A Texas professor is scrambling to preserve a unique dialect he calls 'Texas German' which began wit
HEADLINE: Rush to save Texas dialect
Slug: Texas German
CAPTION: A Texas professor is scrambling to preserve a unique dialect he calls 'Texas German' which began with settlers coming to Central Texas in the 1840s, but it is dying out with those pioneers. (may 12)
[Notes:ANCHOR VOICE]
(vo)
EVEN IF YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO TEXAS HILL COUNTRY THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU'D EXPECT TO SEE, LARGE RANCHES, AND LARGER CATTLE..
(NATS)-GERMAN MUSIC-OVER PICTURES OF GERMAN LOOKING THINGS IN SMALL TOWN, RESTAURANTS, OVERPASSES, SIGNS..
BUT THIS, YOU MIGHT NOT BE PREPARED FOR- A LARGE PORTION OF THE HILL COUNTRY IS POPULATED BY GERMANS. FROM NEW BRAUNFELS, TO FREILSBURG TO BERLIN- THE TOWNS ARE STILL A DISTINCT MIXTURE OF TEXAS AND GERMAN..
(NATS)-PEOPLE SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN TONGUE..
AND BELIEVE IT OR NOT SO IS THE LANGUAGE STILL SPOKEN IN THESE PARTS…
(SOT)
WE WOULD SAY STINKCAT FOR SKUNK…
(VO)
BILL AND DIANE MOLTZ SPEAK TEXAS GERMAN, A BLEND OF SEVERAL GERMAN DIALECTS WITH ENGLISH.. AT IT'S HEIGHT MORE THAN 100,000 PEOPLE SPOKE TEXAS GERMAN BUT NOW.. THE MOLTZ ARE AMONG THE LAST..
(SOT)Bill Moltz/Texas German Speaker
When the war came you wernt able to speak german in public anymore…
(sot) hans boas/linguist
Right now rthere are about 6,000 languages in the world, of those only 3000 will survive by the end of the century, so there's a massive language death going on right now..
(vo)
UNIVERISTY OF TEXAS PROFESSOR HANS BOAS IS NOW WORKING TO DOCUMENT TEXAS GERMAN BEFORE IT BECOMES A DEAD LANGUAGE…
(SOT)
It's very uniqe, imagine you take people from ny, florida, you come back 150 years later the outcome is a completely new dialect
(SOT)
We for example will say luftship-airship for airplane, they will say flusoy-
(SU)
AND OF COURSE THERE WERE NO COWBOYS ROAMING GERMANY IN THE 1840'S THUS THE TEXAS GERMAN WORD-DER COWBOY..
(NATS) TALKING IN TEXAS GERMAN
(VO)
PROFESSOR BOAS FIGURES WITH MOST OF THE REMAING SPEAKERS IN THEIR 60'S, 70'S AND 80'S.. HE ONLY HAS ABOUT 20-30 YEARS LEFT TO STUDY THE LANGUAGE… RICH MATTHEWS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW BRAUINFELS TEXAS..
___ ___, The Associated Press.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive:
American Cuisine and Country Restaurant
Once again you can join us for lunch at a typical country restaurant for good old American cuisine. REAL United States Facebook Page: REAL United States on Google+
REAL United States on Twitter: REAL United States on Instagram: REAL United States on Beme:
Alpine Village: A piece of Germany brought to unincorporated Los Angeles County by Germans.
I took a walk in Alpine Village, a village established in 1968 by two German men who moved to Los Angeles. The village is about all things German. It's also the site of one of the biggest Oktoberfest celebrations in Southern California.
German language in the United States | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
German language in the United States
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Over 50 million Americans claim German ancestry, which makes them the largest single ethnic group in the United States. Around 1.06 million people in the United States speak the German language. It is the second most spoken language in North Dakota. In 16 states, it is the most spoken language other than English and Spanish.