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| Colonia Tovar | |
|---|---|
| Alemán Coloniero | |
| Native to | Venezuela |
Native speakers | 1,500 (2009)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gct |
| Glottolog | colo1254 |
| IETF | gct[2] |
TheColonia Tovar dialect, or Alemán Coloniero, is adialect that is spoken inColonia Tovar,Venezuela, and belongs to theLow Alemannic branch ofGerman.
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The dialect, like otherAlemannic dialects, is not mutually intelligible withStandard German. It is spoken by descendants of Germans from theBlack Forest region of southernBaden, who emigrated to Venezuela in 1843. Most speakers also speakSpanish, and the dialect has both acquired Spanishloanwords and influencedVenezuelan Spanish.[3]
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Until 1942, when Colonia Tovar was declared a municipality, most of its residents above the age of 15 were fluent in German, being unable to converse or understand Spanish, owing to the town's isolation. In World War II, Venezuela declared war on Germany, and so German classes in Colonia Tovar were banned. The town became connected with the rest of the country and so people began to converse in Spanish, which has led to the dialect's decline.
Despite attempts to use German as the language of instruction, the state has not given local schools permission to teach in bilingual classes, and so, only private tutors were allowed to instruct in the Colonia Tovar dialect and in Standard German. Most descendants of German settlers in Colonia Tovar now mostly speak Standard German.[4]
