37.2683, Reviews: German as a Heritage Language: Claudia Maria Riehl (2026)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2683. Mon Aug 17 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2683, Reviews: German as a Heritage Language: Claudia Maria Riehl (2026)

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Date: 17-Aug-2026
From: Pierre-Yves Modicom [pymodicom.ling at yahoo.fr]
Subject: Claudia Maria Riehl (2026)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/37-1136

Title: German as a Heritage Language
Subtitle: Contact, Variation and Maintenance
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Cambridge University Press
           http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics
Book URL:
https://www.cambridge.org/ch/universitypress/subjects/languages-linguistics/european-language-and-linguistics/german-heritage-language-contact-variation-and-maintenance?format=HB&isbn=9781009590471

Author(s): Claudia Maria Riehl

Reviewer: Pierre-Yves Modicom

SUMMARY
In the short introduction to the volume (pp.1–6), the author situates
her monograph within the broader body of research on heritage
languages in general, and German(ic) heritage varieties in particular.
The introduction is followed by three substantial chapters setting the
framework for the study. Chapter 1 (pp. 7–37) is an overview of “The
German language worldwide”, subtitled “History of migration”. It
presents the range of varieties of the German language, from dialects
within Germany itself to the different types of German that became
scattered throughout the world in the wake of migration and border
change. The chapter aptly depicts the problems raised by the very
notion of “German” when applied to varieties spoken in ancient
language islands (e.g., in Northern Italy), to the languages of border
communities and historical minorities (e.g., in Eastern France), and
to settlements with very different historical and geographical
backgrounds ranging from Pennsylvania German to small communities that
were set up by German immigrants in the 20th century.
This wide range of situations is at the heart of chapter 2 (“Types of
heritage language varieties and research design”, pp. 38–67), where
the author proposes a typology under which “heritage varieties” in the
narrow sense apply to (i) the language spoken by German immigrants
from after the Second World War, and (ii) to German-speaking enclaves
in Eastern Europe and Russia as well as oversea settlements which
maintain an identity as “German”. The constellation in (ii) is the
main target of the monograph, where it is exemplified by a “core
corpus” of authentic data from Brazil (Blumenau German), Australia
(Barossa German) and Russia (Volga German). The first two cases
correspond to geographically limited, consistent settlements; Volga
German displays a much higher degree of inner variety, due to the
complex history of Germans in Russia and the final disintegration of
Volga German communities in the late 20th century.
The final chapter before the concrete examination of language patterns
is a general overview of “language contact and language attrition in
minority and migrant settings” (Chapter 3, pp. 68–92). Drawing on a
careful review of existing literature, the author examines the
question of maintenance and attrition in heritage communities,
insisting on the role of various factors (age at time of emigration,
exposure to the heritage variety, active bilingualism, etc.) in order
to make a distinction between “canonical attriters”, “heritage
speakers in migrant settings” and “heritage speakers in island
settings” (p. 75).
Chapter 4, “Transference within lexical-based constructions” (pp.
93–128) deals with phenomena that were long grouped under the label
“lexical borrowing”. Using advances from Cognitive Grammar, the author
makes the case for the use of the label “transference” rather than
“borrowing”. She presents instances of transference of pragmatic
behaviour; of meaning; of form, and pays specific attention to the
transfer of meaning to cognates.
The fifth chapter (“Grammatical changes: Developments in case
morphology”, pp. 129–165) is the first to concentrate on data from the
“core corpus” of the monograph. The author focuses on the reduction of
case marking, under special consideration of dative assignment. While
Barossa German shows signs of an emergent general oblique system,
Blumenau German only displays partial convergence between accusative
and dative, the Volga German mostly retains the distinction between
the two oblique cases. All varieties exhibit a high degree of
variation, both from the constructional point of view and between
individual speakers, with Volga German offering the most diverse
picture.
After this discussion of lexical issues, the author turns to
“Grammatical changes” in the next two chapters. Chapter 6 (pp.
166–193) is devoted “Word order patterns”, and more specifically the
“brace structure” (or “verbal bracket”) of German, i.e. the bracketing
of the verbal clause by the two structural positions of the verb
(verb-second for the finite form and verb-last for the non-finite form
in matrix clauses; verb-last for subordinate clauses with an initial
complementizer). Riehl shows that, contrary to frequent assumptions
and in spite of individual idiosyncrasies, the brace structure is
generally preserved in all three varieties, although brackets
involving the passive auxiliary or periphrastic tenses seem to be less
resistant than other verbal brace constructions. Extraposition is
restricted to heavy nominal and prepositional phrases.
Chapter 7 (“Restructuring and emerging constructions”, pp. 194–230)
broadens the scope of the several phenomena surrounding the
morphosyntax of the German verb. First, Riehl investigates the
periphrasis “tun” (“do”) + infinitive to mark imperfectivity, which
appears to have developed strongly in Barossa German, where it has
acquired the capacity to occur in the past and not only in the
present.
She then turns to the topicalization of infinitives, with findings
consistent with previous studies on Texas German. Several heritage
varieties seem to have independently developed an additional usage of
this pattern as a syntactic filling strategy in contexts marked by
hesitations. Another imperfective construction attested in some
dialects of German and in heritage varieties is the progressive
periphrases “sein am” + infinitive (“be at + V”), which Riehl
discusses using comparative data from Pennsylvania German, Namibian
German and Hunsrik (Southern Brazil). The final construction under
consideration is the rise of a “possessive s” comparable to the
corresponding construction in English and replacing the genitive-s of
other German varieties. Comparing Springbok German, Namibia German and
Barossa German, Riehl shows the existence of strong lexical
preferences for inalienable possession with kinkship terms as
possessors in Barossa German.
The final chapter devoted to language phenomena is chapter 8 (pp.
231–272). Under the title “Pragmatic developments: Discourse marking”,
Riehl distinguishes between three types of markers:
dialogue-controlling markers, content-related markers, and modal
particles. She demonstrates the existence of a bilingual repertoire of
dialogue-controlling markers in the three varieties of the core corpus
and underlines the role of markers that happen to be phonologically
similar to other markers from the contact language. Modal particles,
on the other end of the spectrum, do not disappear, but their
frequency is reduced and their range restricted to a small set of
items.
The study is wrapped up by a chapter on “Socio-psychological factors:
Language awareness and Language attitudes” (chapter 9, pp. 273–296).
Here, Riehl discusses the role of language attitudes, language
ideology, as well as affective and cognitive values attached to the
heritage variety. Chapter 10 (pp. 297–317) is a conclusion and summary
of the monograph.
EVALUATION
The first and foremost strength of this volume is to present the
reader with an impressive set of data from a wide range of varieties
of Heritage German. Riehl successfully brought together findings from
previous literature, authentic examples from pre-existing corpora, and
original data from her field work. Chapter 2 includes a meticulous
presentation of the work she completed with her informants, and of the
rationale behind each type of task. The rigorous, well-argumented
typology of varieties at the heart of Chapter 2 is especially
convincing.
Thanks to this general framework, it is possible to appreciate the
value of the “core corpus” not only on the basis of the very rich data
it contains, but also for its prototypical relevance. The combination
of various kinds of data and the comparison with varieties studied by
other scholars makes this monograph an immediate standard for anyone
interested in the field.
As Riehl rightly points out, some varieties raise specific questions
and do not entirely fit in her typology. For instance, it is not
obvious whether Alsatian, as an Upper German regiolect whose territory
is adjacent to Germany but marked by a very strong local identity, can
be dubbed a German heritage variety, even though it displays some
features of other dialects included in the label “heritage German”.
But the proposed typology is not rigid and offers many possibilities
for differentiated approaches. It also offers a valuable blueprint for
other studies on heritage languages and migrant varieties.
Other aspects of the monograph deserve praise. Chapter 1 is an
excellent introduction to diatopic variation in German within and
outside Germany. The examination of verbal periphrases with tun or am
is also very insightful and illustrates the value of a
micro-comparative approach to such phenomena, which have intrigued
Germanists for decades.
Here and there, one may have wished that the focus be laid on other
aspects; for instance, in the chapter on discourse markers and
particles, the fact that modal particle schon (“already”) was not
included in the sample of items under consideration forcibly biases
the analysis towards cognate and/or homophonous markers, at the
expense of meaning transference (in that case: between “schon” and
other “already” markers or “iamitives”). The analysis of the bracket
structure of the clause could have investigated the functional range
of items in the preverbal slot as well as the existence of violations
of the verb-second rule, which is argued to be less rigid in some
contact varieties of German (and other Germanic languages, see the
literature overview in Harchaoui & Modicom 2025). But overall, these
are only minor reservations, and one cannot help but pay tribute to
the vast amount of data and the analytical robustness offered to the
community in this impressive monograph.
REFERENCES
Sarah Harchaoui & Pierre-Yves Modicom. 2025. Introduction: Verb-third
phenomena in Germanic verb-second languages. In Sarah Harchaoui &
Pierre-Yves Modicom (eds.), Verb-third phenomena in Germanic
verb-second languages: Historical and variational perspectives, 3–21.
Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17077182
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Pierre-Yves Modicom (ORCID 0000-0002-9457-2442) is a professor of
Germanic Linguistics at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 (France). His
scholarly interests concentrate on discourse marking, the
socio-history of German, and microtypological approaches to Germanic
languages and varieties.



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