Argentinien-schwyzertütsch dialect
| Argentinien-schwyzertütsch | |
|---|---|
| Argentinien-schwyzertütsch | |
| Native to | Argentina |
| Ethnicity | Swiss Argentines |
Indo-European
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Linguasphere | 52-ACB-ho |
| IETF | gsw-AR |
Argentinien-schwyzertütsch (Spanish: alemán suizo de Argentina) is a dialect of Swiss German spoken in Argentina by descendants of 19th-century immigrants from Switzerland. It is best documented in the Santa Fe colony of San Jerónimo Norte, where the variety is a form of Walliserdeutsch (Valais German).[1]: 19 Under sustained contact with Spanish, the majority language, the dialect has declined and become endangered, increasingly not passed on to younger generations.[1]: 24–26
History
[edit]
During the 19th century, economic hardship drove emigration from Switzerland, including the canton of Valais, to Argentina, where colonists settled in the province of Santa Fe.[1]: 18–20 The village of San Jerónimo Norte was founded in 1859 by five families from the Upper Valais (Oberwallis), which, alongside Esperanza, made it one of the oldest German-speaking settlements in Argentina.[1]: 20
By about 1870 the colony had grown to 236 families and 1,210 people, 180 of the families coming from the Upper Valais. The community, today home to around 7,000 inhabitants, includes about 140 extended families bearing Valais surnames.[1]: 20
Status and features
[edit]The variety spoken at San Jerónimo Norte is a form of Walliserdeutsch (Valais German) rather than a generic Swiss German.[1]: 19 In the institutional domains of church, school, politics and the media, Spanish, the majority language, is used, while the dialect mainly serves informal contact among people of Swiss descent.[1]: 22–25 The dialect shows grammatical and lexical interference from Spanish, and code-switching has become more frequent as competence in it has declined.[1]: 24–26
By the early 21st century the dialect was associated mainly with the older generation and was increasingly not passed on to children. Hess-Lüttich concludes that the Valais dialect will die out in these enclaves, its language death demographically foreseeable.[1]: 24–26
The Linguasphere Register assigns the variety the code 52-ACB-ho. It has no separate ISO 639 code and is classified under Swiss German (gsw).[2]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hess-Lüttich, Ernest W. B. (2013). "Deutschsprachige Enklaven in Südamerika: Hunsrückisch in Brasilien und Wallisisch in Argentinien. Zur Sprachinselforschung in Rio Grande do Sul und San Jerónimo Norte" [German-speaking enclaves in South America: Hunsrückisch in Brazil and Walliserdeutsch in Argentina] (PDF). Zeitschrift für interkulturelle Germanistik (in German). 4 (1): 11–27.
- ↑ Dalby, David (1999). "The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities" (PDF). Linguasphere Observatory. Archived from the original on December 31, 2005. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
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Further reading
[edit]- Anderegg, Klaus (1991). "Die Kolonie San Jerónimo Norte in der argentinischen Pampa. Die Entstehung des ›Argentinischen Wallis‹". In Antonietti, Thomas; Morand, Marie-Claude (eds.). Valais d'émigration / Auswanderungsland Wallis. Sion. pp. 161–183.
- Rubin, Simone (2008). Deutsche Sprachminderheiten. Sprachinselforschung in San Jerónimo Norte. Bern.
External links
[edit]- The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages (1999), listing 52-ACB-ho argentinien-schwyzertütsch