The Colonia Tovar dialect, or Alemán Coloniero, is a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

that is spoken in Colonia Tovar,

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, and belongs to the Low Alemannic branch of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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 (not to be confused with High German dialects, more precisely Upper German dialects) (german: Standardhochdeutsch, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the standardized variety ...

. It is spoken by descendants of Germans from the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the 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 ...

region of southern

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...

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

loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

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 ...

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.

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