The main influences are Mapudungun and the Andalusian accent due to many early immigrants coming from that region. Neither German nor others were numerous enough to influence the Chilean dialect, especially in the capital (Germans and Croats mostly got lands in the south).
But cachái doesn't come from English-speaking immigrants. It's just one of the many English loanwords present in modern languages. And despite living in Valdivia –a city that once had street signs in German– I can't recall any other German loanwords aside from kuchen.
I was trying to say that loanwords are generally present in languages. Modern German itself has many weirdly used English words without any immigrants to bring them in the first place.
> Still influenced the dialect, didn’t it?
A few food names do not qualify as "influenced the dialect" for me. Mapudungun did influence the Chilean dialect, but German did not. I generally find the "German influence in the south" very exaggarated and a cover-up for the fact that the primary influences in the south have always come from Mapuche culture.
But there's a broad veneration of Germans and other Europeans, combined with a disdain towards indigenous peoples and their cultures, so the "German South" myth withstands, along with that one photo of Puerto Varas taken from the right angle to make it look like a German town.
> Modern German itself has many weirdly used English words without any immigrants to bring them in the first place.
This is correct. Case in point: Beamer.
> A few food names do not qualify as "influenced the dialect" for me.
For you. That doesn’t change the fact that the term has widespread use all over the national territory.
> Mapudungun did influence the Chilean dialect
If you want to stress the point, I’d additionally argue that a larger amount of indigenous-derived terms (including several words for vegetables) came from the Quechua. Although, according to your own set of criteria, a few food names would not qualify.
There are more Quechua words, but yes, a few food names are not "language influence" in any seruous way. French influenced English and Russian, Arabic influenced Spanish, but the only linguistic legacy of Germans in Chile are kuchen, strudel, and some weird last names used as street names.
