How rural Texas is trying to preserve a unique German-speaking dialect

Laughter of elders from all walks of life filled a small room in the historic Pioneer Museum of Fredericksburg, Texas. They shared childhood stories, life updates, recipes and jokes — all in a unique German dialect.

In Texas Hill Country, gatherings like these keep German on the tongues of those who grew up speaking it, Paul Holm reports for The Daily Yonder, especially as fewer and fewer pass it down to their families. According to Hans Boas, director of the Texas German Dialect Project at the University of Texas at Austin, the language developed from the German dialects brought to the state in the 19th century.

 

As people from different regions of Germany settled together in Texas, their dialect blended. Texas German developed independently and has its own unique words. For instance, an airplane is called a "Luftschiff," or airship, in Texas German, but a "Flugzeug" in modern German.

"There are a bunch of words that didn’t exist 175 years ago, so we don’t use them here," said John Bakke, a Fredericksburg native. For speakers like Bakke, who didn’t pass down German or marry into a German-speaking family, gatherings help him connect with his family memories and those who share them.

Researchers like Boas are working to record interviews preserving the dialect as it threatens to fade away with age. University of Texas-Austin estimates roughly 5,000 speakers remain, all mostly 70 or older. Boas said speakers were discouraged from passing down the language due to anti-German sentiments during the world wars, but he doesn't think the disappearance of Texas German would mean "the extinction of German culture in rural Texas." Boas expects music, food, dancing and social clubs to endure.