The Colonia Tovar dialect, or Alemán Coloniero, is a

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

that is spoken in Colonia Tovar,

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, and belongs to the Low Alemannic branch of German.

Characteristics

The dialect, like other Alemannic dialects, is not mutually intelligible with

Standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the umbrella term for the standard language, standardized varieties of the German language, which are used in formal contexts and for commun ...

. It is spoken by descendants of Germans from the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

region of southern

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

, who emigrated to Venezuela in 1843. Most speakers also speak Spanish, and the dialect has both acquired Spanish

loanwords A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

and influenced

Venezuelan Spanish Venezuelan Spanish ( or ) refers to the Spanish spoken in Venezuela. Spanish was introduced in Venezuela by colonists. Most of them were from Galicia, Basque Country, Andalusia, or the Canary Islands. The last has been the most fundamental in ...

History

Until 1942, when Colonia Tovar was declared a municipality, most of its residents above the age of 15 were fluent in German, being unable to converse or understand Spanish, owing to the town's isolation. In World War II, Venezuela declared war on Germany, and so German classes in Colonia Tovar were banned. The town became connected with the rest of the country and so people began to converse in Spanish, which has led to the dialect's decline. Despite attempts to use German as the language of instruction, the state has not given local schools permission to teach in bilingual classes, and so, only private tutors were allowed to instruct in the Colonia Tovar dialect and in Standard German. Most descendants of German settlers in Colonia Tovar now mostly speak Standard German.

References

Literature

*Blanco Hernández, Marlene: ' Universidad Central de Venezuela. Caracas 1987. *Redlich Perkins, Renate: ''Tovar German. Linguistic study of a German century alemannic dialect spoken in Venezuela.'' University Microfilms International. Ann Arbor, Michigan, London 1978. *Da Rin, Denise: ' München 1995. * Kanzler, Samuel Briceño: ' Tovar, o. J. (Title in German translation: ').

External links

Informationen über ''Colonia Tovar'' bei www.venezuelatuya.com
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* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120527200622/http://coloniatovar.net/ Website of Colonia Tovar {{Germanic languages European-Venezuelan culture Alemannic German language German dialects German diaspora in South America Languages of Venezuela Endangered diaspora languages Endangered Germanic languages Diaspora languages Colonia Tovar