Languages and Cultures in Contact in Brazil
Language minorities with Bohemian and Bavarian immigration backgrounds in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Kürschner
Brazil has a long history of immigration. The country is thus continually shaped by “dialogues of cultures”, which only an interdisciplinary research approach can properly investigate. The project focuses specifically on linguistic minorities with a Bohemian or Bavarian immigration history. It is based on existing and new data collections of spoken language comprised of semi-structured and free interviews. Language contact in these minority groups occurs both between German-speaking groups using different vernaculars and between German and Portuguese (and other languages). In this context, questions of identity and distinction are important. Dialogues with a new environment – evident, e.g., in the change of names for persons or the surrounding area (names for cities, linguistic varieties, rivers, mountains etc.) – are also relevant. The project will further focus on language perception (e.g., language attitudes) observed in contact with groups from the surroundings.
The Bavarian and the Bohemian immigration background is especially productive in this case, as the research so far has focused on Middle Franconian dialects (so-called “Hunsrückisch”) and the Pomeranian dialect in Brazil, while findings on other dialect groups have been sparse until now. The development of German dialectal varieties in Brazil is of particular interest for investigating German dialect contact, since it allows to compare different constellations resulting from contact with “Hunsrückisch”. First analyses of the data already revealed that a group of speakers retained their Bavarian dialect at one specific location, while the North Bohemian dialect has mostly been replaced by “Hunsrückisch” or varieties closer to the standard variety in various other places. Such findings prove to be of interest both from a historical perspective and regarding present-day societies. They also stimulate new research methods integrating conversation analysis, language comprehension studies, and recent sociolinguistic methods.
Project-related publications:
Edited volumes:
Limberger, Bernardo, Sebastian Kürschner, Cléo V. Altenhofen & Isabella Ferreira Mozzillo (eds., 2020): Minority Languages / Línguas Minoritárias. Special issue of the journal Linguagem & Ensino. Open Access DOI: doi.org/10.15210/rle.v23i4.
Pupp Spinassé, Karen, Cléo Vilson Altenhofen & Sebastian Kürschner (eds., 2017): Plurilinguismo na educação e na sociedade. Issue of the journal Organon (Band 32/62). 317 Seiten. Open Access: seer.ufrgs.br/organon/issue/view/3108/showToc. [Multilngualism in Education and Society.]
Wolf-Farré, Patrick, Lucas Löff Machado, Angélica Prediger & Sebastian Kürschner (eds., forthcoming): Deutsche und weitere germanische Sprachminderheiten in Lateinamerika. Methoden, Grundlagen, Fallstudien. Frankfurt: Lang (MinGLA – Minderheiten germanischer Sprachen in La-teinamerika / Minorías de lenguas germánicas en Latinoamérica).
Research and survey articles:
Habermann, Mechthild & Sebastian Kürschner (accepted for publication): „Sprachliche Variation im Bairi-schen von São Bento do Sul, Brasilien.“ Accepted by: Stephan Elspaß, Philip C. Vergeiner & Dominik Wallner (eds.): Tagungsband zur 14. Bairisch-Österreichischen Dialektologentagung (BÖDT). Stuttgart: Steiner (Beihefte ZDL).
Kürschner, Sebastian, Mechthild Habermann, Angélica Prediger & Karen Pupp Spinassé (submitted): „Bohemian varieties in Southern Brazil.“ Submitted to: Mark Louden, Hans C. Boas, Ana Deumert & Péter Maitz (eds.): Varieties of German Worldwide. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kürschner, Sebastian & Angélica Prediger (2020): „Lexikalische Entwicklungen bei Nachfahren nordböhmischer Einwanderer in Rio Grande do Sul – innersprachliche Entwicklungen und deutsch-portugiesischer Sprachkontakt.“ In: Linguagem & Ensino 23/4 (Special issue on Minority Languages / Línguas Minoritárias, ed. By Bernardo Limberger, Cléo V. Altenhofen, Se-bastian Kürschner & Isabella Mozzillo), 1005–1028. Open Access DOI: doi.org/10.15210/rle.v23i4.19403.
Löff Machado, Lucas & Sebastian Kürschner (accepted for publication): „Identitätskonstruktion in deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaften in Rio Grande do Sul, Brasilien.“ Accepted by: Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik.
Prediger, Angélica & Sebastian Kürschner (2021): „Die Dynamik des gesprochenen Deutschen bei Nachfahren böhmischer Auswanderer in Südbrasilien.“ In: Csaba Földes (ed.): Kontaktvarietä-ten des Deutschen im Ausland. Tübingen: Narr (= Beiträge zur Interkulturellen Germanistik 14), 215–237.