Deutsch als Minderheitensprache

This contribution focusses on varieties of German which are spoken in extraterritorial German communities. Many of these groups go back to emigration in the Middle Ages or in Early Modern Times and have developed a specific koiné which is characterized by dialect merger and language contact with the surrounding languages. Another group are so-called "border minorities", extraterritorial communities that emerged after World War I and are bordering German-speaking countries. The article first provides a historical overview of the various German-speaking minorities. Then, the different sociolinguistic settings of the respective language communities are addressed and illustrated by examples of communities with a different sociolinguistic and linguistic background.