This chapter explores socio-psychological dispositions that might have an impact on language maintenance in individual speakers: language awareness and language attitudes. After a definition of these concepts, a qualitative analysis of language awareness and attitudes in various corpora is conducted, which sheds light on speaker-dependent language variation and maintenance processes. A structuring content analysis includes the categories of language awareness and linguistic positioning (referring to the concepts heritage variety vs. the concept of Standard German and vs. neighboring German varieties (dialects)), ideologies of correctness, and attitudes toward heritage language varieties referring to affective components (emotional attachment), cognitive components (usefulness of the language) and conative components (explicit “language work” that means efforts to maintain the heritage language in individuals). Based on the results of this analysis the chapter discusses the standard language ideology and the model function of the written language which is transmitted at school. It also refers to the fact that metalinguistic awareness plays a decisive role in distinguishing heritage language features from characteristics of other German varieties and from the codified standard.

This chapter illustrates grammatical changes in German heritage varieties through an in-depth analysis of the three exemplary settings of German-speaking enclaves: Barossa German in Australia, Volga German in Russia and Blumenau German in Brazil. It provides a model study for investigating heritage languages by including both cross-linguistic and intergenerational data. Analyzing spoken data from two and in one case three) different generations, it is demonstrated that the reduction of case marking in the noun-phrase follows an identical path in all settings despite the typological difference of the replica language. This is explained as an internal development process of the heritage language, which is accelerated in the contact situation. In contrast, the pronominal system undergoes a different restructuring process in all three communities, which is interpreted as individual development in the respective contact settings. The detailed in-depth-analysis demonstrates that different processes are at work: phonological processes (such as assimilation processes), cognitive processes (accusative constructions extending their meaning to dative constructions), and linguistic economy (article omission). Only in the case of article omission, language contact comes in where the German contact varieties replicate a construction of the replica language.

The concluding chapter summarizes the results and emphasizes the impact of the findings on future heritage language research and studies on bilingualism and language change in general: It stresses the necessity of including grammatical and pragmatic contact phenomena and discusses the importance of the interplay of extralinguistic factors and various types of linguistic developments: acquisition context, impact of schooling and literacy, contact with different registers and speakers. It explains individual processes in heritage language speakers, such as entrenchment processes, co-active activation of languages in the bilingual brain, as well as language awareness and metalinguistic knowledge. In addition, the role of normativity in diaspora communities, the challenge of relic varieties and the role of Standard German as language of schooling are discussed. Moreover, the chapter includes general observations on language maintenance in German heritage communities. It emphasizes the implications for future research: implications for the development of the German language in general, implications for the theory of language contact and implications for heritage language research.

This chapter offers a general introduction to this book: It defines the notion of heritage language, addresses the state of the field in the research of German as a heritage language and discusses the notion of “German” in this context. It also explains the motivation for writing this book.

This chapter focuses on typical language contact phenomena of German as a heritage language in the area of lexical and phrasal units as well as idiomatic constructions. The first part addresses lexical borrowing, i.e. the transference of form–meaning pairs and explains motivations for lexical borrowing and its typical domains in German heritage communities. The second part deals with the transference of meanings in lexical-based constructions, generally referred to as semantic borrowing. Following the categorization of Haugen, it discusses different types of meaning transference such as homologous, synonymous and homophonous extensions which are illustrated by examples from different German heritage communities. A special focus is on the formation of new form-meaning pairs in lexicalized constructions (e.g. light verb constructions and idiomatic phrases). In a concluding section, the psycholinguistic explanations for semantic restructuring processes and the formation of new constructions are discussed by presenting a model that explains the connection of lemmas in the mental lexicon. Furthermore, the emergence of new construction types through the process of interactive activation in speech production is illustrated and speakers’ agency and awareness of transference processes are discussed.

This chapter analyses contact-induced morpho-syntactic developments that are caused either by individual features of the German variety spoken on arrival or triggered by the contact variety. The first two sections analyse the development of periphrastic constructions such as the tun-periphrasis and the development of progressive constructions in contact with English. It is demonstrated that the tun-periphrasis, which is stigmatized in Standard German, is used in different functions in the extraterritorial varieties and even develops a new function in Barossa German, namely the marking of habitual past. Another periphrastic construction, the am-periphrasis, which is grammaticalized in the German-related variety of Pennsylvania German to express progressive aspect, does not exhibit a similar grammaticalization process in other German-English contact settings. A third section provides an example of constructions that emerge through language contact. This is illustrated by the development of the possessive-s construction in different varieties of German in contact with English. The contact-induced grammaticalization process is elucidated from a construction grammar perspective. A final section identifies general prerequisites for restructuring and emergent constructions based on the phenomena analyzed in this chapter, most notably the availability of a replicable construction in the variety of origin and the existence of suitable gateway constructions.

This chapter addresses the theoretical reflections on language contact, language attrition and other processes of cross-linguistic influence in minority and migrant settings. It starts with a definition of the term language attrition and the various factors that are responsible for attrition processes, such as L1 use and exposure, input and intergenerational transmission. The chapter also discusses the term “incomplete acquisition” and focusses on bilingual experience and different heritage language constellations. The second part of the chapter offers a novel approach to language contact based on cognitive grammar and usage-based assumptions. This includes a lexicon-syntax continuum based on different cognitive schemas that affect transfer processes. After defining the theoretical basis, the chapter proposes a typology of transference based on this model, distinguishing between full transference (form and meaning transference), meaning transference and structural transference. Further discussion is dedicated to reduction and restructuring processes that occur independently from the typological closeness of or distance from the contact language. The final section describes the consequences of the aforementioned phenomena for heritage language research focusing on the interdependence of individual and societal language change.