Brazilian German

Brazilian Hunsrückisch, a dialect of the High German language, is also referred to as Riograndenser Hunsrückisch (or Hunsrik) after the country's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul. But it is also strongly represented in Santa Catarina, where the local variant is referred to as Katharinensisch, and in Paraná. Together, these three states form Brazil's South Region. The area attracted significant immigration from German-speaking countries. Overall, it is particularly well developed in comparison to the rest of Brazil.

German immigration to Rio Grande do Sul started in 1824.[7] The German workers and settlers came from many different regions, but especially from the poor regions Hunsrück and nearby Palatinate. The German dialects began to mix with each other, adopting elements of the languages spoken by other immigrants, to form varieties that differed from municipality to municipality, often from family to family, and which had no relation to the dialect lines in Germany.[8] However, in most places the Hunsrück dialect proved dominant.

Initially, the immigrants had to organize their own school system,[9] but this was to change. Due to lack of exposure – from 1938 till 1961, German was not even taught at higher schools.[10] – Standard German became restricted to formal contexts such as church, whereas all daily interactions happened either in dialect or in Portuguese, from which the required words for innovations were also taken.[11]

Speakers of Hunsrückisch are typically bilingual with Portuguese, but are not necessarily familiar with Standard German. The elementary school of Santa Maria do Herval, a municipality in Rio Grande do Sul with a population of roughly 6,000, teaches Hunsrückisch and uses a new orthography for this which is closer to Portuguese than to Standard German conventions. However, linguists in Brazil criticize this detachment and demand a closer orthographic tie between Hunsrik and Standard German[12]

In July 2018, the mayor of Blumenau, Mario Hildebrandt, signed Decree no. 11,850/2018, which created the Bilingual Erich Klabunde Municipal School, offering teaching in Portuguese and German.[13][14][15]

Co-official status[16]

• Santa Catarina
  • Antônio Carlos
• Rio Grande do Sul
  • Santa Maria do Herval

East Pomeranian, a dialect of Low German, is spoken in many places in southeastern and southern Brazil:

• Projeto de Educação Escolar Pomerana, founded 2004 by teachers and five municipalities in Espírito Santo (Santa Maria de Jetibá, Laranja da Terra, Vila Pavão, Domingos Martins, Pancas). Education in (Brazilian?) East Pomeranian.[17][3]

[4]

• Spoken in Rondônia since 1970.[17]
• In Santa Leopoldina, first European settlement in Espírito Santo, the descendants of immigrants from Switzerland and Luxembourg now speak East Pomeranian.[17]
• Santa Maria de Jetibá (previously part of Santa Leopoldina) is Brazil's center of Pommeranian culture with 90% (ethnic?) Pommeranians.[17]

Municipalities where East Pomeranian dialects are co-official in Espírito Santo, Brazil.

Co-official status[16]

• Espírito Santo
  • Domingos Martins
  • Itarana[18][19]
  • Laranja da Terra
  • Pancas[20]
  • Santa Maria de Jetibá
  • Vila Pavão
• Santa Catarina
  • Pomerode
• Rio Grande do Sul
  • Canguçu

• Plautdietsch, spoken by ethnic German Mennonites from the former Soviet Union (since the 1930s).[21][22]
• Tyrol Austro-Bavarian dialect and Vorarlberg Alemannic in Dreizehnlinden (since 1933).[23]
• Danube Swabian in Guarapuava (since 1951).[24]

• List of territorial entities where German is an official language
• Geographical distribution of German speakers
• Languages of Brazil
• German Brazilians