The Decline of the Texas German dialect

Unlike other German immigrant destinations, such as Pennsylvania and the Midwest, many Texas-bound Germans settled in rural, isolated communities, particularly in the Hill Country, where German was a dominant language. The German spoken by immigrants across Central Texas differed widely from town to town, even family to family, because the immigrants came from different German regions and spoke a variety of dialects. Many had limited knowledge of standard German, either spoken or written. To complicate matters, over time, German Settlers adapted their language by borrowing English words, their children studied standard German in school, and they traded vocabulary with other dialects.

During World War I, most German Language newspapers closed, or switched to English, as did the local public schools. After the Great War, there was a brief resurgence of German. Then World War II started, and Germans essentially stopped speaking German.

Now, the last generation of German speakers are slowly fading away. Thirty years ago, you heard German in the stores. Now, if you hear German, it's spoken by a tourist from Germany. Texas German will likely disappear within the next 30 years.

UT Professor Hans Boas has been recording and studying the dialect. A report in the Houston Chronicle interviews several Fredericksburg natives. The results of Boas' study can be found online at the Texas German Dialect Project.