Shifting Publics and Shifting Alignments in a Sprachinsel of Southern Brazil by Claire Elizabeth ...

332 Pages·2011·2.62 MB·English

Shifting Publics and Shifting Alignments in a Sprachinsel of Southern Brazil

by

Claire Elizabeth Insel

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
(Anthropology)
in the University of Michigan
2011

Doctoral Committee:

Professor Bruce Mannheim, Chair
Professor Andrew J. Shryock
Associate Professor Sueann Caulfield
Associate Professor Barbra A. Meek
Associate Professor Robin M. Queen
© Claire Elizabeth Insel
2011
To Marcia Seyler and Paul Insel,
who raise(d) me up
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Acknowledgements

This is a work of collaboration. It began while applying for graduate school. Working at
Annual Reviews, I met many inspiring anthropologists, among them Bambi Schieffelin,
who helped me develop the topic of German speakers in Brazil. When I asked what to do
with myself between leaving Annual Reviews and starting school, Jane Hill advised me
to go somewhere and learn a language. I went to São Paulo, where Sílvia Coelho Prado
hosted me for seven months, speaking only slow Portuguese even though her English was
fluent.
At Michigan, my colleagues and friends Heloise Finch-Boyer, Christie Davis,
Jessica Smith Rolston, Susanne Unger, Emily Hein, Laura Brown, Simon Jo-Keeling,
Sherina Feliciano-Santos, Kirstin Swagman, Anna Genina, Margarita Huayhua, Kara
Madison, Aneeqa Aqeel, Yong-Hee Chun, Jennie Cain, and Patrick Tonks among others
pushed me along intellectually and emotionally. I grew tremendously in courses, Ling
Lab meetings, conferences, and in teaching undergraduates. My writing groups with
Elana Buch, Simon Jo-Keeling, Xochitl Ruiz, Henrike Florusbosch, and Alice Gates
eased much pain, especially at the end.
Other mentors and faculty who nurtured me further include Hartmut Rastalsky,
Carol Mukhopadhyay, Tom and Jean Roth, Lee Donaghey, Bambi Schieffelin, Fernando
Lara, Acrisio Pires, and Sally Thomason.
Laurie Marx, thank you!
I especially thank my committee for seeing me through preliminary examinations,
grant writing, fieldwork, and the dissertation. Thank you to Bruce Mannheim for
continual encouragement and guidance; Barb Meek for breaking down some of the
barrier between faculty and graduate students, comments on my work, and reflections on
what it means to be an academic; Andrew Shryock for buoying my spirits and helping me
rephrase my thoughts to make them sound coherent and intriguing; Robin Queen for very
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thorough, clear comments that always made me rethink everything I was doing; and
Sueann Caulfield for giving me models of how to work hard.
This dissertation was possible through a National Science Foundation Doctoral
Dissertation Improvement Grant (0714904). Additional support in three Foreign
Language Area Study fellowships, the Honors Program fellowship, and the Sweetland
Writing Center Dissertation Institute got me to where I am now. I am also grateful for the
chance to teach for the German and Anthropology Departments.
In Brazil, the 12 families that hosted me—the Horns, Brand and Oliveiras,
Werles, Bukwievics, Klebers, Rausches, Gernhardts, Blumes, Grings, Schabarums,
Baumhardts, and Coelho Prados—generously opened their homes to me, some for a few
days, others for months. Danke scheen. Dolorda Biegelmeier, Paula Leão, and Marli
Brand helped me transcribe the recorded conversations. Marli in particular was my friend
and companion in setting up opportunities for living and recording in Dois Irmãos.
Verônica Baumhardt has also always been a very good friend, giving me a space of
refuge in Porto Alegre and any other support I asked for. She, along with Tatiana Farias,
were innovative Portuguese teachers at the Schutz and Kanomata School. Professor Cléo
Altenhofen invited me to participate in his linguistics circles and gave me access to his
previous and ongoing work, computers, and libraries. He gave me direction on my project
and had the ESCRITHU group discuss one of my transcriptions. Muitíssimo obrigada à
Moisés Schabarum Dall Agnol, Andréia Bohn, Inara Weber, Beto Klein, Marcos
Klabunde, Rosane Werkhausen Luersen, the Success English School, Grupo Reviver, and
the wonderful members of Coral Cantares.
My United States family is my real backbone. Thank you, Philip, for your
statistics, ideals, and belly laughs; Michelle, for fine meals and family cohesion; and
Mom and Dad, for unconditional editing, pep talks, and cultivation of our love for
analyzing other humans. I dedicate this dissertation to you.
To Michael, for bringing me home.

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Table of Contents

Dedication…………………………………………………………………...ii
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………… iii
List of Figures…………………………………...…………………………..vi
List of Tables………………………………………………………………..vii
List of Appendices…………………………………………………………. viii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………….. ix
Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………….. 1
Chapter 2: A Brief History of German-Speaking Immigration to Brazil… 32
Chapter 3: Contemporary Dois Irmãos ………………………………….… 58
Chapter 4: A Social History of Hunsrückish…………………………...…. 85
Chapter 5: Interpersonal Alignments Through Codeswitching ……….……124
Chapter 6: Temporal Aspects of Personal Alignments………………….… 160
Chapter 7: Spatial Alignments: Here and There…………………………... 192
Chapter 8: Conclusion …………………………………………………… 246
Appendices.………………………………………………………………... 257
References Cited …………………………………………..………………. 311
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List of Figures

Figure 1. Map of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil…………………...…………………….…33
Figure 2: Map of Dois Irmãos, Rio Grande do Sul………………………….………….59
Figure 3: Photographs of Downtown, Dois Irmãos.. …………………………………...61
Figure 4: Map of the Hunsrück Region.................. ...........…………….........……….. 86
Figure 5: Reported German Speech…………………………………………………… 110
Figure 6: Reported German Speech by Locale …………………………………….….. 112
Figure 7: What the Parents Spoke …………..………………………………………… 113
Figure 8: Relationship of German Spoken by Parent to German Spoken by Children...114
Figure 9: Photographs of the Exterior of the Lotto Store……………………………... 129
Figure 10: Photographs of the Interior of the Lotto Store. ……………………………. 130
Figure 11: Photographs of Architectural Renovation Projects……………………...… 163
Figure 12. Grupo Reviver‘s Folkloric Dances…………………………………………. 197
Figure 13. Recreational Dancing During a Meeting…………………………………… 198

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List of Tables

Table 1: German Immigration to Brazil 1824-1969……………………………… 52
Table 2: Second-Person Pronouns ……………………………………………….. 93
Table 3: Agreement Marking on Finite Verb sinn……………………………….…. 95
Table 4: Reported German Speech………………………………………………… 110
Table 5: Age Distribution of German Speakers …………………………………… 111
Table 6: Reported German Speech by Locale……………………………………… 111
Table 7: What the Parents Spoke…………………………………………………… 112
Table 8: Relationship of German Spoken by Parent to German Spoken by Children. 114
Table 9: Moment 1 Convergences and Divergences………………………………. 135
Table 10: Moment 2 Convergences and Divergences ……………………………. 141
Table 11: Moment 3 Convergences and Divergences…………………………….. 144
Table 12: Referential Shifts in the First-Person Plural……………………………. 175

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List of Appendices

Appendix A: Theater Surveys………………………………………….. 257
Appendix B: Fuller Sieber Transcript –See Chapter 6…………………. 260
Appendix C: Reviver Transcript – See Chapter 7………………………. 280
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Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, new generations of Hunsrückish German speakers in
South Brazil still learn their local variety of German and use it in settings both private
and public. The 700,000 or so speakers descend from 19th-century immigrants from
Hunsrück and other parts of German-speaking Europe. There is a public lament that
Hunsrückish is disappearing as a language; a paradoxical discourse of pride and shame
stems in part from historical and contemporary lack of support and outright antagonism
from the government and popular media, as well as from situations common to language
shift: a transition from isolated farming communities to more diverse, urbanizing ones.
Although most studies of minority speech enclaves have focused on language change
among indigenous groups encompassed by major world languages, the Hunsrückish
Germans in Brazil speak one major world language encompassed by another. What effect
does this have on language maintenance and shift?
My analysis attempts to illuminate how minority language speakers position
themselves in everyday interaction, in relation to each other as well as to larger networks
such as ―publics.‖ I identify four publics—some of which are more ―German,‖ some
more ―Brazilian‖—with which Hunsrückish speakers align themselves personally,
temporally, and spatially. These are social spheres determined both in the moment of
conversation as well as in larger circulating discourse. The duality—of both micro and
macro expression—means that alignments are observed through codeswitching and
deictics, as well as ―contextual cues‖ (Auer 1995). Deictics are especially useful
resources for creating indeterminacy, which helps in moving beyond communicative
misfires and, on a larger scale, keeping vague the positioning of the entire group of
descendants of German-speaking immigrants. Cultivation of indeterminate language
necessarily involves language and semiotic ideologies that emerge in the alignment
process. By analyzing these ideological alignments, the dissertation endeavors to
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