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Part of
Multifaceted Multilingualism
Edited by Kleanthes K. Grohmann
[Studies in Bilingualism 66] 2024
► pp. 414–427

Chapter 16
Barossa German

Language documentation, maintenance and renewal in a German-speaking enclave in South Australia

| University of Adelaide

This chapter reports on a project of language documentation, maintenance and renewal in the Barossa region of South Australia. The project commenced with oral recordings of descendants of German-speaking immigrants to the British settlement of South Australia in the nineteenth century. The speakers who were recorded valued the recognition of their German heritage and identity as they had been forbidden to speak German in childhood due to suppression of their ethnicity in the Second World War. In response to the wish to socialise in German a regular program was organised for heritage speakers and for recent immigrants. The Barossa German Language Association Inc. was established to support German maintenance and revival events and to advocate for the reintroduction of bilingual German English programs closed in 1917. The project has evolved with regular social events, a publication Das Blatt and education programs.

Article outline
  • 1.Barossa German project
  • 2.Immigration to South Australia
  • 3.German maintenance in Lutheran communities
  • 4.The suppression of German
  • 5.Barossa Deutsch
  • 6.German maintenance and revival in the Barossa
  • 7.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 April 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.66.16mic
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