São João do Oeste

German as a regional language

The vast majority of the population inhabiting this wester region of the state of Santa Catarina is bilingual, speaking both the Riograndenser Hunsrückisch German dialekt as well as the Portuguese, the national language. The vast majority of Riograndenser Hunsrückisch speakers, an estimated three to four million, reside and have historically lived in the neighboring state of Rio Grande do Sul. There are other varieties of the Hunsrückisch dialect that are spoken elsewhere in the state of Santa Catarina by much smaller populations; please see Antônio Carlos (Santa Catarina), a municipality where Hunsrückisch is a co-official language.