German in the United States

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This article is about the German language as spoken in the United States. For German people in the United States, see German American.
German language spread in the United States.
German language spread in the United States.

Before World War I, more than 6% of American schoolchildren received their primary education only in German. Furthermore, as of the 2000 census, more than 65 million Americans claim they have German ancestors, the largest reported ethnic group. Only 1.5 million, however, speak the language at the present time. Today, German is the second most spoken language in two states: North Dakota and South Dakota. As a taught foreign language, in terms of the number of colleges and universities offering German-language instruction in modern America, German is third in popularity after Spanish and French.[1]

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[edit] Pennsylvania Dutch

The Amish and other Pennsylvania Germans speak a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania German (also called Pennsylvania Dutch, where Dutch is a corruption of Deutsch), a remnant of what was once a much larger German-speaking area in eastern Pennsylvania. This name is misleading as relatively few of the "Pennsylvania Dutch" originate from the Netherlands; most originate from Switzerland, Alsace-Lorraine (in present-day France, though part of Germany at varying times in history) or the Rhineland-Palatinate area of modern Germany.

[edit] Indiana

There is also a significant population of Amish and Old Order Mennonites located in rural areas of Elkhart County and LaGrange County, Indiana, who speak a similar dialect. Many English words have become mixed with this dialect and it is quite different from High German (Hochdeutsch), but quite similar to the dialect of the Palatinate (Palatinate (region) and Electoral Palatinate).

Usually, Pennsylvania Dutch (often just "Dutch" or "Deitsch") is spoken at home but English is used when interacting with the general population. The Amish and Old Order Mennonites of northern Indiana often differentiate between themselves and the general population by referring to them, respectively, as the "Amish" and the "English", noting the difference in language. Pennsylvania "Dutch" is sometimes used in worship services, though this is more common among the Amish than the Mennonites. More mainstream (city) Mennonites may have a working knowledge of the language, but it is not frequently used in conversation or in worship services.

A much smaller community of Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking Amish is found in Parke County, in western Indiana.

[edit] Texas

There is a dying dialect called Texas German based in the Texas Hill Country in the vicinity of the town of Fredericksburg. Apart from the Texas Hill Country, Austin County has historically been home to a sizable community of German Texans including notable individuals like Alfred C. Finn and Paul Machemehl.

[edit] Hutterites

Hutterite communities in the United States and Canada speak Hutterite German, an Austro-Bavarian dialect. Hutterite is spoken in the US states of Washington, Montana, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

[edit] German the official US language?

An urban legend, sometimes called the Muhlenberg legend after Frederick Muhlenberg, states that English only narrowly defeated German as the U.S. official language. In reality, the proposal being referenced was only to have government documents translated into German as a secondary language. The United States has no statutory official language; English has been used as a de facto basis, owing to its status as the country's predominant language.

Pennsylvania state documents were available in German until 1950, the state itself had a large German-speaking presence due to its large German-American population. But in the 20th century as a result of anti-German sentiment during World War I, the fluency decreased from one generation to the next and only a small fraction of Pennsylvanians of German descent are fluent in the German language.

[edit] German place names

[edit] See also

[edit] Media

[edit] References

  1. ^ Modern Language Association, 2007-11-13, New MLA Survey Shows Significant Increases in Foreign Language Study at U.S. Colleges and Universities. Retrieved 2008-05-16.

[edit] Further reading

  • Kloss, Heinz [1977] (1998). The American Bilingual Tradition, reprint, McHenry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems. ISBN 1-887744-02-9. 

[edit] External links

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