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Hunsrik (natively and Portuguese ''Hunsrik'' or ''Hunsrückisch''), also called ''Riograndenser Hunsrückisch'' or ''Katharinensisch'', is a
Moselle Franconian __NOTOC__ Moselle Franconian (german: Moselfränkisch, lb, Muselfränkesch) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish. It is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the ...
language derived primarily from the
Hunsrückisch dialect Hunsrückisch is a German dialect spoken in the Hunsrück region of Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate). This mountainous region of Germany has long been an exporter of emigrants to Brazil, United States, Canada, Australia and other parts of the world ...
of
West Central German West Central German (german: Westmitteldeutsch) belongs to the Central, High German dialect family of German. Its dialects are Franconian and comprise the parts of the Rhinelandic continuum located south of the Benrath line isogloss, including ...
. The language has some recognition, mainly in Brazil. It has been an integral part of the historical and cultural heritage of the Brazilian state of
Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is border ...
since 2012, and considered an intangible cultural heritage of Santa Catarina state since 2016. It is also a co-official language in the municipalities of Antônio Carlos, Santa Maria do Herval, and São João do Oeste. In Brazil, Hunsrik is spoken in the states of
Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is border ...
, Santa Catarina, and Paraná. The language is also spoken in some regions of
Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to ...
and its neighbouring regions in
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. Hunsrik developed from the Hunsrückisch dialect when
immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, an ...
from the
Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued by the Taunus mountains, past ...
region of Germany (
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
) settled in Brazil's southern region such as Rio Grande do Sul, starting by imperial designs in 1824 (these later became projects controlled by states and finally by private European investment enterprises). While primarily based on the Hunsrückisch branch of the German language, it has also been greatly influenced by other
German dialects German dialects are the various traditional local varieties of the German language. Though varied by region, those of the southern half of Germany beneath the Benrath line are dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant ...
such as
East Pomeranian East Pomeranian (''Ostpommersch'') is an East Low German dialect that is either moribund or used to be spoken in what was roughly Pomerania (now northwestern Poland; previously part of Germany until the end of World War II) and today is also ...
and Plautdietsch and by
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
, the national language of Brazil. It has been influenced to a lesser extent by
indigenous languages An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples. This language is from a linguistically distinct community that originated in the area. Indigenous languages are not nece ...
such as
Kaingang The Kaingang (also spelled ''caingangue'' in Portuguese or ''kanhgág'' in the Kaingang language) people are an Indigenous Brazilian ethnic group spread out over the three southern Brazilian states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande ...
and Guarani and by immigrant languages such as
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...
and
Talian Talian may refer to: *Talian dialect Talian (or Brazilian Venetian, , , but ) is a dialect of the Venetian language, spoken primarily in the Serra Gaúcha region in the northeast of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. It is also spoken ...
. Portuguese expressions and words are commonly imported into Hunsrik, particularly in reference to fauna and flora (which are different from those of Germany) and to technological innovations that did not exist when the original immigrants came to Brazil, leading to words like for airplane (Portuguese ) instead of , (Pt. , truck) instead of , (Pt. ) instead of , etc. Daily expressions are often
calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language w ...
s (literal translations) of Portuguese. Also common are the use of German suffixes attached to Portuguese words, such as , "little mug," from Portuguese , "mug," and German diminutive suffix ( in Hunsrik); hybrid forms such as , "shoe shop," from German and Portuguese , and Germanized forms of Portuguese verbs: , "to remember"; "to flirt"; , "to answer" (Portuguese , , and ). However, regardless of these borrowings, its grammar and vocabulary are still largely Germanic. Although Hunsrik is the most common Germanic language in south Brazil, the use of this language—particularly in the last three to four generations—continues to decrease.
Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is a bibliographic database of the world's lesser-known languages, developed and maintained first at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute fo ...
classifies the language as "shifting" on its Agglomerated Endangerment Status.


History


In Germany

The
Hunsrückisch dialect Hunsrückisch is a German dialect spoken in the Hunsrück region of Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate). This mountainous region of Germany has long been an exporter of emigrants to Brazil, United States, Canada, Australia and other parts of the world ...
, from which Hunsrik derived, has its origins in the
Moselle Franconian dialects __NOTOC__ Moselle Franconian (german: Moselfränkisch, lb, Muselfränkesch) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish. It is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the ...
spoken in the
Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued by the Taunus mountains, past ...
region, on the banks of the Rhine and Moselle rivers, in western Germany. Germany, as a national state, only unified in 1871, so the standard German existing today was, until the 19th century, a literary language, the one used by Martin Luther in his famous translation of the Bible. The German people, in their daily lives, did not use standard German to communicate, but several regional dialects. Until around 1800, Standard German was primarily a written language in Germany. Standard German was often learned as a foreign language and had an uncertain pronunciation. With the country's unification process and the mass literacy of the population, standard German has become the language used by speakers of different dialects to understand each other, although regional dialects have remained the language used at home.


In Brazil

With German immigration to Brazil, over the past two centuries, German dialects have also come to establish themselves as a regional language. However, something curious happened: while in Germany standard German served for speakers of different dialects to communicate, in Brazil, due to the still incipient consolidation of standard German when immigration started, this role was played by the
Hunsrückisch dialect Hunsrückisch is a German dialect spoken in the Hunsrück region of Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate). This mountainous region of Germany has long been an exporter of emigrants to Brazil, United States, Canada, Australia and other parts of the world ...
. There are two hypotheses for this phenomenon. The first because most immigrants would have come from
Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued by the Taunus mountains, past ...
, so their dialect predominated. The second because Hunsrückisch has intermediate features between the different German dialects, so it served as a koiné between speakers of various dialects. What is known is that German immigrants in Brazil came from different parts of Germany, so Hunsrik-speaking Brazilians do not necessarily descend from people from
Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued by the Taunus mountains, past ...
. In these German communities, the
Hunsrückisch dialect Hunsrückisch is a German dialect spoken in the Hunsrück region of Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate). This mountainous region of Germany has long been an exporter of emigrants to Brazil, United States, Canada, Australia and other parts of the world ...
remained the main language of communication for several decades. German colonies in the South were usually formed in regions of forest depopulated or inhabited by Indians, who were expelled for the arrival of immigrants. Due to this isolation, the Germans managed to create a "linguistic island", in which German was the main language, and not Portuguese. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were hundreds of thousands of second- and third-generation
German-Brazilians German Brazilians ( German: ''Deutschbrasilianer'', Hunsrik: ''Deitschbrasiliooner'', pt, teuto-brasileiros) refers to Brazilians of full or partial German ancestry. German Brazilians live mostly in the country's South Region, with a smaller ...
who could barely speak Portuguese. This differentiation favored the feeling of a minority group, which allied itself with the formation of solid ethnic institutions, such as schools, churches, social associations and a German-language press. All of these elements combined promoted a general feeling of "cultural group". In 1930, there were 2,500 ethnic schools in Brazil. Of these, 1,579 were from German immigrants. In these schools, children learned the standard German that is spread in Germany. This linguistic and cultural isolation was combated aggressively by the nationalist government of then Brazil's president
Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...
, through the nationalization campaign. All German schools in the country were closed, annihilating the German-Brazilian middle school. The standard German learned at school was thus eliminated, greatly weakening the use of German in urban centers, which became limited to the countryside. People were harassed and beaten if they spoke German on the street. The police inspected people's private lives, breaking into houses to burn books written in German, or languages other than Portuguese. Many people were arrested for the simple fact that they speak German. In 1942, 1.5% of the inhabitants of Blumenau were imprisoned for speaking German. The closure of schools has caused people to become increasingly attached to the German dialect used in everyday life, far from standard German.


Language name

The language has two main names—''Hunsrik'' and ''Hunsrückisch—''because it initially lacked an official grammar and is not governed by a centralized entity. One of the first efforts to standardize the language was done by Adriano Steffler, who developed a "Hunsrik Grammar," "Hunsrik Dictionary," and an alphabet. His 45-character alphabet is a combination of the Latin alphabet (all except Q) and other Latin characters, as well as
Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = Gr ...
,
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
,
Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet, t ...
, and
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
. The grammar developed by Steffler is not currently applied in any teaching method or government initiative. Currently, the language has two codification proposals. The first, from the SIL International, is led by professor and doctor Ursula Wiesemann and has an approach more focused on using the writing system used naturally by its native speakers in everyday actions, such as interpersonal interaction and the use of social networks. With a strong influence of the Latin alphabet used in Portuguese, it has the native name of ''Hunsrik'', with the aim of distinguishing it as a unique Germanic language and not just as a dialect of the German language. This codification is applied in the teaching of municipal schools in Santa Maria do Herval,
Estância Velha Estância Velha is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with ...
, and Nova Hartz, as well as in other municipalities in
Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is border ...
. The name Hunsrik can also be used officially to refer to the language in English and Portuguese, being officially called "Hunsrik language" by most federative entities that recognize it in Brazil. The spelling translated into Portuguese as "Brazilian ''Hunsrückisch''" is also accepted by the project, however the preference is for the use of the former to generate a clearer differentiation of the language. The second coding project, from the
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul ( pt, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS) is a Brazilian public federal research university based in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. UFRGS is among the largest and highest-rated univers ...
, is led by doctor and professor Cléo Vilson Altenhofen and has a more unionist approach to the German language, characterized by the preservation of the writing of the German
Hunsrückisch dialect Hunsrückisch is a German dialect spoken in the Hunsrück region of Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate). This mountainous region of Germany has long been an exporter of emigrants to Brazil, United States, Canada, Australia and other parts of the world ...
with few variations. This project recommends the spelling ''Hunsrückisch'' to refer to the dialect in its native form, with ''Hunsrickisch'' being an alternative as a way to emphasize the pronunciation of the word. At the same time, the project states that it refers to the same language denoted by Hunsrik in other projects and also accepts it as a spelling. The term ''Hunsrückisch'' is also used officially in statements by some federal entities. To differentiate the dialect used in Brazil from that used in Germany, Altenhofen called the Brazilian dialect ''Riograndenser Hunsrückisch'' (with reference to the state of
Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is border ...
). This nomenclature, however, is criticized by other scholars, since there are also considerable numbers of native speakers in other Brazilian states, as well as in other countries. Currently,
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
officially uses the Hunsrik spelling to refer to the language in its native form, made official with that name after studies by Ethnologue, an official advisory institution of the international body and whose publications are led by SIL International. The Hunsrik spelling is also used by Glottolog in its bibliographic database of the least known languages in the world, catalog of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Other international bodies that use this native spelling in the recognition of Hunsrik as a language are the Open Language Archives Community (OLAC) from the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...
in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
and the
International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...
; the latter assigns the hrx code as
ISO 639-3 ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for i ...
for the Hunsrik language. In some municipalities in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, the language is also called ''Deitsch'' (Altenhofen) or ''Taytx'' (Wiesemann), in clear reference to its roots in standard German.


Notable speakers

Recent Roman Catholic papal candidate
Odilo Scherer Odilo Pedro Scherer (; born 21 September 1949) is a Brazilian cardinal of the Catholic Church, who has been the Archbishop of São Paulo since March 2007. He was made a cardinal in November 2007. In the international media, he was mentioned as ...
of Cerro Largo (located in the northwest of Rio Grande do Sul) grew up with Hunsrik as many from his native region did, using it side-by-side with Portuguese, the national language. Roman Catholic Cardinal Cláudio Hummes of
Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...
, Rio Grande do Sul (in the ''Altkolonie'' region of the state), grew up speaking Portuguese alongside Hunsrik. According to supermodel
Gisele Bündchen Gisele Caroline Bündchen (, , born 20 July 1980) is a Brazilian fashion model. Since 2001, she has been one of the highest-paid models in the world. In 2007, Bündchen was the 16th-richest woman in the entertainment industry and earned th ...
, while her parents and siblings still speak Hunsrik, she has forgotten all of it herself. During an interview in 2011, renowned Brazilian writer, translator, and
international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...
professor Aldyr Schlee talked in detail about having been an eyewitness to the repression of Hunsrik in his native state of
Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is border ...
during World War II.


Phonology


Vowels


Consonants

Orthography between plain angle brackets follows Wiesemann's orthography and between italic angle brackets follows Altenhofen et al.'s orthography. The contrast between plosives is not of
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...
, but of articulatory force, a phenomenon observed in some other dialects of German.


Sample

The passages of Luke 23:1-5 in Hunsrik, according to Dr. Ursula Wiesemann's orthography: The same Bible section in
Luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; Luxembourgish: ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. As a standard form of th ...
: In Standard German: And in English: 23 And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, "We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King." 3 And Pilate asked him, saying, "Art thou the King of the Jews?" And he answered him and said, "Thou sayest it." 4 Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, "I find no fault in this man." 5 And they were the more fierce, saying, "He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place."


See also

*
Geographical distribution of German speakers This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area (german: Deutscher Sprachraum) in Europ ...
*
Brazilian German The German-based varieties spoken by German Brazilians together form a significant minority language in Brazil. "Brazilian German" is strongly influenced by Portuguese and to a lesser extent by Italian dialects as well as indigenous language ...
*
German Brazilians German Brazilians ( German: ''Deutschbrasilianer'', Hunsrik: ''Deitschbrasiliooner'', pt, teuto-brasileiros) refers to Brazilians of full or partial German ancestry. German Brazilians live mostly in the country's South Region, with a smaller ...
*
Heimat (film series) ''Heimat'' is a series of films written and directed by Edgar Reitz about life in Germany from the 1840s to 2000 through the eyes of a family from the Hunsrück area of the Rhineland-Palatinate. The family's personal and domestic life is set again ...


Notes


References


External links


Os imigrantes alemães e a sua cozinha/German Immigrants and Their Cuisine
(in Portuguese and German)

(in German)

(German – out of the various titles, seek the one titled Katharinensisch)
Hunsrik verb conjugator
*
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most vis ...
videos:
interview with Hunsrückisch speaker from the town of Roque Gonzales, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Gespräch uff Riograndenser Hunsrückisch mit Selma Beppler - im Mitte von 2012 uffgenoom

documentary ''Viver no Brasil falando Hunsrückisch'' (Living in Brazil speaking Hunsrückisch)

conversation between two Hunsrückisch speakers from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

interview with Hunsrückisch speaker from the town of Biguaçu, Santa Catarina, Brazil

interview with a couple of Hunsrückisch speakers from the town of Biguaçu, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Portuguese-Hunsrik online dictionary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunsrik Endangered diaspora languages Endangered languages Languages of Brazil Central German languages German-Brazilian culture German dialects Articles citing ISO change requests