Colonia Tovar dialect

Alemán Coloniero
Spoken in	Venezuela
Native speakers	unknown
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Upper German Alemannic Low Alemannic Alemán Coloniero
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gct

Alemán Coloniero, spoken in Colonia Tovar, Venezuela, is a dialect that belongs to the Low Alemannic branch of German.

Characteristics

The language, like other Alemannic dialects, is not mutually intelligible with Standard German. It is spoken by descendants of Germans from the Black Forest region of southern Baden, who emigrated to Venezuela in 1843. Most speakers also speak Spanish, and the language has also acquired some Spanish loanwords.

Literature

• Blanco Hernández, Marlene: Introducción al analisis gramatical del Aleman de la Colonia Tovar. Universidad Central de Venezuela. Caracas 1987.

• Redlich Perkins, Renate: Tovar German. Linguistic study of a German century alemannic dialect spoken in Venezuela. University Microfilms International. Ann Arbor, Michigan, London 1978.

• Da Rin, Denise: Die deutsche Sprache in der Colonia Tovar (Venezuela) - Eine soziolinguistische Untersuchung. München 1995.
• Kanzler, Samuel Briceño: La Colonia Tovar y su gente. Tovar, o. J. (Title in German translation: Die Colonia Tovar und ihre Menschen).

External links

• Informationen über Colonia Tovar bei www.venezuelatuya.com
• Ethnologue report for Alemán Coloniero
• (German) Fotos, Audios and language on SWR.de
• (German) Informations on Colonia Tovar bei www.margaritainfo.com
• (German) Report on the village of Colonia Tovar. People speak there a special german slang "alemannisch"
• (Spanish) Website of Colonia Tovar