years of the history of any particular colony the original dialect
largely gave way to a modified form of High German, due primarily to the
normalizing influence of the German school and church. Such is the case
in the "Stadtplätze"[41] of Dona Francisca, Blumenau, Santa Cruz and São
Lourenço.

The preceding statements are intended to present, as it were, the
background or basis on which the new dialect was developed. We now come
to the most potent influence in the formation of that dialect. It is the
Brazilian Portuguese, a language which has no connection with the
Germanic group. In this point, therefore, our case differs radically
from that of the student of the German dialects which have been
developed in North America.

The degree of linguistic influence exerted by the Brazilian Portuguese
on the High German or its various dialects as spoken by the immigrants
varies again according to the relative isolation of the settlements. We
have degrees ranging from that of the old settlements in the Santo Amaro
district of São Paulo,[42] where the German language has practically in
its entirety given way to the Brazilian Portuguese, to that of some of
the sections of the "municipios"[43] of Blumenau in Santa Catharina and
São Leopoldo in Rio Grande do Sul where a modified German has not only
held its own among the inhabitants of German extraction, but has also
become the language of parts of the Luso-Brazilian[44] and negro
elements as well.[45] About half way between these two extremes we might
range the case of Petropolis in Rio de Janeiro.


BRAZILIAN GERMAN WORD FORMS.