AP News, May 12th, 2007
When Hans Boas came to the University of Texas from California in 2001 to teach German, he stopped in the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg, which embraces its German roots with a robust Oktoberfest and German-themed restaurants and shops.
While eating "der Hamburger" at lunch, Boas overheard an "interesting sounding German" _ one that sounded a bit odd to him as a native speaker of the language. It was sprinkled with English words and phrases pronounced with a German accent, and some phrases that sounded German but weren't quite right.
What he heard was "Texas German," a unique dialect that developed as German settlers came to central Texas in the 1840s. But the people who speak it are dying, so Boas is working to document the dialect before it's too late.
"Once it's gone it's gone," he said. "If you're an archaeologist it's still possible to dig up some dead bones that were there ... but when a speaker is dead, the language is dead."
Texas German is a hybrid, mostly German but altered by English, particularly words and phrases to describe new technology or uniquely American things.
Airplane is "das Luftschiff" or airboat in Texas, while in Germany it's "das Flugzeug" _ the flying thing. Skunk is "die Stinkkatze" or stinking cat in Texas, while European German speakers say "das Stinktier" or stinking animal.
Other English words are simply said with a German accent. Creek becomes "die Creek," pronounced "crik" in Texas German. The cowboy is "der Cowboy."
No substantial research had been done on the dialect for nearly four decades when Boas set out to document it. He founded the Texas German Dialect Project in September 2001 and it has since interviewed more than 200 speakers.
"The youngest person that we've had so far is 47, but he's the absolute exception. ... The majority of them are 65 and older," he said.
Warren Hahn, of the Hill Country town of Doss, is 72. Hahn learned Texas German from his parents but didn't pass it along to his own offspring. He rarely speaks Texas German at all anymore and doesn't much lament its disappearance.
"It is sad in a way but we're Americans first. We're just of German heritage," said Hahn, whose great grandfather immigrated to the U.S. in 1850. "I'm glad in a way that we were allowed to learn English because if we hadn't we'd still be talking German and we'd be misfits. We wouldn't fit in."
At its height, as many as 100,000 people spoke Texas German, Boas said. It was passed on to fewer and fewer people after World War I, when speaking German fell out of favor.
Spoken, Texas German sounds a lot like modern German. Boas said a German speaker could understand 95 percent of what's said by a person speaking Texas German, and vice versa.
Bill and Diane Moltz grew up in New Braunfels, another Hill Country town that works to keep vestiges of its German past alive through annual events like Wassailfest and Wurstfest, known as "the 10-day Salute to Sausage." They said they spoke Texas German at home, and English in school, where they were prohibited from speaking German of any sort during and after World War II.
"It was still spoken privately in the homes," said Bill Moltz. "But English was pushed more. I suspect our generation as a generation of Texans is probably the last generation that's going to be speaking German."
Boas said he understands the conflicted relationship his subjects sometimes have with the dialect.
"The majority of people seem to be happy that they're Texas German. They identify themselves as primarily Texas German. ... They learned Texas German at home, they spoke it. But then they don't see it as a practical asset to pass it on to the younger generations," Boas said. "There's still that stigma that a lot of people feel still due to the wars that German is simply not cool."
Texas German Dialect Project: http://www.tgdp.org/
