Horst J. Simon’s research while affiliated with Freie Universität Berlin and other places

This paper describes the corpus Deutsch in Namibia (DNam, 'German in Namibia'), which will be openly accessible via the Datenbank für Gesprochenes Deutsch (DGD, 'Database for Spoken German'). This corpus is a new digital resource that comprehensively and systematically documents the language use of the German-speaking minority in Namibia and related language attitudes. We discuss data collection and elicitation methods (conversation groups, "language situations", semi-structured interviews), data processing including transcription, normalisation and tagging, general corpus characteristics available (size, available metadata etc.) and some basic functionalities within the DGD. First research results based on this new empirical resource illustrate its value for studies on language contact, variation and sociolinguistics.

The papers in this volume focus on the dynamics of one specific cell in morphological paradigms – the genitive. The high amount of diachronic and synchronic variation in all Germanic languages makes the genitive a particularly interesting phenomenon since it allows us, for example, to examine comparable but slightly different diachronic pathways, the relation of synchronic and diachronic variation, and the interplay of linguistic levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics). The findings in this book enhance our understanding of the genitive not only by describing its properties, but also by discussing its demarcation from functional competitors and related grammatical items. Under-researched aspects of well-described languages as well as from lesser-known languages (Faroese, Frisian, Luxembourgish, Yiddish) are examined. The papers included are methodologically diverse and the topics covered range from morphology, syntax, and semantics to the influence of (normative) grammars and the perception and prestige of grammatical items.

Among (post-)colonial varieties of German, Namibian German is a particularly interesting case. It has a unique status compared to the other extra-territorial varieties as well as to those in the German-speaking area in Europe. First, it is based on a speech community with German ancestry who still live in Namibia today, which distinguishes it from such colonial varieties as Unserdeutsch in the South Pacific and makes it more similar to such German “language island” varieties as, e.g., Texas German in the United States or the German varieties still spoken in Brazil. Second, though, unlike language island varieties as well as other postcolonial varieties and more similar to those in Germany, Namibian German is linguistically vital. It is passed on to younger generations and is also used in public domains, supporting, e.g., register differentiation. Third, unlike most varieties in Germany, however, it is integrated in a setting of societal multilingualism, with speakers who routinely use two or more languages in addition to German in their daily lives, and with a broader context of high linguistic diversity, offering a wealth of language contact opportunities. In this paper, we describe this special status of Namibian German and present first results from a project that capitalises on this to investigate the (socio-)linguistic dynamics that this setting supports, affording us a spotlight on tendencies of language attitudes and language variation in contact situations of German.

Anhand von Korpusdaten und den Ergebnissen einer Sprecherbefragung untersuchen wir in diesem Beitrag grammatische und lexikalische Entwicklungen in zwei relativ neuen Varietäten des Gegenwartsdeutschen: Kiezdeutsch und Namdeutsch, die jeweils von urbanen mehrsprachigen Sprechergemeinschaften in Deutschland bzw. in Namibia getragen werden. Der Vergleich zeigt, dass trotz erheblicher Unterschiede hinsichtlich der involvierten Kontaktsprachen, der sozialen Hintergründe der Sprecher/innen usw. eine Reihe auffälliger Ähnlichkeiten bei den Innovationen bestehen: so entwickelt sich "gibs" zu einem partikelartigen Existenzanzeiger, und "so" fungiert als Fokusmarker; auch neue Partikeln werden entlehnt. Darüber hinaus schwindet bei "(ein) bisschen" bzw. "bietje/bikkie" im Zuge einer semantischpragmatischen Weiterentwicklung auch der Artikel. Die im Vergleich zu dem in monolingualen Kontexten gesprochenen Deutschen relativ starken Veränderungen im Kiezdeutschen und im Namdeutschen zeugen von der hohen Innovationskraft dieser Varietäten; die Parallelität der Entwicklungen in den untersuchten Phänomenbereichen weist zudem auf grundlegende binnenstrukturelle Tendenzen im Deutschen hin.