Barossa German

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Barossa German (ger Barossadeutsch) refers to a dialect of German, which was once common in and around the Barossa Valley in South Australia. It is unlikely that Barossa German is now spoken fluently, on a day to day basis, by anyone, although some words from it have entered South Australian English.

The first wave of German settlement in Australia began in 1838. German was first spoken in the Barossa Valley in the 1840s, when German Lutheran settlers from Prussia arrived in the area. The dialect used both German and English words, but was closer to standard German than the analogous Pennsylvanian Dutch spoken in the United States.

Even though many German Australians enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force during World War I, the German language was actively suppressed by Australian governments during the war; for example, many placenames with German origins were changed. In addition, immigration from Germany was officially banned between 1914 and 1925. Such policies were probably significant factors in the decline of Barossa German.