Natal German

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That the Natal German is a variant of the German language , which in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal is spoken.

Their speakers have often immigrated from the Lüneburg Heath and brought their Low German language with them in addition to High German . The use of Low German in the language group is now very limited and restricted almost exclusively to individual families and family-internal use. The main variant of Natal German is based on Standard German, but with Low German interferences (simplification of the case system through the coincidence of accusative and dative as well as paraphrase of the genitive as in colloquial language).

The language has the following typical characteristics :

  1. Special features in phonetics are above all
    the rolled R [ ʁ ; ɻ ], ​​​​
    the pronunciation of the S, as in parts of northern Germany (not "sch"): we stumble over sharp stones,
    the round L [ l , ɫ ],​​​​
    the pronunciation of the final syllable -er as [ ə (ä)] instead of [ ər (äa)]​​
  2. the absence of the dative (mostly replaced by the accusative )
  3. the lack of the genitive (mostly replaced by constructions with sein, such as my daddy his car )

The use of language has adapted to social , cultural and linguistic conditions over the centuries (first settlements around 1847 and 1854) . Thus, the sentence construction is nowadays usually still German, while the vocabulary strongly with English , Afrikaans and words of Zulu is enriched.

An often quoted (perhaps a little exaggerated) example sentence is:

"The cattle have jammed over the fence and damaged the cabbage."
[ the fi: ɪs ybə di: fɛns gədʒœm (p) t ʊn (d) has the kæbɪdʒ gədæmɪdʒt ]
(The cattle jumped over the fence and damaged the cabbage [= ate, tampered with the cabbage].)

Some typical natal German word examples

to bark at (v.)

(Afrikaans "te bel") Call. I bark at you.

Gang (w.)

(Afrikaans) tires.

Bus (w.) [Bϧ]

(English) We're going to school by bus.

Draai [drɛĭ] or turn (w.)

(Afrikaans) curve.

to imagine (v.)

(English "to build in") installation.

jag or chase (v.)

(Afrikaans "jaag") Hurry, hurry; race. I hunt around * that the gangs * howl so.

meeten [mi: t (ə) n] or rent (v.)

(English "to meet") to meet. I'll meet you at a shop.

Roof [ru: f] or Ruf (m., W., S.)

(English) roof. The roof is leaking . - Our house has a bad roof.

tada (interj. redew.)

(English "ta-da") (farewell) Bye.

share (v.)

(English "to tile") tiles. We have shared bathrooms and imaginary * closets.

literature

  • Nataler Deutsch - A documentation taking into account the English and Afrikaans influence on the German language in Natal , Hildegard Irma Stielau, German language in Europe and overseas reports and research , Volume 7, Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1980.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Nataler Deutsch  - explanations of meanings, word origins , synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: Directory: German / non-European varieties  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations