| Namibian Black German | |
|---|---|
| Küchendeutsch | |
| Native to | Namibia |
Native speakers | None |
German-based pidgin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Namibian Black German, also NBG, (German: Küchendeutsch, "kitchen German") is a pidgin language of Namibia that derives from standard German.[1] It is nearly extinct. It was spoken mostly by Namibians who did not learn standard German during the period of German rule. It was never a first language. It is currently spoken as a second language by people over 50 years old, who today usually also speak German, Afrikaans, or English.
History
Colonial acquisition of German in Namibia often took place outside of formal education and was primarily self-taught. Like many pidgin languages, Namibian Black German developed through limited access to the standard language and was restricted to the work environment.
Currently several hundred thousand Namibians speak German as a second language, and while Namibian German often does not adhere to standard German, it is not pidgin.
Prepositions
English and Afrikaans have left an influence on the development of NBG, leading to three primary prepositional patterns:
- adding a preposition where Standard German would use the accusative
- dropping prepositions which are usually present in Standard German
- changing the preposition that is required by the verb
Examples
Examples of phrases with Standard German equivalents:
- Lange nicht sehen - long no see ("Lange nicht gesehen")
- Was Banane kosten? - How much does the banana cost? ("Was kostet die/eine Banane?")
- spät Uhr - 'late hour', meaning 'it's late' ("es ist spät")
- Herr fahren Jagd, nicht Haus - "Master went hunting and he's not at home" ("Der Herr ist zur Jagd gefahren und ist nicht zu Hause")
References
- ^ Deumert, Ama (2003). Markedness and salience in language contact and second-language acquisition: evidence from a non-canonical contact language. Language Sciences. 25. Elsevier Ltd. pp. 561–613. doi:10.1016/S0388-0001(03)00033-0.
Further reading
- Deumert, A. (2010). Historical Sociolinguistics in a Colonial World, Methodological Considerations [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://hison.sbg.ac.at/content/conferences/handoutsslides2010/Deumert3.pdf
- Deumert, A (2003). "Markedness and salience in language contact and second-language acquisition: evidence from a non-canonical contact language". Language Sciences. 25 (6): 561–613. doi:10.1016/S0388-0001(03)00033-0.
- Deumert, A (2009). "Namibian Kiche Duits: The Making (and Decline) of Neo-African Language". Journal of Germanic Linguistics. 21 (4): 349–417. doi:10.1017/s1470542709990122.
- Langer, N., McLelland, N. (2011). German Studies: Language and Linguistics. The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, 71, 564-594. JSTOR 10.5699/yearworkmodlang.71.2009.0564
- Shah, Sheena (2007). "German in a contact situation: The case of Namibian German" (PDF). EDUSA. 2 (2): 20–44. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-07-13.
- Stolberg, D. (2012). When a standard language goes colonial: Language attitudes, language planning, and destandardization during German colonialism. 25th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, Workshop 2: Foundations of Language Standardization. Retrieved from http://conference.hi.is/scl25/files/2012/06/Stolberg.pdf