I live in Northwest Germany and most of them speak in a similar manner as people who grew up speaking the local dialects. e.g. pronouncing Tag as Tach, or gewohnt as gewount. A lot of people from north-west germany emigrated to the us so im not that surprised. Unfortunately the different dialects and languages in northern germany are dying because high german was seen as more benefitting for children and most of the media became high german.
@@inrising6658 So true, unlike to Bavarian, Lower German is a dying dialect. "Mien Gott he kann keen plattdütsch mehr", met gröten ut Ollnborg (Oldb.).
schriftdeutsch... Hochdeutsch ist sprachhistorisch betrachtet die Süddeutsche Dialektgruppe... dazu gibt es noch die Niederdeutsche Dialektgruppe die im Norden heimisch war.. was kein Dialekt ist Schriftdeutsch kein Hochdeutsch sonst würden die Schweizerdeutsch sprechen (kein scherz. Schweizerdeutsch ist dem ursprünglichen Hochdeutsch von allen Dialekten am nächsten)
What's weird is that even those that still regularly speak German, while having a pretty solid pronunciation, partially have an odd grammar which isn't really dialectal but rather sounds like an interference from English.
I couldnt find any peculiarities that I would conclusively say aren't dialectical. There are some where, due to pronouncistion, I am not sure which exact words are spoken ( "in uns im Haus gewohnt" or "in unserm Haus gewohnt" ?)
@@florianphilipps2370 "Großvater ist gekommen 1866", "meine Großeltern sind VON Deutschland gekommen" "Deutsch das hier gesprochen wird ist VON 18. Jahrhundert" "Bist du VON Deutschland?" I don't know any German dialect that uses "von" in those cases, that's a typical English construction.
@@angelsjoker8190 It reminds me of this one old Christmas poem ("Drauß vom Walde komm ich her..."), and I'm just guessing here but I would attribute those to the fact that these strands were seperated from the mainland Germans before unification and standardisation of the language. So there might be some substantial shifts that this form of German just didn't have and, also of course due to your point, it made shifts itself due to English influences. Which one is which I would withhold final jugdement on, I am not a linguist.
@@trollololololololo1173 nicht in Deutschland du vollidiot. In jedem anderen Land wirst du als deutscher nazi bezeichnet. Warum sollten wir uns selbst als nazis bezeichnen?
@@noizW “Maximilian I was an Austrian archduke who reigned as the only Emperor of the Second Mexican Empire from 10 April 1864 until his execution on 19 June 1867.” Wow. I guess if the French can love Jerry Lewis and the Turks can invent the croissant, anything’s possible in this crazy world.
Author Henry Miller wrote in his 1934 novel Tropic of Cancer, "I have often thought that the Germans make the best Americans, though they certainly make the worst Germans."
2:40 der Text stammt aus dem Volkslied "Morgen muss mein Schatz verreisen" das in den 1860ern als sie ausgewandert sind sehr bekannt war. Wahnsinn dass die das unter sich bis heute weitergegeben haben.
Huh. My ancestors on my dad's side of the family came here from Stuttgart in the 1800s. Wish they passed down their German, but it became kind of taboo for awhile so they stopped speaking it. A lot of my family didn't even know my Grandfather spoke fluent German until he got drunk at a party 😂
@@Lekirius Yes. maybe. I once heard they killed German Shepard dogs in Canada during 1.ww ... as they where - somehow- German, too! If you miss it - why don't you start to learn a little Deutsch. Check out reports of people who lived some time here from US in youtube. Could be easily enough for a visit and over here most to all speak a kind of English :-)
@@gregor-samsa I definitely still would have loved to learn it, just because rare dialects and endangered languages are kind of interesting to me despite not having any practical use. I'll definitely study German at some point, it's just a matter of finding the motivation to start studying again haha
@@gregor-samsa don't Talk rubbish. I'm Hessian and understand a lot. Most young people are just too lazy to bother themselfes with trying to get a grip on dialects. Or they'll be getting told that it is uncool to learn about their own culture...
This is very true. This was especially true in places like Texas, Pennsylvania and the cornbelt. A great whaccking bunch of Germans from the Volga region in Russia wound up in places like Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. If you go to Greenbay, you can’t go two steps without running into a Schmidt, Mueller, Weber or a Klein. Sometimes, they spell the names funny but, they are unmistakably German. Here in Texas, you find surnames like Laubach, Maurer and Hassenstab pretty common once you get down close to Austin and the Hill country. Their influence was pretty big. You can also see it in the food here in Texas. They invented chicken fried steak because they missed their schnitzel. Wonderful invention!
@@agomezjunco the ones that lived here had nothing to do with it. They were the unfortunate victims of a war crazed populace. Some of them had been here for 200 years before World War I was ever even a thing. We even had a very famous Texas German play a very key role in World War II in defeating Germany. You may have heard of him. His name was Dwight David Eisenhower.
I live in an area of Texas that was full of German settlers; damn near every school and many of the streets are named after them. There's even a museum nearby with their actual houses. Really cool to see that the German subsect of Texas culture is still alive
@@stevenhammerich6368 Ich weiß echt nicht, was du gerechnet hast, aber Texas hat eine Fläche von 695662 km² und Deutschland ist 357386 km² groß, also ist Texas ca. 1,95 mal so groß wie Deutschland, was ich schon als fast doppelt so groß bezeichnen würde.
The anti-German discrimination after WWII is the reason my mother and I don’t have our ancestral dialect as our first language. My family is from a Hessen majority community in Oklahoma which had their own dialect that is now virtually extinct, my Opa remembers a bit but he was scolded by his own parents for trying to speak German cause they feared he’d develop the accent and be attacked by Anglos at worst, or lose out on career opportunities at best. He eventually became an American army veteran, but he had to hide his ethnicity and pretend to be Dutch. After the war my family dropped the Von from their surname name and my great uncle Johannes quickly became Johnnie. Post war anti-German, anti-Italian, and anti-Japanese discrimination has really fucked up a lot of communities and our cultural identities. Many Germans moved out of the cities to avoid abuse, the Italian mob resurfaced to protect their communities from other Americans, and many Japanese moved out of the south back to Japanese majority areas in California. I live about an hour away from a neighborhood with gorgeous Alpine architecture, but the community is now all Hispanic and the name has been changed to a Spanish translation of what it was originally in German. The original inhabitants were run out by Anglos after the war and the banks assumed ownership of their properties and ending up selling them for cheap (cause no one wanted to live in the evil German houses) to a wave of poor Latin immigrants as a way of conveniently funneling them all into an area the Anglos didn’t have to interact with (aka redlining). I’m glad to see that communities like Arab Americans are still keeping their cultural identities strong despite them having been the target/scapegoat for hate and fear in recent decades. We have to stop this cycle of intimidation and assimilation into complete cultural eraser.
Before, that type of stuff only happened because of the general avoidance of taboo stuff. After all that hippie movement stuff, discrimination like that became the real taboo.
@@honkhonk8009 definitely. russians living in russia or abroad definitely don't face any prejudice from anyone due to the war. we're not that ignorant anymore.
@@-41337 Is that ironic? If not youre definitely not living in Europe where russians are now fearing to get purged. Russians are moving to Russia again because they fear discrimination and violence. Everyone who speaks russian here catches weird looks.
Is your family German nobility? "von" would usually indicate nobility (doesn't have to though) It's a pity that these dialects are dying out, especially as also the dialects in Germany are facing the same fate.
My grandmother lived in Weimar TX for years, and when she was getting to the end of her days she would tell me "Machen sie gut, Heinrich!"... Dad told us she thought i was her son at a younger age and was telling me to be good. She was 98; we used to marvel at the things she must have seen since 1899
Ich bin Deutsch-Amerikaner in der 5. Generation. Ich kann kein Deutsch, aber ich versuche zu lernen, dass viele meiner Familienmitglieder nach Texas gegangen sind, nachdem sie Pennsylvania verlassen haben. Es gibt eine lange Reihe von uns. Es freut mich sehr, dass es deutsche Rednecks auf der Welt gibt!
The Germans were good friends with the Tejano population, since they were both discriminated for being Catholics and not Anglo saxons. Many Germans even immigrated to Mexico.
They played a big part in Tejano music. Tejano music would never have been what it is today without the Germans. The polkas with the accordion were a massive influence. You can really hear it in the music of people like David Lee Garza. If you’ve never heard Tejano music, you’re missing out on something amazing.
@@peterlustig6888 I think you mean Tejano music. Not quite the same thing. But, yes, you are absolutely correct. 100%. Further south, the Austrians influenced actual Mexican music.Norteño in particular has very strong Austrian influences as do some of the mariachi waltzes.
I am an American from German heritage and I never knew about these German-Texans. Really interesting information! Thank you for uploading this video. God bless from an American with German blood.
Das fasziniert mich einfach so sehr, dass sich Deutsch dort einfach festgesetzt und sich auch individuell weiterentwickelt hat. Es ist einfach nur großartig dieses kurze Video zu sehen.
Guttentagen, I'm Mexican American born in Dallas. Being bilingual myself, I like hearing the German language being spoken by German Texans. I really also enjoy the German style foods that are in Fredericksburg, and New Braunfels. I hope to learn the German language someday.
@@couchcamperTM was laberst du haha op findet es einfach nur schade dass die Texas deutschen erzwungener Maßen ihre Kultur nicht mehr weitergeben durften.
This is so fascinating. I'm Texan and I never knew we still had communities like this. I knew that area had heavy German influence, but I didn't know they were still speaking the language. It doesn't really surprise me, though. I went to college in a Midwestern city that also had German influence, and they spoke German and printed the local newspaper in German up until WWII.
I'm English, but my mother is German, she did speak a lot to me in German when I was growing up, but not enough for me to really learn the language, but still it always surprises me how much I understand. That being said, English and German are very similar languages anyway, a lot of the words are very similar.
As a Jew it is a terrible, terrible shame that these poor people were terrorized out of not speaking their native tongue because of something they had zero involvement in. Niche languages are so beautiful and unique, but this dialect of German will probably not survive once this generation of speakers dies out. Thank you for documenting it.
Especially given in the last 50 years children are less and less likely to move back home after college. My sister, nor I moved back home. Both took jobs half way across the country. That would spread the language even further.
My great uncle Otto used his fluency in the German language to serve as a translator while he was in the U.S. Army during WWII. Once he came back, however, the world he left was changed and he no longer spoke German, even with his family.
Das erinnert mich sehr an die Albaner (wir nennen sie Arbëreshe), die vor über 500 Jahren von Albanien nach Süditalien vor der osmanischen Invasion geflüchtet sind und immer noch die albanische Sprache und Kultur beibehalten haben. Ich finde es faszinierend, wie ich Texas German besser verstehe, als einen Bayer 😅
The Amish and Mennonite communities in the US speak German as well. My grandmother was one and she used to teach me German growing up. Sadly I've forgotten most of it. Germans made up the majority of immigrants in the mid to late 1800s so you see a lot of German influence in the states. Especially in rural areas where traditions tend to live longer.
In meinem Dorf, in Argentinien, wird Deutsch meistens von den alten Leuten noch gesprochen, beide meine Großväter und meine Großmutter sprechen Deutsch als Muttersprache. Zum Besipiel mein Großvater hat mir erzählt dass in dem Haus seiner Mutter nur Deutsch gesprochen wurde, und wenn er Spanisch sprach dann wurde er gestraft. Sie sprechen häufig Hochdeutsch, aber mit einem Bißchen ihres Dialektes.
Man sieht das es deutsche sind. Ich lebe in Paraguay und sehe auch hier das ich unter den vor 100 Jahren eingewanderten Deutschen mit meinen 1,80 klein bin. Die altdeutschen sind stets recht große Leute ;D UND die können alle deutsch besser als ich castelano XD
Das ist Unsinn o.o ich bin deutscher und 1,65, meine Abstammung ist auch immer recht klein, 1,80 ist allgemein ne große Seltenheit, der schnitt ist so 1,70. Mein Opa war glaub nicht annähernd 1,80 oder so...
@@adrenaliner91 Nur weil du ein Zwerg bist ;D Auf dem Lande wo ich herkomme sind die einheimischen immer größer als ich gewesen, und zwar alle. Ich bin aber auch russisch-deutscher Abstammung. Die Germanenstämme waren bekannt für ihre großen und starken Menschen.
@@einmeister9087 das wär mir echt neu. Aber vielleicht sind wir Deutschen nur in Baden-Württemberg klein. Und das hier war früher auch mehr Land. Auch wenn die Bauernhöfe mittlerweile wohl kaum mehr existieren in dieser Stadt die mal n Dorf war.
@@adrenaliner91 Ich komme aus Niedersachsen aus der Nähe von Bremen. Aber ich bin auch ausgewandert und lebe jetzt in Südamerika. Und die Menonniten die ich bisher gesehen habe sind auch alle ziemlich "lang" .
Ähhm, die meisten von euch reden kein richtiges Deutsch und unterhalten sich fast nur auf türkisch, in türkischen Siedlungen mit türkischen Läden, zusätzlich seid ihr nicht seit ~1850 in DE sondern erst seit vlt 1960-1970 -> das isn kleiner Unterschied. Abgesehen davon ist türkisch halt...naja türkisch eben :D.
@@sarahvonnissen5733 ??? das heisst ja trotzdem dass sie fließend englisch sprechen konnten, sonst könnte man sie ja auch nicht dazu zwingen. mich könnte niemand zwingen chinesisch zu sprechen weil ich kein wort chinesisch kann
Including typical German "mistakes" like "während dem Krieg" instead of "während des Krieges". I half expected her to say "Kriech" because it would have fit the sound so well.
In 1979 a group of us went on a trip to the western United States. We stopped at a grocery store to get something to eat on the road. This was in New Braunfels, Texas. I remember the architecture of the downtown buildings looking somewhat like an Alpine village. Anyway, while checking out our purchases I heard two people speaking German. They were teenagers. I was pleasantly surprised as I figured even back then that only the old people spoke German. There was a lot of suppression back in the mid 20th century for children speaking foreign languages outside of home. In my home state of Louisiana Cajun children were punished at school if they spoke French. Same apparently in Texas with German. Much later people realized the folly of this and are trying to bring back the languages to those respective areas.
Stimmt. Deutschland ist Herkunftsland nunmer 1 was weiße Amerikaner angeht. Danach kommt Irland danach Großbritannien, danach glaube ich Italien und Polen, aber da bin ich mir nicht sehr sicher .
Ja verrückt, ich war vor 5 Jahren für 2 Jahre am College in Clarendon Texas und ich war verblüfft, weil ich da genau so eine Familie getroffen habe, die immer noch Deutsch gesprochen hat. Nicht weil die vor kurzem ausgewandert sind, sondern, weil die das Jahre lang so weiter geführt haben. Und Clarendon hatte nur 2000 Einwohner. Freut mich so ein Video zu sehen, da bekommt mal ein Lächeln auf dem Gesicht 😊
There are communities we're flatgerman is stil a thing. I remember they even had newspaper in flatgerman so they were up to date with what happened in Germany.
I’m from Germany and I know that some of my ancestors left Europe in the 1850s but they went to Colorado and not to Texas. btw I love the fact that people who have German origins keep their language alive outside of their home country, keep it up 🇩🇪❤️🔥
Man, I would have loved to see you head to Fredericksburg, I believe it was another almost entirely german-settled community, a small ways outside of Austin. A lot of people are surprised to learn that Texas has insulated communities like that - that's not to say that these communities don't interact outside of themselves, but rather it's just cool that these communities have been able to stay close-knit enough, so as not to lose their heritage. Awesome video!
Is German being taught in Texan schools or is it a "famous" subject in schools? Because when I was in America a while ago, I thought that this would be the case. I visited some High Schools, etc. and many students said, "that they love German(y)!", which I thought was very cool as a German native. ^^
@@qadan1 Thank you for your answer as well. That is soooo interesting! Because, as I said, I also had the impression that many American students like the German language or come in touch with it in HS or at University. 😃🤙🏻
I didn't even know my grandpa spoke German until very recently. They weren't allowed to speak it anymore after ww2, but he continued to speak to his grandparents in German
I was born in Germany to a German mother and a GI father. Spoke German before I spoke English. Now I work between Austin and Houston, not too far from Shelby. I interact with a lot of old Germans. These folks speak German better than most I’ve encountered.
This dialect must be derived from middle german, It is almost exactly the same with a few variations and some mixture of anglicisms. Extremely understandable as someone who speaks standard german, it is much easier to understand than Schwäbisch or Bayrisch
Yes. I was stationed in Der Pfalz and after some time there, I took a trip to Nurnburg and I couldn't understand a damn thing, and vice versa. I made out from someone that I had a thick Pfalzer accent. I was really amazed at how the brain just picks up accents without even knowing it.
The guy saying "A little bit" at 1:34 sounds really close to modern day Dutch. Lots of the others also pronounced some words in a way that sounded completely Dutch to me.
@@kuuhgle I’m sorry i meant location not time frame. I don’t know the exact dialect families but I looked it up and I meant Oberdeutsch. The way the R is pronounced as well as the U and G is very typical for both Swabian and Swiss dialects as well as some high German dialects like bavarian
My dad and his family spoke Texas German. He said some of the interesting differences are in idioms that developed alongside technological advances in the 19th century - the example I remember is Continental German says "mach das licht aus", while Texas German says "schneide das licht"
I heard that Germans were actually the biggest immigration group moving to America. More than Irish or Italians. So most Americans must have at least a bit of a german background.
No it will be majority English followed by Spanish, that is almost a guarantee. Germans are the most recent so they show up in the census like Italians, but that doesn’t mean the other 200 million odd Anglos just magically disappear, most just assume American = Anglo in the first place
Ich war 2018 in Florida und wurde dort auch auf deutsch angesprochen, sie meinten ich würde deutsch aussehen 😂 aber es hat sich ähnlich wie Texas German angehört
Deutsch ist in den USA, soweit ich weis,eine der Top 3 Fremdsprachen die an Schulen gelernt wird.Sofern nicht verwunderlich wenn man auch mal auf deutsch angesprochen wird.
God they are all so nice. I really really would have loved to see more of it and would have loved to HEAR more from them. I've been to Texas and the people there are all super super nice and friendly and also always happy to meet a German and they will tell you about their German roots.
My wife’s Grandma was born in the 1930’s in that area and learned German as her first language. She only learned English after German was shunned during the war.
What's interesting is that the Texas Germans also look very typically German. Many other groups like the amish have mixed heavily but these folk have been keeping a lot more to themselves it seems.
Here in southern Brazil there's still the exact same thing. Many German immigrants founded colonies here and the German language is still spoken by many
@@cevirthek262 Hmmm I didn't know that, though I know more than 200 German speakers from Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul; and obviously there are many more who I don't know, so it's quite possible that what you said is true
i worked in new braunfels area with a small fire dept, we had a older couple that would call 911 yelling fire fire fire, so we show up and they would be fine no fire but would have a huge meal prepared they spoke no english and we never understood why they did this, flash forward 25 years i asked my friend from germany about it he looked at me and said it was a slang term for party party party.
1:21 the guy on the left is using my go to trick for getting through a german conversation with my grandparents. The trick is to just say “genau” whenever they look to you to contribute to the conversation. Even if they ask a direct question just say genau and stare back at whoever you’re speaking to, its worked a thousand times for me
So ähnlich ist es auch in manchen Tellen Brasiliens. Meine Vorfahren sind irgendwann im 19. Jh. ausgewandert, und meine Mutter hat von ihrer Mutter Deutsch gelernt. Leider geht die Sprache immer mehr verloren und von meinen Cousins und Cousinen spricht nur Einer Deutsch :/. Mit ihren Sprachkenntnissen ist meine Mutter dann nach Deutschland ausgewandert, sonst könnte ich vermutlich auch kein Deutsch mehr
My dad’s side of the family settled in Medina, Gillespie, and Kerr counties and maintained the language up until my grandma’a generation. My grandma and her 4 siblings all learned German as their first language. My grandpa grew up in San Antonio, however, so he never learned much more than the table prayer and some phrases. My mom’s side of the family settled in Austin and Washington counties, and did not maintain their native language past WWI. During that time, my great grandparents and great great grandparents were threatened by the Klan to start speaking English or else their homes, churches, and businesses would be burned to the ground. Another phenomenon I would add is the fact that Texas Germans tend to marry other Texas Germans. My entire family has been here for over 150 years, yet I am genetically 98% German. In fact, the other 2% is the result of marriages that happened while my ancestors were still in Germany 😅
