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Unserdeutsch “Our German” Rabaul Creole German

Unserdeutsch “Our German” Rabaul Creole German. Wendy Kempsell 2-10-2009. Papua New Guinea. Overview. Superstrate Substrate German Tok Pisin English Melanesian languages ( Kuanua ) All speakers are fluent in Tok Pisin and most speak Standard German or English.

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Unserdeutsch “Our German” Rabaul Creole German

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  1. Unserdeutsch“Our German”Rabaul Creole German Wendy Kempsell 2-10-2009

  2. Papua New Guinea

  3. Overview SuperstrateSubstrate German TokPisin English Melanesian languages (Kuanua) All speakers are fluent in TokPisin and most speak Standard German or English. Developed at the Vunapope Catholic Mission, a boarding school run by German missionaries.

  4. Historical background 1884: Germany ruled Kaiser Wilhelms Land and Bismarck Archipelego; based administration out of Rabaul. No great effort was made to stop the use of TokPisin as lingua franca. Heterogeneous population: German, English, Filipino, Chinese, Australian, Tolai, Guamese, Malay Migrant workers and colonists married local women. 1897: Catholic missionaries established a school at Vunapope for the children of nonindigenous fathers: children were only allowed occasional visits to their mothers’ families. Children had limited exposure to either their mothers’ or their fathers’ languages. First language was most likely TokPisin. 1900: German colonial government attempted (unsuccessfully) to replace Pidgin English with German. School was taught in German: TokPisin was not allowed.

  5. Historical background Students used TokPisin with each other, and began replacing TP words with German ones Unserdeutsch stabilized quickly. 1914: Australian rule of New Guinea. Fathers left New Guinea, and very few took their family. 1914-1945: school had 100-200 students at any time. Instruction was changed to English. The first students tended to marry other students; home language was Unserdeutsch.

  6. Decline of Unserdeutsch After World War II the school was taught with the Australian syllabus, and German was prohibited American and Australian teachers Less students had knowledge of Standard German: some teachers even learned Unserdeutsch. The community dispersed, more married outside of Vunapope and some became Australian citizens. 1975: independence from Australia. Instead of becoming Papua New Guinean citizens, most Unserdeutsch speakers moved to Australia. 1980: estimates that only around 100 fluent speakers. Very few speakers today. The community is still strong, but only older members use Unserdeutsch.

  7. Sociolinguistic Variation • Great variation within the community • Generational: Older speakers were taught in German, while younger speakers were taught in English. • Possible variation due to discomfort in speaking with outsiders. • Due to formal schooling, it is almost impossible to find a basilectal level of Unserdeutsch.

  8. Phonology 26 phonemes 9 vowels: / i, ɪ, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, ʊ, u/ Simplification of some consonant clusters SG /ix/ is /i/ in UD. /nixt/ realized as /ni/ or /nixt/ . Great variation in phonology. As in southern dialects of German, contains /w/ and apical /r/.

  9. Linguistic Structure • Word Order: SVO (no changes after auxiliaries or for questions) UD I wirdbleibzweiWoche in Lae I will stay two week in Lae SD IchwerdezweiWochen in Laebleiben. I will two weeks in Lae stay • Serial verbs: UD Du holendieseEimerkomm! you:SNG fetch this bucket come TP Yu kisimdispela bucket ikam. you:SNG fetch this bucket PM come Bring this bucket. UD Du laufengehtwo? you:SNG run go where TP Yu ran i go we? you:SNG run PM go where Where are you running to?

  10. ‘Fi’ complementizer UD I bin am denkenfikaufeneinFerd. I am PPT think for buy a horse I’m thinking of buying a horse. • Plural marker ‘alle’ (TP ol) • Definite and indefinite articles, but not inflected for case or gender • Definite ‘de’ Indefinite ‘ein’ • Inclusive pronoun ‘uns’ and exclusive pronoun ‘wir’ • Copula • Not only is there a copula, but it is inflected for person and tense. • The only verb that is always conjugated for person and number.

  11. Syntax • Tense • Tense does not need to be specified if a previous sentence already set the action in the past. • A sentence not marked for tense can be set in the present or the future or have no time reference. • No difference between imperfect and perfect past. Past tense is formed with past participle or the copula. • 3 modal verbs: UD will kann muss SG wollenkoennenmuessen want to can must • Durative form similar to English continuous UD DerMensch, wo is am bauen de Haus, hat gehauensein Finger. the person who is PPT build the house has hit his finger The person who’s building the house has hit his finger. • Passive constructions UD De Chicken war gestohlenbeialleRaskol the chicken was stolen by PL thieves The chicken was stolen by the thieves.

  12. Rumpelstitskin http://www.uni-koeln.de/gbs/unserdeutsch/rumpelstiltskin.html Story told in Unserdeutsch and transcribed.

  13. Function of Unserdeutsch • Fits the description of a Creole: • Arose out of a pidgin which existed for less than a generation • No more than 20% of population were speakers of the dominant language • Interesting Exception: the speakers already had TokPisin as a common language. • No one outside the community learned the language. • Secret Language? • Unserdeutsch “must be regarded as a creole which became a postcreole continuum before stable creole norms could establish themselves.” Muehlaeusler (1984)

  14. Bibliography Arends, J., Muysken, P. , and Smith, N. (1995) Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction. Creole language library, v. 15. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. Klein, T.B. (2004): Creole phonology typology: Phoneme inventory size, vowel quality distinctions and stop consonant series in Bhatt, P. & Plag, I. (eds.): The structure of Creole words: Segmental, syllabic and morphological aspects. (pp. 3-21. ) Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag,. Muhlhausler, P. (1984). Tracing the roots of Pidgin German. Language and Communication, 4(1), 27-57. Unserdeutsch (Rabaul Creole German). (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2009 from GesellschaftfuerBedrohteSprachene.V.: http://www.uni-koeln.de/gbs/unserdeutsch/index.html Volker, C. (1989): Rabaul Creole German Syntax in: Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 21 / 1", University of Hawai'i: Department of Linguistics (p. 153 – 189) Volker, C. (1991). The birth and decline of Rabaul Creole German. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, 22(1-2), 143-156.

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