Institute of Germanic Languages and Literatures

Unserdeutsch (Rabaul Creole German)

Archive 2019

Note from 25 November 2019

Presentation by S. Lindenfelser in Fribourg

On 25 November 2019, Siegwalt Lindenfelser gave a guest lecture at the seminar "Sprachen in Kontakt" at the University of Fribourg on "Sprachkontakt in Deutsch-Neuguinea - Werden und Vergehen von Unserdeutsch".

Note from 16 November 2019

Presentation by S. Lindenfelser in Bern

On 16 November 2019 Siegwalt Lindenfelser gave a lecture entitled "Unserdeutsch oder das sprachliche Erbe der deutschen Kolonialzeit in Papua New Guinea" at the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Swiss Academic Society for Linguistics (SAGG) in Bern.

Note from 25 September 2019

Presentation by Prof Maitz in Bern

On 25 September 2019, Prof Péter Maitz gave a lecture on "Creole diversity: insights from Unserdeutsch" at the international workshop "The challenges of linguistic diversity: its social, anthropological, and structural aspects" at the University of Bern.

Note from 28 June 2019

Presentation by L. Schmidtkunz and Prof Maitz in Bamberg

On 28 June 2019, Lena Schmidtkunz and Prof Péter Maitz gave a keynote lecture "On Grammaticality and Acceptability in Colonial Contexts: Evidence from Unserdeutsch (Rabaul Creole German)" at the conference "What is Grammaticality?"

The conference program can be viewed here.

Note from 26 June 2019

Radio story on Unserdeutsch for children

The children’s radio channel KiRaKa, a channel of the Western German broadcasting group, released a 50-minute radio story on the topic “Pippi and Unserdeutsch” by Rebekka Endler. In this radio story, the historical connection between the subject matter of Pippi Longstocking and Unserdeutsch is edited in a child-oriented way.

The radio story is available here

Note from 13 June 2019

Presentation by S. Lindenfelser in Osnabrück

On 13 June 2019, Siegwalt Lindenfelser gave a guest lecture in the context of the Linguistic Colloquium at the University of Osnabrück. The presentation dealt with Unserdeutsch as a minority language, its birth and its decline.

The programme of the colloquium is available here

Note from 12 June 2019

Presentation by S. Lindenfelser and Prof Maitz in Marburg

On 12 June 2019, Siegwalt Lindenfelser and Prof Péter Maitz gave a presentation at the 132th annual meeting of the Society for Low German Linguistic Research in Marburg. The presentation dealt with the reconstruction of the superstrate variety of Unserdeutsch and its connection to the Westphalian area.

The conference programme is available here

Note from 6 June 2019

Research trip of Prof Maitz to Australia

In June 2019, Prof Maitz is on a three-week research trip to Australia. The program includes a lecture for the speaker community in Brisbane, some follow-up surveys of Unserdeutsch data in Brisbane and Cairns, and official meetings with Prof Peter Mühlhäusler in Adelaide and Prof Alexandra Aikhenvald in Cairns.

Note from 1 June 2019

New publication on Unserdeutsch

A new paper on Unserdeutsch has been published recently in the Journal of Dialectology and Linguistics (ZDL 85/3) by Prof Péter Maitz and Siegwalt Lindenfelser. It deals with the question whether Unserdeutsch is an (a)typical creole or not. It offers the first more detailed analysis of the typological structure of Unserdeutsch in German.

The publication is available here

Note from 5 April 2019

Presentation by Prof Maitz and S. Lindenfelser in Zurich

On 5 April 2019, Prof Péter Maitz and Siegwalt Lindenfelser gave a presentation at the conference “Small Languages – Big Ideas: The Smaller Germanic Languages from a Theoretical, General and Comparative Perspective” in Zurich. The topic of the talk was “What Can We Learn from Unserdeutsch? Insights for Germanic Linguistics and Linguistic Theory”.

The conference programme is available here

Note from 29 March 2019

Presentation by Prof Maitz and S. Lindenfelser in Helsinki

On 29 March 2019, Prof Péter Maitz and Siegwalt Lindenfelser gave a lecture on "Describing Unserdeutsch (Rabaul Creole German): Methodological and Empirical Challenges" at the conference "Descriptive Grammars and Typology: The Challenges of Writing Grammars of Underdescribed and Endangered Languages" in Helsinki.

The conference program can be viewed here.

Note from 22 March 2019

Seminar by Prof Maitz in Melbourne

In March 2019 Prof Maitz held a seminar at Monash University in Melbourne at the invitation of Prof Kate Burridge on "German Abroad: Unserdeutsch (Rabaul Creole German) and other German-based Contact Languages in the Pacific".

Note from 5 January 2019

Presentation by Prof Maitz in New York

On 5 January 2019, Prof Péter Maitz gave a lecture on "Language Emergence in the Boarding School: Theoretical and Typological Issues of Boarding School Contact Languages" at the winter conference of the "Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics" in New York.

The conference program can be viewed here.