193:. By 1853, a third of Wisconsin's population was coming from German-speaking lands; by the end of the 19th century, Wisconsin's largest minority of non-English speakers were German speakers. Unlike other heritage languages, which tend to become moribund by the third generation, Wisconsin German speakers have maintained their heritage language(s) alongside English for multiple generations, from the 1840s to well until the mid-20th century. This is due in part to their immigration patterns: the German immigrants tended to settle within ethnically homogeneous (or similar) communities, with similar linguistic, cultural, and geographic backgrounds. Additionally, the maintenance of the language was supported by German being taught and used in many local churches, schools, and the press. While Wisconsin German retains many standard and/or dialectal features of German, it has not only incorporated some linguistic elements of English, but also developed unique and innovative (morphosyntactic, syntactic, lexical) characteristics of its own. By the early mid-20th century, social, political and economic factors such as urbanization and
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341:(Polinsky, 1995; Sorace 2004; Montreal 2008), yet speakers of Wisconsin German do not fit into either of those categories. Modern Wisconsin Heritage German speakers have grown up speaking German in the home, and often only learned English upon entering school, around the age of 6. This means that their German, including grammatical features such as dative, would have already been acquired, if it existed in the speakers' heritage language.
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For the early German settlers, German, not
English, was the predominant language used in schools in rural Wisconsin (Petty). Teachers were hired from Germany, German textbooks were at first imported, then later printed in the US. By 1854, the Wisconsin State Law declared that all major subjects were
205:
By the mid-19th century, many German immigrants had settled in
Wisconsin; by the latter half of the 1800s, German speakers had chosen Wisconsin over other American states as their destination. This was partly because of the state's resources, available land, and the entrepreneurship of land agents,
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with dialectal features, was used parallel to the community's dialect, such as in churches, and elementary and secondary schools; this meant that many
Wisconsinites were trilingual, speaking their heritage dialect, Wisconsin High German and English. The extended multilingual contact over multiple
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illustrates innovative case marking: instead of a dative neuter definite article ("dem"), a distinctly masculine accusative definite article has been selected. Heritage speakers could have selected a nominative ("das"), accusative ("das") or dative article ("dem"), but instead not only select an
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dialectal regions, a single case system. However, in
Wisconsin German, while heritage speakers appear to no longer show use of the dative case, they have developed new morphosyntactic features. Across different dialects, heritage speakers have begun marking case in same or similar ways: in some
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a neuter indefinite article has been selected; however it is unclear if it is in the nominative or accusative case. This is a departure from
Standard German, where a dative neuter article ("einem") would be used. This is an example of a restructuring of the DOM in Wisconsin German.
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to be taught in
English (Petty); however the state had little authority over local schools, which were locally governed and financed (Petty). Schools fully switched to English by the early 20th century, which partially contributed to the gradual decline of German heritage speakers.
349:
One difference between
Wisconsin Heritage German and Standard German and its ancestral dialects are changes in its case marking system, such as the loss of the dative case. In Germany, there exists variation among its different dialects: for instance, in the
1046:: transcripts and sound files of Wisconsin German interviews; site also includes autobiographical information about Lester "Smoky" Seifert, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor (1940s) and pioneer in conducting fieldwork on Wisconsin German languages.
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generations of
Wisconsin German heritage speakers, has resulted in the development of a language that not only contains features of their ancestral dialect, standard German and English, but also developed new linguistic features of its own.
1015:
Lucht, Felecia (2013). "Older
Immigrant Languages". In Purnell, Thomas; Raimy, Eric; Salmons, Joseph. Wisconsin Talk: Linguistic Diversity in the Badger State. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 26–36.
1058:: Scans of primary sources, such as German cookbooks, letters, newsletters printed in the US. Includes an interesting article (1891) "Die Schönheit der deutsch-amerikanischen Sprache". (Beauty of the German-American language)
1011:
Everest Levi, Kate (1898). "Geographical Origin of German
Immigration to Wisconsin". In Thwaites, Reuben Gold. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin XIV. Madison, WI: Democrat Printing Company.
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This pattern has appeared not only with a single group of heritage speakers, but rather can be found in speakers of different German dialects (such as the Rhenish Hesse, Eifel, and Low German dialects).
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The Acker- and Gartenbau Zeitung was a Milwaukee-based magazine for German speaking farmers in the US. The articles, as seen above, sometimes had their headings in English and content in German.
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The Wisconsin city of Freistadt, for example, was founded by 300 German Lutherans from Pomerania, who were escaping Prussian religious reform and persecution. They called their colony
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were important to the Freistadters: although the city was founded in 1839, there were still East Pomeranian speakers in Freistadt well into the end of the 20th century.
962:
Eisenbeiss, Sonja; Bartke, S.; Clahsen, H. (2009). "Structural and lexical case in child German: evidence from language-impaired and typically developing children".
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Graph charting the Immigration of Germans to the U.S. 1820-1918. Image Courtesy of Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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791:
Goss, Emily; Salmons, Joseph (2000). "The evolution of a Bilingual Discourse Marking System: Modal particles and English markers in German-American dialects".
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Bousquette, Joshua; Frey, Benjamin; Henry, Nick; NĂĽtzel, Daniel; Putnam, Michael (2013). "How deep is your syntax? Heritage language filler-gap dependencies".
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One of the first recordings of Wisconsin German dialects was made in the 1940s by Lester "Smoky" Seifert (1915–1996), a professor of German at the
1052:: A webpage of a prominent Wisconsin Pomeranian club. Includes brief history of the community and history of Pomeranians in Freistadt, Wisconsin.
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Petty, Antje (2013). "Immigrant Languages and Education: Wisconsin German Schools". In Purnell, Thomas; Raimy, Eric; Salmons, Joseph (eds.).
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to create a new semantic-morphosyntactic system. For example, Yager et al. (2015) cite the following examples to illustrate this phenomenon:
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speaker, recorded over 100 written interviews with Wisconsin German speakers, in which he included both linguistic and cultural questions.
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215:, or "free city", most likely to commemorate their newfound religious freedom in the Americas. Both their faith and maintenance of their
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region, one can still find a three-case marking system (nominative, accusative, dative); in the Eifel, a two-case system; and in the
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Yager, Lisa; Hellmold, Nora; Joo, Hyoun-A.; Putnam, Michael T.; Rossi, Eleonora; Stafford, Catherine; Salmons, Joseph (2015-01-01).
749:
Frey, Benjamin (2013). "Towards a General Theory of Language Shift: A Case Study in Wisconsin German and North Carolina Cherokee".
295:. Each group brought its own dialect, which it continued to use in the home, community and even in local Wisconsin businesses.
363:(DOM) would align with Standard German morphology; in other cases, speakers appear to have restructured and reanalysed the
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Eichoff, Jurgen (1971). The German Language in America: A Symposium. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 43–57.
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but also because these immigrants were seeking new economic opportunities, and religious or political freedom.
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Lucht, Felecia (2013). "Older Immigrant Languages". In Purnell, Thomas; Raimy, Eric; Salmons, Joseph (eds.).
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1064:: limited information, although includes several audio samples of East Pomeranian (Low German).
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The Wisconsin Office of Emigration 1852-1855 and Its Impact on German Immigration to the State
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Lewis, Brian A. (1973-01-01). "Swiss German in Wisconsin: The Impact of English".
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631:"New Structural Patterns in Moribund Grammar: Case Marking in Heritage German"
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875:. Vol. XIV. Madison, Wis.: Democrat Printing Company. pp. 341–393.
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1027:"Wisconsin High German". American Languages: Our Nations Many Voices Online.
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These German speakers were from many different regions and states, such as
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691:. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 26–36.
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shows that Wisconsin German still contains some instances of dative.
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Distribution of Germans in Wisconsin according to US Census 1890.
1005:. Madison: Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, 2006.
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Bungert, Heike, Cora Lee Kluge, and Robert C. Ostergren (eds.).
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1039:"American Languages: One Nation, many Voices. German Dialects"
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197:, contributed to a general shift from German to English.
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Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin
869:"Geographical Origin of German Immigration to Wisconsin"
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University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics
836:. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 43–57.
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American Languages: Our Nation's Many Voices Online
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425:Dative
412:Dative
291:, and
281:Saxony
170:Kölsch
84:German
980:S2CID
915:JSTOR
809:S2CID
507:Haus
496:Haus
452:Dorf
442:Dorf
429:tree
416:tree
401:Baum
391:Boom
300:koiné
285:Hesse
277:Baden
253:Posen
1018:ISBN
725:ISBN
693:ISBN
663:PMID
131:IETF
972:doi
907:doi
801:doi
653:PMC
643:doi
549:In
504:im
398:im
388:im
365:DOM
302:of
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