Sixth-generation contact German in South Africa: The case of Kroondal German

Authors: Sheena Shah, Theresa Biberauer & Erika Herrmann
Year of publication: 2024
ISBN: 978-1-7394892-0-5

About the eBook: Kroondal German is an undescribed, matrilectal, sixth-generation variety of German spoken by a few hundred people living in a village in the North West Province of South Africa. Employing a comparative approach, this eBook describes and analyses phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical properties of Kroondal German, and considers the different factors that have shaped it, including the northern German roots introduced by its missionary founders, the speakers’ extensive exposure to Standard German, and their daily contact with Afrikaans and South African English. The description is informed by extensive data from a range of spoken and written sources, as well as WhatsApp exchanges, and native-speaker acceptability judgements. The eBook includes audio recordings, maps, and illustrations.

Supplementary material:
Sound excerpts from interviews and focus group discussions and screenshots of WhatsApp conversations can be accessed at https://sheenashah.co.uk/kroondal-german-data or by scanning the QR code below.

Reviews:

“A timely contribution on a unique extraterritorial contact variety of German to the discussion on language contact, variation, and change. Kroondal German offers deep insights into the changing morpho-syntax, phonology, and lexicon of this unique contact variety. It is a must-read for any researcher interested in language contact.”

Professor Hans C. Boas (University of Texas at Austin, USA)

“A clear, scholarly yet readable piece of language documentation, rich in examples of Kroondal German and offering thoughtful analysis of the data in the wider context of Standard German and its contact varieties – and a valuable contribution to our understanding of the linguistic legacy of European colonisation of Africa.”

Professor Nicola McLelland (University of Nottingham, UK)

“A richly documented account of a lesser-known variety of German that will be of enormous interest to German diasporic studies, sociohistorical linguistics, as well as language contact and areal linguistics in Southern Africa.”

Professor Rajend Mesthrie (University of Cape Town, South Africa)

“Wir danken den Autoren für ihre Studie über Kroondaler Deutsch. Unsere Deutsche Schule Kroondal wird von afrikaanssprachigen Kindern aus der Umgebung besucht. Unserer lutherischen Gemeinde Kroondal schließen sich viele Afrikaanssprachige an. Die heutige Generation Kroondaler heiratet meist Afrikaanssprachige. Es sieht aus, als ob in etwa 50 Jahren Kroondaler Deutsch nicht mehr gesprochen wird. Und wird die Ortschaft Kroondal, umringt von Platinminen, in etwa 50 Jahren noch bestehen? Deswegen ist dieses Buch über das Kroondaler Deutsch so wertvoll.”

Gudrun Krüger (daughter of one of the first Kroondal inhabitants)

 

Author bios:

Sheena Shah is a researcher at TU Dortmund University (Germany) and at the University of the Free State (South Africa). Her research interests include language documentation and description, language maintenance and shift, and language contact, with a focus on heritage, minority and endangered languages of southern Africa.

Theresa Biberauer is a researcher at the University of Cambridge (UK) and also holds extraordinary professorships at Stellenbosch University and the University of the Western Cape (South Africa). Her research interests lie in synchronic and diachronic comparative syntax, language acquisition, and language contact, with Germanic languages and Afrikaans being areas of particular interest.

Erika Herrmann is an L1 speaker of German, who grew up in Kroondal/Rustenburg. She completed her BA (Honours) in Linguistics at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and her MA in Book and Media Studies at Leiden University (Netherlands). She has been working as a German teacher at a secondary school in Stellenbosch (South Africa) since 2018.