The German language in the South Seas : language contact and the influence of language politics and language attitudes

Buchbeitrag

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Deutsch ; Sprachkontakt ; Germanische Sprachen; Deutsch ; Andere Sprachen

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Engelberg, Stefan
• (when): 2008
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Waterloo, Ontario : Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-10692
• Last update: 06.03.2025, 9:00 AM CET