Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: German Language Persistence in Texas and MissouriTexas stands apart in the degree to which the German language has persisted across the generations, more strongly than in any other state, except with groups such as the Pennsylvania "Dutch," where it was reinforced and sheltered by separatist religion.1 In the 1940 U.S. Census, the first to tally mother tongue of the whole population and not just the immigrant generation, Texas was the only state where German speakers of the third generation (with no immigrants closer than their grandparents) outnumbered German speakers of the second generation (American-born children of immigrants).2 In order to identify the factors that promoted this heritage language preservation, Texas Germans will be compared with Germans of my native Missouri, taking advantage of my familiarity with various communities in the two states.3 This is primarily an essay in the social history of ethnicity and language, but linguists have made significant contributions on the subject of heritage language persistence and factors influencing the transition to the majority language.4 However, the phonological or morphosyntactic developments taking place on the threshold to "language death" are of no concern here.5 Rather, the prime concern is the degree of heritage language persistence relative to the size of the ethnic population of potential speakers, and whether or where the three-generation model of linguistic assimilation is confirmed or contradicted.6 One question regarding the transition to English by Texans or Missourians of German heritage is "were they pushed or did they jump (voluntarily)?"Or to put it another way, was Henry Ford's Model T or Kaiser Wilhelm (i.e., the repercussions of World War I) more responsible for the decline of German.7 Although evidence of wartime repression is not hard to find, its role can be easily exaggerated, especially in communities with a large German-
Author: Walter D. Kamphoefner
Institution: Texas A&M University
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4292830204