Posted on 08/26/2007 2:04:22 PM PDT by Dysart
AUSTIN --Although stories of der Cowboy and die Stinkkatze mayno longer get told in Texas, Germanic linguistics professor Hans Boas wants to make sure nobody forgets them.
Boas, an assistant professor at the University of Texas, is the founder and manager of the Texas German Preservation Project. Every month or so Boas ventures forth from his campus office in Austin to small towns like Boerne, Fredericksburg and Crawford to conduct interviews with the dwindling number of old-timers who speak the odd mixture of English and 19th-century German.
It's a dialect unique to the Lone Star State, and most of the 8,000 or so remaining speakers are in their 60s, 70s or 80s. Their numbers are expected to dwindle precipitously over the next few years, and Boas says that by 2040, the dialect will probably be gone.
And so die Stinkkatze -- the Texas German word for skunk -- and der Cowboy will become just a memory.
"The Texas German Dialect Project I started right after I got [to the University of Texas] in September 2001," Boas said. "The main reason was because no one else has been interested in Texas German from an academic point of view. But there are fewer and fewer speakers, and in 30 years it will be gone. I thought it would be a good idea to record the remaining speakers who are left."
Boas says he has interviewed more than 200 Texas German speakers and recorded more than 350 hours of the conversations. Interviewers are typically UT students who ask about childhood memories, games, social interactions -- anything, really, that will get Texas German speakers to provide a window into their lives.
'The culture's legacy'
Boas has preserved audio recordings of these interviews on an Internet database, which also includes video recordings and written text. Besides helping to preserve the dialect, the archive will allow further study of the linguistic features and grammar of Texas German. "It also is important to create a popular account of Texas German to share with local schools, preservation societies and museums -- the dialect is part of the culture's legacy, but it is rapidly eroding," Boas said.
Der Cowboy is Texas German for "cowboy" -- it's basically the English word spoken with a German accent. "Die Stinkkatz" literally means "stinky cat"; that is, it's the Texas German word for "skunk." Boas explains that because there were no skunks in their native country, German immigrants invented their own word.
The word "Luftschiff" is also unique to Texas German -- or at least, it's unique the way Texas German speakers use the term. During a vacation some years back in Germany, New Braunfels resident Bill Moltz used "Luftschiff" to describe his long flight across the Atlantic. For speakers of Texas German, "Luftschiff" means airplane.
But in modern German, "Luftschiff" means "airship." Texas Germans have been using the word since before the invention of the airplane and never updated it to reflect a post-Wright Brothers world.
"I remember people looked at us in Germany like we were nuts -- they said you flew here in a dirigible?" recalls Moltz, 68, still laughing about the incident. "But that's what happened. We use those terms."
Although fewer than 10,000 speakers remain, at one time as much as 20 percent of the Texas population may have spoken the language. Moltz said that many German settlers arrived in Galveston and spread out during the mid-1800s, and now a swath of German communities can be found running north and south down the middle of the state.
The immigrants settled in dozens of towns like Fredericksburg, New Braunfels and Boerne. At one time there were more than 150 German-language newspapers in Texas, and in many towns German was spoken almost exclusively.
Wars brought decline
But the dialect began to fade during World War I, Boas said.
"A little before World War I, there was a big nativist movement in the U.S. and [the idea] was that if you're in the United States, then you better speak English -- there just wasn't a lot of tolerance for people who speak differently," Boas explained.
He said there was another steep decline during World War II and that the last of the monolingual Texas German speakers are pretty much gone. Those who are left -- fifth-generation Texans like Moltz -- spoke the dialect as kids, but also speak English.
The Texas German Dialect Project has been funded through grants, although that funding expired at the end of last year, Boas said. He said it costs about $35,000 a year to maintain the program.
It also accepts contributions though a University of Texas endowment.
"Every time we lose a language, we lose a data set -- if researchers have more data, we can create and test theories about how language works more accurately," Boas said.
Texas German Dialect Project: www.tgdp.org
A different dialect
A sampling of unique Texas German words and their translations in European German and English:
Airplane
das Luftschiff -- Texas German
das Flugzeug -- European German
Blouse
die Taille -- Texas German
die Bluse -- European German
Car
die Car (pronounced Kaa) -- Texas German
das Auto (pronounced otto) -- European German
Little town
die kleine Stadt -- Texas German
das Dorf -- European German
Piano
das Piano -- Texas German
das Klavier -- European German
Truck (semi)
der grosse Truck -- Texas German
der Lastwagen -- European German
Skunk
die Stinkkatze -- Texas German
das Stinktier --European German
Squirrel
die Eichkatze --Texas German
das Eichhörnchen -- European German
Socks
die Strumpf --Texas German
die Sökchen -- European German
Source: Texas German Preservation Project
Theresa G. Gold
106 Ranchland
San Antonio, Texas 78213-2305
210 344-7229
Although there were a few Germans in Texas when the area was under Spanish and Mexican rule, the first permanent settlement of Germans was at Industry, in Austin County, established by Friedrich Ernst and Charles Fordtran in the early 1830s. Ernst wrote a letter to a friend in his native Oldenburg which was published in the newspaper there. His description of Texas was so influential in attracting German immigrants to that area that he is remembered as "The Father of German Immigration to Texas."
These first immigrants settled in Austin, Colorado, Fayette, and Washington counties. Among the communities in that area considered German towns were Mill creek, Biegel, La Grange, Fayetteville, Cat Spring, Bellville, Frelsburg, New Ulm, Bernardo, Shelby, Ross Prairie, Millheim, and Berlin. Some of the names are German and some are English because some of these were places originally settled and named by Anglo-Americans from the United States but later settled by German immigrants and some of them were founded by Germans.
In the 1840s, the social, economic, and technological conditions in Germany, coupled with the availability of lands in frontier Texas, created an ideal climate for an influx of immigrants. In 1842, a group of German noblemen formed the Verein zum Schutz deutscher Einwanderer in Texas, called the Verein or the Adelsverein, to secure land in Texas for immigrants. The Verein obtained a grant of 3,800,000 acres in west-central Texas from Henry Fisher and Burchard Miller, thus known as the Fisher-Miller Grant. Prospective settlers were promised 320 acres of land for a married man or 160 acres for a single man, plus transportation across the ocean and to the land; a house, household furnishings, utensils, and farming equipment; churches, hospitals, roads and general provisions for their welfare.
Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels preceded the group to prepare for the arrival of the colonists. He realized that the huge land grant could not be settled immediately because it was too far from the coast and from existing settlements for transportation and supply, and so he established the town of New Braunfels as a way station to the Fisher-Miller lands. Prince Carl returned to his homeland and was succeeded by Baron Ottfried Hans con Meusebach, who discarded his title upon arrival in Texas and became known as John O. Meusebach. When it became evident that large numbers of expected settlers could not be located at New Braunfels, Meusebach laid out another settlement and named it Fredericksburg. About this time, it became clear that the grant of land was not suitable for settlement: the soil was not fertile enough for farming, and large numbers of Comanche Indians inhabited the area.
In the meantime, thousands of immigrants were enroute to their promised lands when the war between the United States and Mexico broke out. Due to the war, all means of transportation were needed by the Army, which left thousands of German immigrants stranded on the Texas Coast. Many perished due to exposure to the elements and to disease, but some made the longoverland trip--even on foot--to New Braunfels and to Fredericksburg. Some remained in the coastal towns and in the earlier-established settlements.
About this time, the Adelsverein, always underfunded, was bankrupt. When Texas became part of the United States, the state government awarded certificates of land to immigrants due lands in the Fisher Miller Grant. The treaties that Meusebach made with the Comanches opened the land for future settlement. Other German settlements in this part of the Texas Hill Country include Boerne, Comfort, Kerrville, Castell, Hilda,--and Luckenbach.
Meanwhile, the European revolutions of 1848 brought talented and well-educated Germans to Texas; these are known as the "48ers." Some of these gathered in "Latin Settlements" to pursue common interests in music, literature, philosophy, and theoretical politics. Such settlements included Latium, Bettina, and Sisterdale. Most of these settlements did not last long, and the 48ers moved into the larger cities, notably San Antonio, Houston, and Galveston. Each of these had a population that was about one-third German.
The Civil War disrupted travel, shipping, commerce, and communication, so that immigration from Europe was brought to a halt. Following the Civil War, Germans again came to Texas. In fact, more Germans came after the Civil War, from 1865 to 1980, than came in the entire 30-odd years of immigration before the war. But, the story of their immigration has not been remembered with the romance and flair of the Adelsverein settlers, the ones who came with the Prince, the ones who suffered such tragedy in establishing their settlements.
These later immigrants generally came in smaller groups and had a tendency to settle in areas where other Germans were already active or to displace the previous Anglo-American population. In some cases, later immigrants from other European countries in turn displaced the earlier German Settlers. But, German settlers also established new settlements as railroad lands were sold and as large, old plantations and ranches were broken up for farmlands. By this time, overseas as well as overland transportation had been improved with railroads advancing from the coast toward the developed areas of the state. German settlers of this period were not only the poor and deprived peasants, but also members of the craftsman, merchant and professional classes.
Later German immigrants settled in New Baden, Anderson, Pflugerville, Dessau, Westphalia, McGregor, Coryell, Thorndale, Copperas Cove, The Grove, Womack, Tours, and Malone, all in central Texas; from Rosenberg to Damon in East Bernard, Schulenburg, Weimar, Yorktown, Meyersville, Deutschburg, Ganado, Vatmann, Woodsboro, Tivoli, between Tynan and Skidmore, in Orange Grove, Violet, and Fashing, all in southeast Texas or near the Coastal Bend.
Not all the German settlers came directly from Germany; they also migrated form other parts of Texas and from other parts of the United States. Some such settlements include Muenster, Lindsay, Pilot Point, Mount Carmel, Fulda, Olfen, Windthorst, Rhineland, Nazareth, Umbarger, Slaton, and Scotland. (In spite of its name, Scotland was a German settlement; it was a secondary settlement of Windthorst, established on a subdivision of the Scotland Ranch--thus the name.) Marienfeld was renamed Stanton; and New Brandenburg was renamed Old Glory during the World War I anti-German hysteria. These settlements are in north and northwest Texas, on the High Plains, and even into the Texas Panhandle, forming a chain of "folk islands" in the cultural sea of Anglo Americans.
After 1900, German immigration to Texas decreased considerably. In times of economic downturn and worldwide wars, immigration from all countries nearly ceased. Following the World Wars, a considerable number of Germans were admitted to the united States, and many of these came to Texas, settling primarily in established cities and towns. By 1980, persons of German descent were the third largest ethnic group in Texas, exceeded only by persons claiming English-Irish and Hispanic descent.
A map of present-day Texas shows a "German Belt" from Houston westward to the Fredericksburg vicinity in the Hill Country. Yet, the German settlements are not only clustered in this band or belt; they are also scattered throughout nearly all parts of the large state of Texas.
It is simple and quaint, it’s just not a small town like I expected.
In San Antonio, there were more German-speakers in 1900 than either Spanish-speakers or English-speakers. And, of course, there were clusters of German colonies all around the area. They extended all the way north toward the Red River and down south to the Rio Grande. A place named Pilot Point north of Dallas surprised me by having been founded by Germans. Of course, nearby by is Sanger. Many roads have German names.
The German character of these towns is mostly lost, of course. How German were they? In New Braunfels, a town near San Antonio, I got gas about forty years ago, and when he heard I was fromt East Texas, he reached out to be like a neighbor in a foreign country. He had been living there for several years and still was not used to the Germans. I told that even in German, strangers were not easily welcomed. Even today a man may marry a woman from another village and be thought of as a stranger after more than five years.
LOL
Below are 189 men who were born in twenty different United States and seven different countries, who collectively fought at the cradle of Texas liberty, withheld troops numbering 5,000 to 6,000 for 13 days, and perished at the siege of Alamo, and are forever our heroes.
They are listed alphabetically by last name and following is their place of birth:
Abamillo, Juan...San Antonio, Texas, USA
Allen, R. ...Unknown
Andross, Miles DeForest...unknown
Autry, Micajah...North Carolina, USA, known descendent, Sara Greer
Badillo, Juan A....San Antonio, Texas, USA
Bailey, Peter James...Kentucky, USA
Baker, Isaac G....Arkansas, USA
Baker, William Charles M....Kentucky, USA
Ballentine, John J....unknown
Ballentine, Robert W....Scotland
Baugh, John J....Virginia, USA
Bayliss, Joseph...Tennessee, USA
Blair, John ...Tennessee, USA
Blair, Samuel B....Tennessee, USA
Blazeby, William...England
Bonham, James Butler...South Carolina, USA
Bourne, Daniel...England
Bowie, James...Tennessee, USA
Bowman, Jesse B....unknown
Brown, George...England
Brown, James...Pennsylvania, USA
Brown, Robert...unknown
Buchanan, James...Alabama, USA
Burns, Samuel E....Ireland
Butler, George D....Missouri, USA
Campbell, Robert ...Tennessee, USA
Cane, John...Pennsylvania, USA
Carey, William R....Maryland, USA
Clark, Charles Henry...Missouri, USA
Clark, M.B....unknown
Cloud, Daniel William...Kentucky, USA
Cochran, Robert E....New Jersey, USA
Cottle, George Washington...Tennessee, USA
Courtman, Henry ...Germany
Crawford, Lemuel...South Carolina, USA
Crockett, David...Tennessee, USA
Crossman , Robert...Massachusetts, USA
Cummings, David P....Pennsylvania, USA
Cunningham, Robert...New York, USA
Darst, Jacob C....Kentucky, USA
Davis, John...Kentucky, USA
Day, Freeman H.K....unknown
Day, Jerry C....Missouri, USA
Daymon, Squire...Tennessee, USA
Dearduff, William...Tennessee, USA
Dennison, Stephen...England
Despallier, Charles...Louisiana, USA
Dickinson, Almaron...Tennessee, USA
Dillard, John H....Tennessee, USA
Dimpkins, James R....Tennessee, USA
Duel, Lewis...New York, USA
Duvalt, Andrew ...Ireland
Espalier, Carlos...San Antonio, Texas, USA
Esparza, Gregorio...San Antonio, Texas, USA
Evans, Robert...Ireland
Evans, Samuel B....Kentucky, USA
Ewing, James I....Tennessee, USA
Fishbaugh, William...Alabama, USA
Flanders, John ...Massachusetts, USA
Floyd, Dolphin Ward...North Carolina, USA
Forsyth, John Hubbard...New York, USA
Fuentes, Antonio...San Antonio, Texas, USA
Fuqua, Galva ...Gonzales, Texas, USA
Furtleroy, William H....Kentucky, USA
Garnett, William...Tennessee, USA
Garrand, James W....Louisiana, USA
Garrett, James Girard...Tennessee, USA
Garvin, John E....unknown
Gaston, John E....Kentucky, USA
George, James ...unknown
Goodrich, John Calvin...Tennessee, USA
Grimes, Albert Calvin...Georgia, USA
Guerrero, Jose Maria...Laredo, Texas, USA
Gwynne, James C....England
Hannum, James...unknown
Harris, John...Kentucky, USA
Harrison, Andrew Jackson...unknown
Harrison, William B....Ohio, USA
Haskell, Charles M....Tennessee, USA
Hawkins, Joseph B....Ireland
Hays, John M....Tennessee, USA
Herndon, Patrick Henry...Virginia, USA
Hersee, William D....New York, USA
Holland, Tapley...unknown
Holloway, Samuel...Pennsylvania, USA
Howell, William D....Massachusetts, USA
Jackson, William Daniel...Ireland
Jackson, Thomas...Kentucky, USA
Jameson, Green B....Kentucky, USA
Jennings, Gordon C....Connecticut, USA
Johnson, Lewis...Wales
Johnson, William...Pennsylvania, USA
Jones, John...New York, USA
Kellog, Johnnie...unknown
Kenney, James...Virginia, USA
Kent, Andrew...Kentucky, USA
Kerr, Joseph...Louisiana, USA
Kimbell, George C....New York, USA
King, William P....unknown
Lewis, William Irvine...Virginia, USA
Lightfoot, William J....Virginia, USA
Lindley, Jonathan L. ...Illinois, USA
Linn, William...Massachusetts, USA
Losoya, Toribio D....San Antonio, Texas, USA
Main, George Washington...Virginia, USA
Malone, William T....Georgia, USA
Marshall, William T....Tennessee, USA
Martin, Albert...Tennessee, USA
McCafferty, Edward...unknown
McCoy, Jesse...unknown
McDowell, William...Pennsylvania, USA
McGee, James...Ireland
McGregor, John...Scotland
McKinney, Robert...Ireland
Melton, Eliel...Georgia, USA
Miller, Thomas R....Virginia, USA
Mills, William...Tennessee, USA
Millsaps, Isaac...Mississippi, USA
Mitchusson, Edward F....Virginia, USA
Mitchell, Edwin T....Georgia, USA
Mitchell, Napoleon B....unknown
Moore, Robert B....Virginia, USA
Moore, Willis...Mississippi, USA
Musselman, Robert...Ohio, USA
Nava, Andres...San Antonio, Texas, USA
Neggan, George...South Carolina, USA
Nelson, Andrew M....Tennessee, USA
Nelson, Edward...South Carolina, USA
Nelson, George...South Carolina, USA
Northcross, James...Virginia, USA
Nowlan, James...Ireland
Pagan, George...Mississippi, USA
Parker, Christopher...Mississippi, USA
Parks, William...unknown
Perry, Richardson...Texas, USA
Pollard, Amos...Massachusetts, USA
Reynolds, John Purdy...Pennsylvania, USA
Roberts, Thomas H....unknown
Robinson, Isaac...Scotland
Robertson, James...Tennessee, USA
Rose, James M....Virginia, USA
Rusk, Jackson J....Ireland
Rutherford, Joseph...Kentucky, USA
Ryan, Isaac...Louisiana, USA
Scurlock, Mial...North Carolina, USA
Sewell, Marcus L....England
Shield, Manson...Georgia, USA
Simmons, Cleveland Kinlock...South Carolina, USA
Smith, Andrew H....Tennessee, USA
Smith, Charles S....Maryland, USA
Smith, Joshua G....North Carolina, USA
Smith, William H....unknown
Starr, Richard...England
Stewart, James E....England
Stockton, Richard L....Virginia, USA
Summerlin, A. Spain...Tennessee, USA
Summers, William E....Tennessee, USA
Sutherland, William D. ...Alabama, USA
Taylor, Edward...unknown
Taylor, George...unknown
Taylor, James...unknown
Taylor, William...Tennessee, USA
Thomas, B. Archer M....Kentucky, USA
Thomas, Henry ...Germany
Thompson, Jesse G....Arkansas, USA
Thompson, John W....North Carolina, USA
Thruston, John M....Pennsylvania, USA
Trammel, Burke...Ireland
Travis, William Barret...South Carolina, USA
Tumlinson, George W. ...Missouri, USA
Tylee, James...New York, USA
Unknown, John (Negro)...unknown
Walker, Asa...unknown
Walker, Jacob...unknown
Ward, William B....Ireland
Warnell, Henry...Arkansas, USA
Washington, Joseph G....Tennessee, USA
Waters, Thomas...England
Wells, William...Georgia, USA
White, Isaac...Kentucky, USA
White, Robert...unknown
Williamson, Hiram J....Pennsylvania, USA
Wills, William...unknown
Wilson, David L....Scotland
Wilson, John ...Pennsylvania, USA
Wolfe, Anthony...England
Wright, Claiborne...North Carolina, USA
Zanco, Charles...Denmark
Sure. Flour, fat and water. Lol, I’ll go see if I can find something of substance to give you. BBL
My Dad’s brother-in-law was from an Alsatian Family. His family spoke German, but their customs were so different from those who came elsewhere in Germany that my Dad always spoke of him as French. But Germany, a hundred years ago, was still largely a federation of many, very different communties. In fact, some say that the German-American communities, such as St: Louis, Cincinatti, and Milwaukee, and of course, San Antonio, were the first places where someone from Bavaria and Prussia came to think of themselves as A German. Toward the end of the Century, while Bismarck was trying to unfyy his new empire, the different Germanies were also being melded, family by family, into German-Americans.
Now that might be a little too simple...even for me.
Ja, wohl. Vielen Deutscher habt auch eine Faszination mit Cowboy-Kultur, obwohl die meisten Deutsch-Texäner in 1848 wie die Leute ruckwärts im Hessen dorfer lebten...
Wurstfest!
Germans, Irish, a Scot, and a Dane at the Alamo? Did not know that, thanks. I visited the Alamo as a wee wisp of a lad but should go back for better appreciation, I only recall it was not in good shape. I think they’ve spruced it up since.
One of my favorite songs.
The Alamo
OK - I don’t have a written one, but here are a few I would use next time I make them. I forgot about the eggs, duh!
I always put nutmeg in mine and like I said, I use a regular flat cheese grater with the big holes, but it seems lots of folks use colanders with big holes in them. I hadn’t thought of that; might try it some time.
~~~~
[Emeril’s] Spaetzle
-= Ingredients =-
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups of flour, sifted
1/2 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
= Instructions =-
Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil, reduce the heat, and maintain a simmer. In a bowl, stir all the ingredients together. Place a colander over the pan, pour about 1/4 of the batter into the colander, and press through the holes with a plastic spatula into the hot water. When the spaetzle starts to float to float to the surface, cover the pan and keep covered until the spaetzle appears to swell and is fluffy. Remove the dumplings and repeat the procedure with the remaining batter.
........
Spaetzle
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
Combine flour and salt. Mix eggs and milk; stir into flour mixture. Place batter into course-sieved colander with 1/4 inch holes. Hold over kettle of boiling salted water. Press the batter through the colander with back of a wooden spoon or spatula. If dough is too thick, add a little milk. Cook for 5 minutes; drain. Keep warm. Use like noodles.
........
Spaetzle
3/4 pound of plain flour
1/3 teaspoon of nutmeg
3/8 pint of water or milk
1/2 cup of butter (optional)
1 teaspoon of salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup of fine dried bread crumbs
Put flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and nutmeg in bowl. Beat eggs into mixture with a fork. Pour in water or milk slowly. Stir until dough is smooth. Fill large saucepan about half full of water. Add remaining salt and bring to a boil. Place large colander over pan of boiling water, press dough through and stir gently to keep from sticking. Boil 5 to 8 minutes until tender.
........
Spaetzle
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of fine dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup of butter or margarine, melted
Stir together flour and salt. Combine eggs and milk; stir into the flour mixture. Pour batter into a colander with large holes (at least 3/16” diameter) or spaetzle maker. Hold colander over a kettle of boiling salted water. Press batter through the colander to form the spaetzle. Cook and stir 5 minutes. Drain well. Combine the bread crumbs and melted butter or margarine; sprinkle over spaetzle. Makes 4 cups.
~~~~~~~
John Harris was my gr-gr uncle. He is the reason my family comes from Texas.
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