Texas German

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Texas German is a dialect of the German language that is spoken by descendants of German immigrants who settled in the Texas Hill Country region in the mid-19th century. These immigrants founded the towns of New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, Boerne, Sisterdale, Schulenburg, Weimar, and Comfort. German immigrants began arriving over a period of two years, quickly raising the population of the town to over 1,000. Most German Texans continued to speak German in their homes and communities, but were required to learn English when Texas education rules mandated English-only instruction during and after World War I. Due to the growth of these communities and cultural bias during World War I and World War II, Texas German speakers drifted towards English, and few passed the language to their descendants.

The dialect is near extinction, as it is now only spoken by a few elderly German Texans. Currently, Dr. Hans Boas at the University of Texas is recording and studying the dialect, building on research originally performed by Glenn Gilbert in the 1960's.

Texas German is intelligible to anyone with an understanding of continental German, though it adapted to U.S. measurement and legal terminologies. German words were invented or English was "Germanicized" for words not present in 19th century German.

Refer to the table below for some examples of differences:

Texas German German English
Stinkkatze Stinktier skunk
Luftschiff Flugzeug airplane
County Grafschaft county
Scheriff Wachtmeister sheriff
Blanket Decke blanket

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