Emil Schworer's Kolonial-Deutsch [1916]. Linguistic and Historical Remarks to a "Planned" Pidgin in the Colonial German of Southwest Africa

Kolonial-Deutsch, a proposal made during WWI for a German-based contact variety for colonial South-West Africa, is not only a historical footnote of colonial language politics but also an interesting example of an artificial language which seeks to imitate the simplification processes of natural contact varieties. This paper looks at the structural choices made in Schworer's Kolonial-Deutsch & discusses their possible influences (English-based pidgins, Bantu languages, foreigner talk). It also compares selected features of this artificial language with natural German-based contact varieties (Gastarbeiterdeutsch, Unserdeutsch, Kuchendeutsch) & discusses pidgins as models for artificial languages, especially in the context of the end-19th century profusion of their 'a posteriori' representatives. 16 References. Adapted from the source document