German dialect in Texas is one of a kind, and dying out

I found this pretty interesting. Some 60 year olds (5th/6th gen Germans) in Texas still speak German, and their parents and grandparents only used to speak German.

Were it not for WW2, it would be a lot more common than it is.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22490560

Interesting 3-4 minute video clip in link above, with some examples of the unique but highly varied Texas German dialect.

Texas German Dialect Project has a lot more info, with several video and audio clips: http://www.tgdp.org

Germans form the biggest ancestry group in the US... I thought it would be the English.

5/20/2013 4:21:08 AM

I thought the bbc was better than this

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

5/20/2013 5:10:24 AM

oh no, dying out !?!?!

I understand wanting to "save" languages from dying, but I don't get the care for some random dialect that's a result of sizeable immigration to a small enough area to form a true dialect. Every language continues to evolve as populations mix.

NPR just had a segment on how Raleigh is losing it's southern accent. Big deal.

[Edited on May 20, 2013 at 9:19 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on May 20, 2013 at 9:19 AM. Reason : not to say it isn't interesting; I find language very interesting.]

5/20/2013 9:18:01 AM

i wish that weird accent that some of you eastern/coastal NC people have would die out.

5/20/2013 9:24:48 AM

hoi toid?

5/20/2013 9:27:38 AM

yes. people that speak like that should be rounded up and put in internment camps.

5/20/2013 9:32:33 AM

5/20/2013 9:33:15 AM

YOU'RE ONE OF THEM AREN'T YOU?!?!?

IT'S HOI TOID YOU BETTER GO CATCH SOME FEESH

5/20/2013 9:37:41 AM

you realize that dialects, accents, and brogues aren't spoken by choice, right?

and no, I am not from those areas of the state which speak in this brogue.

5/20/2013 9:40:25 AM

No i did not realize that. Thank you for broadening my knowledge of spoken language.

5/20/2013 11:15:50 AM

it is a choice

you can get rid of it if you try

just like gayness

5/20/2013 12:25:41 PM

everyone should think, look, act, and talk the same. the right way.

5/20/2013 12:30:23 PM

^^Or being black.

[Edited on May 20, 2013 at 12:32 PM. Reason : carrots]

5/20/2013 12:32:03 PM

Like our president! He can swap between any of those things at the drop of the hat. He's a damn genius

5/20/2013 12:38:03 PM

texas german is a pretty big deal around here (in Texas). There is actually a lot of German influence in this region that people are not aware of.

5/20/2013 1:09:53 PM

^ that's exactly what i got out of that clip in the article and was hoping the discussion here would be about. instead it has been co-opted by the usual childish, tired, tiring, and not funny back and forths.

5/20/2013 2:46:35 PM

there are lots of german baptists where i live.

there are way too many different sects/groups of them to talk about. they have split so many times it's not even funny.

also they don't speak german.

5/20/2013 2:53:40 PM

the toid is so hoi dat de shahks be eatin mah taters

5/20/2013 3:24:13 PM

I will back up BanjoMan. My family has been living in Boerne, one of the Texas German towns founded in the early 1850s. A large contingent of the Texas Germans who settled in the area (mostly the Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio and west of Austin) were actually revolutionaries from the failed 1848 revolutions. Hence they were soon to be one of the anti-slavery and pro-Union pockets of Texas during the Civil War.
President Johnson came from the same area (Stonewall, on the road between Fredericksburg and Austin) and many of his grade school classes were taught in Texas German.

5/20/2013 5:52:28 PM