The German Language in the South Seas: Language Contact and the Influence of Language Politics and Language Attitudes

Engelberg, Stefan (2008). "The German Language in the South Seas: Language Contact and the Influence of Language Politics and Language Attitudes". In Siebel-Achenbach, Sebastian; Liebscher, Grit; John, David; Skidmore, James; Schulze, Mathias (eds.). German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. 317–330. ISBN 978-1-55458-131-3.

Abstract: Between 1884 and 1900, Germany established protectorates in large areas of the South Pacific. The authorities assumed that the linguistically extremely diverse areas would pose communication problems. Thus the question arose whether German should become the lingua franca in the South Pacific. After a controversial discussion, the German government implemented language policies to promote the German language in the colonies. This chapter shows why, on the one hand, German language policies were doomed to failure and why, on the other, they unintentionally supported other linguistic developments such as the introduction of borrowing from German into indigenous languages, the development of German settler varieties, and the spread of pidgin languages. © 2008 by Wilfrid Laurier University Press. All rights reserved.

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MAG: 390509095
OpenAlex: W390509095
CorpusID: 127478911