Speaker(s):
Peter Wagener
Location:
Union South, UW-Madison
Co-sponsor(s):
Department of German, Center for European Studies, Center for German and European Studies, African Studies Program, History Department
Description:
This lecture presents the results of recording sessions taken during a journey through South Africa, in February/March 2012 as part of the project „Spoken German in Southern Africa“. The project was conducted on behalf of the Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS) in Mannheim with the aim to systematically survey the southern African varieties of spoken German by means of sound recordings. After a brief overview, this report will focus on a “Sprachinsel” in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, a linguistic enclave where fully functional Low German is spoken by hundreds of speakers. This heritage language has been retained for over 160 years and today is embedded in a fascinating multicultural context.
Dr. Peter Wagener is a linguist and director emeritus of the Deutsches Spracharchiv (Archive for Spoken German) at the Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache in Mannheim, Germany.