Texas German

Texas German (German: Texasdeutsch) is a group of German language dialects spoken by descendants of German immigrants who settled in Texas in the mid-19th century. These "German Texans" founded the towns of Bulverde, New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, Boerne, Pflugerville, Walburg, and Comfort in Texas Hill Country, Muenster in North Central Texas, and Schulenburg, Brenham and Weimar to the east.

Texas German
Texasdeutsch
Native toTexas
RegionTexas Hill Country
Native speakers
4,000–6,000, declining (2013)[1][2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
GlottologNone

History and documentation

While most heritage languages in the United States die out by the third generation, Texas German is unusual in that most German Texans continued to speak German in their homes and communities for several generations after settling in the state,[3] the State of Texas recognized German as having equal status to Spanish from 1846[4] up until World War I, when Texas education rules were established mandating English-only instruction, requiring children to learn English in school regardless of what was spoken outside it. Due to the assimilation of these communities and public hostility towards the German language during both World War I and World War II, Texas German speakers drifted towards English and few passed the language to their descendants.[5] By 1950, the number of new speakers of the language was virtually zero.[6]

The dialects are near extinction, as they are now spoken almost exclusively by a few elderly German Texans.

Currently, Dr. Hans Boas at the University of Texas is recording and studying the dialect,[7] building on research originally performed by Dr. Glenn Gilbert of Southern Illinois University Carbondale in the 1960s.

It's an odd mixture of English and 19th-century German," says Boas ... "Hardly any of the Texas Germans speak alike. There's a lot of variation in the dialect. Texas German borrows about 5 to 6 percent of its vocabulary from English, creating words like 'der hamburger' or 'der cowboy.'[8]

Boas' book on the language, The Life and Death of Texas German, describes the German dialects which may have been the source of the language spoken in Texas.[9]

A feature-length documentary project named "All Güt Things" is currently being developed about the language and will be completed by April 2017.[10]

Current distribution and population
Gillespie County

As of the U.S. 2000 Census, some 1,035 people report speaking German at home in Fredericksburg,[11] the town with the largest community of Texas German speakers, representing 12.48% of the total population, 840 in New Braunfels,[12] 150 in Schulenburg,[12] 85 in Stonewall,[13] 70 in Boerne,[12] 65 in Harper,[14] 45 in Comfort[15] and 19 in Weimar,[12] all of which except for Schulenburg and Weimar, lie in the traditional Texas German heartland of the Hill Country. Gillespie County, with the communities of Fredericksburg, Harper, Stonewall, and Luckenbach, has a German-speaking population of 2,270, 11.51% of the county's total. In all, 82,100 German-speakers reside in the state of Texas,[12] including European German speakers.

Comparisons with German and English

Texas German is adapted to U.S. measurement and legal terminologies. Standard American German words typically were invented, introduced from other German dialects of the region, or English loanwords were introduced for words not present in 19th-century German. Dialect leveling is also found throughout many of the American German dialects including Texas German.[16] In some cases, these new words also exist in modern Standard German, but with a different meaning. For instance, the word Luftschiff (used for "airplane") means airship in Standard German.

The table below illustrates some examples of differences:

American EnglishTexas GermanLiteral translationStandard GermanLiteral translation
skunkStinkkatzestink catStinktierstink animal
airplaneLuftschiffairshipFlugzeugflying stuff
blanketBlanketblanket (borrowing)Deckeblanket, cover
goneallempty; goneleer; Alleempty; used up
gollark: That stuff will probably break in 2038 anyway.
gollark: Soon: Elon Musk launches through-Earth neutrino beam connectivity to shave 5ms off latency between continents.
gollark: I would add another one, but it says "too many reactions".
gollark: What is this "MOT"?
gollark: ... is that an <:illum:531316942443642880> on there?

See also

References
  1. Vince, Katy (July 2013). "Auf Wiedersehen to a Dialect". Texas Monthly. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  2. Adam, Thomas (2005). Germany and the Americas. ABC-CLIO. p. 1031. ISBN 9781851096282.
  3. "Documentarians fight to preserve dying Texas-German dialect". The Daily Texan. 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  4. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6726/
  5. O'Connor, Kyrie (2013-03-10). "Texas German dying out: language of settlers aging with its users". San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  6. "Documentarians fight to preserve dying Texas-German dialect". The Daily Texan. 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  7. "German dialect in Texas is one of a kind, and dying out". BBC News. 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  8. "Vanishing Voices: Linguists work with remaining speakers of dying languages to preserve cultural memories". University of Texas at Austin. 2010-05-10. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
  9. Microsoft Word - Life and Death of Texas German review - Review of Life and Death of Texas German.pdf (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-12, retrieved 2013-06-02
  10. "Documentarians fight to preserve dying Texas-German dialect". The Daily Texan. 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  11. MLA Language Map Data Center results, Fredricksburg, Texas, all languages
  12. MLA Language Map Data Center results, Fredericksburg, Texas Archived 2013-08-15 at the Wayback Machine
  13. MLA Language Map Data Center results, Stonewall, Texas
  14. MLA Language Map Data Center results, Harper, Texas
  15. MLA Language Map Data Center results, Comfort, Texas
  16. "Texas German Dialect Project – Dedicated to the Preservation of Texas German". tgdp.org. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  • Boas, Hans C (2009). The Life and Death of Texas German. Publication of the American Dialect Society. Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822367161.
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