German dialects are still a key indicator of where Germans choose to live in German according to an article in The Economist. As the article points out, when people migrate within Germany, they still tend to go to places where dialects resemble those spoken in their home region 120 years ago when the first official census of dialects was taken. This is despite all the politcal and administrative changes to the country over the intervening period. These findings would seem to chime with the previous post on the Languages Direct blog on Accent Speaks Louder Than Race for Finding Friends.

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