Currently, Brazil adopts a bilingual policy, having Portuguese and LIBRAS
(Brazilian Sign Language) as official languages. In addition to these, several other
immigration and indigenous languages are used by Brazilians, which are considered
minority. In the city of Nova Petrópolis, it is common to find speakers of the German
variety Hunsrückisch, which has been preserved in the city since the arrival of
German immigrants. With this in mind, this research seeks to analyze aspects about
the use and maintenance of Hunsrückisch in 4 generations of the same neo petropolitan family. The aim of the research is to identify the experiences that these
speakers have with the German variety and with Portuguese, understand how they
interact with both languages and identify factors about the bilingualism of these
members. Researchers and authors in the field, such as Baker (2001), Harding-Esch
and Riley (2003), King and Mackey (2007), Mané (2012), Myers-Scotton (2006),
among others, served as the basis of the research. The results of the analysis
showed that in this family the use of Hunsrückisch decreased from generation to
generation, keeping the language active only until the third generation. Furthermore,
according to the results and also according to the participants' understandings, the
future of the German variety is uncertain in this family, as well as in the city of Nova
Petrópolis.
