German, Chile’s Second Language

On a trip through the south Chilean lake region, one becomes rapidly aware of the unique charm of this area. German immigrants pioneered this part of Chile in the second half of the last century. Today, one can walk in their tracks in the southern zone of the South American country, as the Llanquihue and the West Banks regions are still dominated by German influences.

In view of this, tourists encounter German names on clubs, schools and parishes. Travelers will, moreover, find some habitants with fluent German language skills even though their ancestors came from Germany to Chile over 140 years ago.

Naturally, this arises some questions in the field of sociolinguistics: How was it possible to keep the German language alive for so many generations? Also, what determines whether a minority language stays preserved or whether a switch to one exclusive majority language takes place?

Nowadays, it is an exception that someone grows up as a native German speaker in Chile because kids are already confronted with the Spanish language at school. Later on, the Spanish influence takes over during times of education and employment, too.

However, the definitions German, Chilean and German-Chilean reflect an uncertainty to which travelers will encounter numerous Chileans of German descent. Identity and attitudes, such as self estimates, shown in this context must be considered in the question of possible factors of language shift closer.

The first historical mention of a German person in Chile leads back to the 16th century. It, furthermore, falls together with the Spanish conquest of the land, and the foundation of today’s capital Santiago. With the independence from Spain, an increasing number of merchants and commercial travelers made their way to Chile.

In fact, it was the Chilean government that came up with the idea to settle European colonists in the southern part of Chile. The country was eager to include European immigrants in order to multiply in population and to promote Chile economically.
New German settlements were established in 1853 around the lake Llanquihue. Most foreign groups were formed of a family from a particular area of origin.

During the first phase of the German immigration, the German language was dominant. At that time, only a few German settlers spoke the Spanish idiom because the contact with Ibero-Chilean was limited to domestic workers, who often had a better grasp on their Indian language than Spanish.

After the conjunction to the north-south railway, this situation changed drastically, as a flood of Chilean workers came in the cities. The increased contact with the Spanish language, soon brought noticeable differences and resulted in a mixed language use between Chilean and German descents.