Abstract: This study analyses the role of Namdeutsch – a German-based non-standard variety spoken in Namibia which includes loanwords from Afrikaans, English and indigenous languages – in computer-mediated communication (cmc). Research on Namdeutsch has so far taken mainly the historical perspective, and data on contemporary Namdeutsch are still rare. The present article bridges this gap by analyzing a cmc-based corpus consisting of 33,000 running words. The data are taken from the online edition of the Allgemeine Zeitung, Namibia’s only daily newspaper published entirely in German. Stylistic features of Namdeutsch usage such as compounds, identifiers and pejoratives are documented, and metalinguistic statements by authors and readers of the newspaper are analysed. The data show that Namdeutsch fulfills a double function within Namibian cmc, serving both as an in-group identifier for Namibian(- German) culture and as a bridge to German-speaking communities in Europe.

Keywords: language contact – lexical borrowing – code-switching – language-crossing – Namibian German (Namdeutsch)