@incollection{Engelberg2008, author = {Stefan Engelberg}, title = {The German language in the South Seas : language contact and the influence of language politics and language attitudes}, series = {German diasporic experiences : identity, migration and loss [International conference held at the University of Waterloo in August 2006, 24-27 organized by the Waterloo Centre for German Studies]}, editor = {Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach and Grit Liebscher and David G. John and James M. Skidmore and Mathias Schulze}, publisher = {Wilfrid Laurier University Press}, address = {Waterloo, Ontario}, isbn = {978-1-554-58027-9}, url = {https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-10692}, pages = {317 -- 330}, year = {2008}, abstract = {Between 1884 and 1900, Germany established protectorates in large areas of the South Pacific. The authorities assumed that the linguistically extremely diverse areas would pose communication problems. Thus the question arose whether German should become the lingua franca in the South Pacific. After a controversial discussion; the German government implemented language policies to promote the German language in the colonies. This chapter shows why, on the one hand, German language policies were doomed to failure and why, on the other, they unintentionally supported other linguistic developments such as the introduction of borrowing from German into indigenous languages, the development of German settler varieties, and the spread of pidgin languages.}, language = {en} }