Share this item

Connect with Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache - Bibliothek

Contact this content partner to get more information about this item.

German in Samoa: Historical traces of a colonial variety

Description:
During the brief era of German colonialism in the Pacific (1884-1914), German was in contact with a large number of languages, autochthonous as well as colonial ones. This setting led to language contact in which German influenced and was influenced by various languages. In 1900, Western Samoa came under German colonial rule. The German language held a certain prestige there which is mirrored by the numbers of voluntary Samoan learners of German. On the other hand, the preferred use of English, rather than German, by native speakers of German was frequently noted. This paper examines linguistic and metalinguistic data that suggest the historical existence of (the precursor of) a colonial variety of German as spoken in Samoa. This variety seems to have been marked mainly by lexical borrowing from English and Samoan and was, because of these borrowings, not fully comprehensible to Germans who had never encountered the variety or the colonial setting in Samoa. It is discussed whether this variety can be considered a separate variety of German on linguistic grounds.
Location:
Samoa
Format:
text
Collections:
Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache - Bibliothek
Content partner:
Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache - Bibliothek
Availability:
Not specified
  • All rights reserved
    Copyright status: All rights reserved
    Find out more about what you are able to do with this item
    This item is all rights reserved, with means you'll have to get permission from Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache - Bibliothek before using it. For more information, please see our use and reuse page.
    More information
    Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache - Bibliothek has this to say about the rights status of this item:

    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

    What can I do with this item?
    Non-infringing use
    Non-infringing use
    NZ copyright law does not prevent every use of a copyright work, and this item may be hosted by an international institute or organisation. You should consider what you can and cannot do with a copyright work.
    No sharing
    No sharing
    You may not copy and/or share this item with others without further permission. This includes posting it on your blog, using it in a presentation, or any other public use.
    No modifying
    No modifying
    You are not allowed to adapt or remix this item into any other works.
    No commercial use
    No commercial use
    You may not use this item commercially.
Remember or recognise anything about this item? Let us know!

We would love to share your stories, thoughts, and memories on digitalpasifik.org

Contribute your story
Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache - Bibliothek
Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache - Bibliothek
Welcome and warm Pasifik greetings

The information on this site has been gathered from our content partners.

The names, terms, and labels that we present on the site may contain images or voices of deceased persons and may also reflect the bias, norms, and perspective of the period of time in which they were created. We accept that these may not be appropriate today.

If you have any concerns or questions about an item, please contact us.