<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>Dr. Wright,</DIV>
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<DIV>Looks like it is in "American Speech"--another angle is to look at how long it takes to learn English from German or from a Spanish base. My own experience going the other way with both languages is that German, because of the inflections related to the three genders, takes 2x as long as Spanish.</DIV>
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<DIV>Carol<BR></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif">----- Original Message ----<BR>From: Wayne E. Wright <wayneewright@sbcglobal.net><BR>To: "lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu" <lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu><BR>Cc: lp <lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu><BR>Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 6:43:18 AM<BR>Subject: Re: Study debunks myth that early immigrants quickly learned English<BR><BR>
<DIV>Does anyone know where this research has been published?</DIV>
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<DIV>-Wayne<BR><BR>Sent from my iPod</DIV>
<DIV><BR>On Oct 25, 2008, at 3:54 PM, "Harold Schiffman" <<A href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</A>> wrote:<BR><BR></DIV>
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<DIV class=gmail_quote>Forwarded From: <A href="mailto:LINGANTH@listserv.linguistlist.org" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:LINGANTH@listserv.linguistlist.org"><A href="mailto:LINGANTH@listserv.linguistlist.org" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:LINGANTH@listserv.linguistlist.org">LINGANTH@listserv.linguistlist.org</A></A><BR><BR><BR>---------------------------<BR><BR>Study debunks myth that early immigrants quickly learned English<BR><BR><A href="http://www.madison.com/tct/news/310204" target=_blank rel=nofollow><A href="http://www.madison.com/tct/news/310204" target=_blank rel=nofollow>http://www.madison.com/tct/news/310204</A></A><BR><BR>The Capital Times — 10/18/2008 3:37 pm<BR><BR>Joseph Salmons has always been struck by a frequent argument in<BR>letters to the editor, national debates and in just plain old<BR>conversations:<BR><BR>"My great, great grandparents came to America and quickly learned<BR>English to
survive. Why can't today's immigrants do the same?"<BR><BR>With "English-only" movements cropping up and debate growing about how<BR>quickly new Spanish-speaking immigrants should learn English, the<BR>University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of German decided the issue<BR>was important enough to look more deeply into the past.<BR><BR>Salmons and recent UW-Madison German Ph.D. graduate Miranda Wilkerson<BR>delved into census data, newspapers, books, court records and other<BR>materials to help document the linguistic experience of German<BR>immigrants in Wisconsin from 1839 to the 1930s. Their paper appears in<BR>the current issue of the journal American Speech.<BR><BR>Focusing on German immigrants was a logical choice, Salmons said,<BR>since they represented the biggest immigration wave to Wisconsin in<BR>the mid-1800s, "and they really fit this classic view of the 'good old<BR>immigrants' of the 19th century."<BR><BR>What Salmons and Wilkerson found
was a remarkable reversal of<BR>conventional wisdom: Not only did many early immigrants not feel<BR>compelled out of practicality to learn English quickly upon arriving<BR>in America, they appeared to live and thrive for decades while<BR>speaking exclusively German.<BR><BR>In many of the original German settlements in the mid-1800s from<BR>southeastern Wisconsin to Lake Winnebago and the Fox Valley, the<BR>researchers found that German remained the primary language of<BR>commerce, education and religion well into the early 20th century.<BR>Some second- and even third-generation German immigrants who were born<BR>in Wisconsin still spoke only German as adults.<BR><BR>"These folks were committed Americans," said Salmons. "They<BR>participated in politics, in the economy, and were leaders in their<BR>churches and their schools. They just happened not to conduct much of<BR>their life in English."<BR><BR>One of the richest sources for the study came from the
1910 U.S.<BR>Census, which is digitized and available through the Wisconsin<BR>Historical Society. Wilkerson analyzed self-reports on the languages<BR>adults spoke in areas of heavy German settlement, which included nine<BR>townships in seven counties in southeastern and central Wisconsin.<BR><BR>Examples include Hustisford in Dodge County; Hamburg in Marathon<BR>County; Kiel in Manitowoc County; Germantown in Washington County; and<BR>Belgium in Ozaukee County.<BR><BR>The researchers found that in 1910, there were still robust<BR>populations of German-only speakers in those communities. The census<BR>identified 24 percent German-only speakers in Hustisford, 22 percent<BR>in Schleswig (Manitowoc County), 21 percent in Hamburg and 18 percent<BR>in Kiel.<BR><BR>These numbers did not only represent first-generation immigrants, but<BR>included many born in the United States. Of the self-reported<BR>German-only speakers in the census, 43 percent from
Germantown were<BR>born in the United States, followed by 36 percent in Schleswig, 35<BR>percent in Hustisford and 34 percent in Brothertown (Calumet County).<BR><BR>"What this means for the learning (or non-learning) of English here is<BR>telling: after 50 or more years of living in the United States, many<BR>speakers in some communities remained monolingual," the authors wrote.<BR>"This finding provides striking counterevidence to the claim that<BR>early immigrants learned English quickly."<BR><BR>Salmons pointed to other straightforward evidence of how viable the<BR>German language remained in Wisconsin. Through state history, there<BR>were more than 500 German-language newspapers published in Wisconsin.<BR>Those small-town papers often consolidated into larger-circulation<BR>papers in the 20th century and remained commercially available into<BR>the 1940s.<BR><BR>They also found, surprisingly, that people in contact with the Germans<BR>learned to
speak German as well. In Ozaukee County, for instance,<BR>there was evidence that Irish families who lived scattered among<BR>Germans could speak German.<BR><BR>Another finding was that German-only speakers found work as teachers,<BR>clergymen, merchants, blacksmiths, tailors and surveyors, in addition<BR>to farmers and laborers.<BR><BR>"The key issue seemed to be whether they had a big enough<BR>German-speaking community, where they had a critical mass for people<BR>to be comfortable being monolingual," Salmons said. "There was no huge<BR>pressure to change in those communities."<BR><BR>According to Salmons, the study suggests that conventional wisdom may<BR>actually have it backwards -- while early immigrants didn't<BR>necessarily need English to succeed and responded slowly, modern<BR>immigrants recognize it as a ticket to success and are learning<BR>English in faster than was done in the olden days.</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote><BR>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<BR><BR>Harold F. Schiffman<BR><BR>Professor Emeritus of <BR>Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <BR>Dept. of South Asia Studies <BR>University of Pennsylvania<BR>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<BR><BR>Phone: (215) 898-7475<BR>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <BR><BR>Email: <A href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com"><A href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</A></A><BR><A href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target=_blank rel=nofollow><A href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target=_blank rel=nofollow>http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</A></A>
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