Wp/hrx/Help:Information in English

Information in English - This page is for you if you do not understand the language being used in this Wikipedia project. Riograndenser Hunsrückisch is a variety of German which developed in Brazil for almost two centuries of existence, since the first German speaking European settler families arrived in Rio Grande do Sul state in 1824. During the first century the German language was spoken mostly in the so called Old Colony (in German: die Altkolonie; in Portguese (plural), as Colônias Velhas), on the eastern part of the state. However, over one hundred years ago there was a great expansion to the western part of Rio Grande do Sul, mostly to the Northwest - that general linguistic region became known as New Colony (in Dialect: Neikolonie; in High German: Neukolonie; in Portuguese (plural): as Colônias Novas; as a matter of fact, a great part of this region has been more and more in the last decades being called Região das Missões, accoding to Catholic Jesuit missions' traditions among the Guarani Indians many centuries before the arrival of the German speaking colonists. During these two hundred years of organic language development, there have been further migrations out of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and namely into neighboring Argentina, to Santa Catarina and Paraná states, and in the last few decades even to Paraguay. Therefore, similar to Pennsylvania Deitsch spoken in the state of Pennsylvania, in other states of the United States, and even in Canada, Riograndenser Hunsrückisch is also spoken beyond state lines. However, the largest number of German speakers in all of South America are native speakers of Riograndenser Hunsrückisch, and the vast majority of them live in Rio Grande do Sul. Precise numbers regarding the number of speakers are hard to come by but conservative estimations usually are around one to three millions speakers; especially when counting people who have strong cultural affinity for the language but in actuality only speak little, this is especially true amongst the younger generations. There is a growing interest among youth for their ancestral language. This very Wikipedia project, in itself, is a reflection of this growing interest in the renewal of this minority and regional language of Brazil.

See also

Informações em português!

References

Hunsrückisch in Rio Grande do Sul - Ein Beitrag zur Beschreibung einer Deutschbrasilianischen Dialektvarietät im Kontakt mit dem Portugiesischen von Cléo Vilson Altenhofen (1995); Dr. phil. dissertation, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität zu Mainz, 406 + pp.; Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart - Germany.