistic development as in second language (L2) development. The present study examined receptive German Ianguage comprehension at preschool age in South Tyrol (Italy) and Germany. The Germanic-speaking language group in South Tyrol is characterized by being diglossic: Bavarian (L) is people's native language, is used at home, in personal domains and everyday activities. German (H), on the other hand, is learned through formal education, and is used for official written and formal spoken purposes. In order to assess receptive German language skills, the standardized tool TROG-D was used. 54 Bavarian-speaking children from South Tyrol (mean age=3;8 years) and a control group of 44 German monolingual children from Germany (mean age=4;0 years) participated in the study. Preliminary results demonstrate that the diglossic context present in South Tyrol interferes with children's early language comprehension. The outcome clearly shows that German monolinguals perform significantly better than their Bavarian-speaking peers on the receptive language test.