LL-L "Language use" 2008.06.10 (02) [E]

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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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L O W L A N D S - L - 10 June 2008 - Volume 02
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From: Travis Bemann <tabemann at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language use" 2008.06.09 (02) [E]

One important note is that there are significantly differing degrees
of assimilation with respect to ethnic Germans in the US. On one
extreme there are cases like Pennsylvania and Texas Germans, who are
relatively unassimilated all things considered. On the other extreme
there is probably the vast majority of ethnic Germans in the US, who
are practically completely assimilated for whom the only signs of
being ethnically German are their last names. In the middle you have
cases like much of Wisconsin, where the population is largely
assimilated, where the only signs of the language(s) they spoke before
English are substratum features in their English, but where there is
still the retention of a distinct identity rather than being
completely assimilated into Anglo-American society.

Here at least, though, said identity is no longer really a
specifically ethnic identity as it was for past generations but rather
a regional identity. Younger people here are not Germans, Poles,
Norwegians, Irish, Italians, or like anymore; rather they are
Wisconsinites. Yet at the same time, there is a consciousness of
Wisconsin being a distinct society within North America, with its own
history and origins separate from general Anglo-American society. And
while personal ethnicity has been significantly downplayed amongst the
younger parts of the population, there is still an awareness of where
people here in general came from and of outside cultural influences at
a societal level here. Probably the best analogy I can think of such
is that, culturally, Wisconsinites today are to Germans what
Afrikaners are to the Dutch; Afrikaners themselves are quite
culturally distinct from the Dutch, and are of varied ethnic origins
which are not exclusively Dutch at all, yet at the same time
culturally the Dutch still had a distinct influence upon them as a
whole. Likewise, the culture here is very distinct from German
culture, and the population here today is of rather mixed origin
(despite having a large ethnic German element), yet at the same time
German culture has had a special position with regard to overall
outside influence on the culture here.

As for speaking a range of different dialects, at least here that was
a major part of the downfall of German here. The matter is that the
people who immigrated here, even if they all spoke "German", often
spoke such a range of different dialects that it turned out that it
was often more convenient for them to speak English with each other
than their own dialects. Of course, it is a short step from there to
simply speaking English all the time, which greatly contributed to the
overall speed of the loss of German here despite the great size of the
overall ethnic German population here.

•

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