LL-L "Language use" 2008.06.12 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 12 June 2008 - Volume 06
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From: Travis Bemann <tabemann at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language use" 2008.06.12 (04) [E]

> From: Jorge Potter <jorgepot at gmail.com>
> Subject: LL-L "Language use" 2008.06.10 (02) [E]
>
>> Dear Travis and rest,
>
> You mentioned:
>
>>  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.
>
> When I went to work in Neenah WI as a physician in 1964, I had a patient
> with a very definite European accent consult me. I asked him, "Where were
> you born?"
>
> He answered, "Denmark."
>
> As I tried to compute his medical problem, unconsciously I was off on his
> ethnicity. It definitely wasn't Danish. His was a German accent. Eureka!
> (remember, still unconscious) He was born in Denmark, Wisconsin, where
most
> people still spoke German.
>
> QED

One should remember here that the language loss which I described
occurred the very latest in rural northern Wisconsin, so it is not
surprising if there were people still around actively speaking German
in Denmark, WI in the 1960s. (As opposed to here in southeastern
Wisconsin, where German was already well on its way to local
extinction, with very many people in my grandparents' generation
already having become English-monolingual.) Mind you though that there
was also significant settlement by North Germanic-speakers in parts of
Wisconsin, particularly Norwegians, but also including Danes, Swedes,
and Icelanders, and considering the name of the town in question it is
not inconceivable that it had been at least originally settled by
North Germanic-speakers.

Also, accent does not indicate such in and of itself; for instance,
the English spoken here has phonetic signs of German influence even
today, such as limited final fortition in less GA-like idiolects and
the particular realization of rounded back vowels, despite German
being practically extinct here (aside from the occasional very old
person, of which there are fewer than even older people speaking
Polish). Hell, I myself have been told that I have a foreign accent,
and I am for all practical intents and purposes English-monolingual
(despite being able to read and write German when I have sufficient
access to a good dictionary).

•

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