Lieb heimatland, ade!: o apagamento dos traços língua-cultura-identidade alemães em Juiz de Fora e a hegemonia da língua portuguesa

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discuss the deletion of German language, culture and identity traces in Juiz de Fora city, Brazil. By means of ethnographic research, with semi-structured interviews, as well of documental research, and on Ecolinguistics theoretical basis (MUFWENE, 2001, 2008; COUTO, 2007, 2009), we investigate and reflect on the possible ecological aspects that influenced this linguistic and cultural deletion in the city during the adaptation process of the immigrants to the new land. Therefore, we believe that this deletion happened as a long and gradual process, influenced by several factors, including the hegemony of Portuguese language. Such a situation is quite different from what happened in other parts of Brazil, where there are visible marks of German varieties in their dialects (BORSTEL, 2011; PEREIRA, 2005), as well as many cultural heritages from the immigrants. In this sense, this work has the following main objectives: (i) to identify which varieties of German language arrived in Juiz de Fora; (ii) to trace the history of the linguistic contacts that took place in the city; (iii) to identify ecological factors that possibly influenced the deletion process of the varieties of the German language that arrived in Juiz de Fora. Thus, this study demonstrates how German immigrants German immigrants were taken to (re)construct their identities, leaving behind their origins and hence their linguistic and cultural heritages over time.