Fifth-generation Texans Alphons Nuhn and Lillian Wunderlich sing a German folk song in New Braunfels.
Fifth-generation Texans Alphons Nuhn and Lillian Wunderlich sing a German folk song in New Braunfels.
I smell a stinkkatze.
Cool! I worked with a lady - she’d be in her 60’s now - who grew up speaking Tex-Deutch in Bergheim.
I nominate this for the new nickname for the Democrat Party.
On a serious note (actually, I was serious above), I was surprised that so many Germans settled in Texas. I learned that just a year or two ago.
Ich bin ein Texikaner, j’alle...
Achtung little doggie !
Regards
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.
Thank goodness for those immigrants, as I love "their" towns, least those I've visited. They look like places from fairy-tales -- beautiful stone homes, old Victorians, beer gardens, wide streets, very clean and orderly. One can sense the love of community and beauty -- they really picked some of the most idyllic settings.
We're fighting a similar losing battle here in Pennsylvania. Fortunately, we have a larger remaining population to work with, and some communities who still preserve the language (Amish and Mennonites). Still, it's disappearing rapidly.
Same diff in KS, there’s still a large number of people of German ancestry in the area who keep German traditions. Actually, most of the German people here, (including me) are German/Russian, or Volga Germans, or, in the vernacular “Rooshins”. (Is that hate speech?? Can I sue somebody?? Call me, John Edwards!)
Over 20 years ago I ate at a small restaurant in New Braunfels called the Log House. It was an old, old log cabin that had been converted into a restaurant by a younger German couple who had just come to the US. The food could not have possibly been any better. Without a doubt the best restaurant I’ve ever visited.
Die Stinkkatz,
Die Stinkkatz,
Was sind sie Sie einziehend?
Die Stinkkatz,
Die Stinkkatz,
Es ist nicht Ihre Störung
Via Babelfish translation -- apologies if I butchered the language.
My father is descended from a group of Germans who came from the Volga River in Russia in the late 1800s. In addition to English he spoke a dialect of German called Swabish. During WW II he was in high school and the feds came through and made all of the Roman Catholic nuns start teaching the kids in English. For the most part he had no accent but the kitchen “sink” was always called the “zink”.
Squirrel
die Eichkatze —Texas German
das Eichhörnchen — European German
Oarchskatzle - Bayern.
Oarchskaettzleschwarf - Austrian.
German changes every time you cross a hill. I had some ass tell me I can’t speak german, a few months ago, in Germany.
(I am a certified German Linguist)
*Far a-cross the blue water
Lives an old German’s daughter,
By the banks of the old river Rhine ...
Where I loved her and left her,
But I can’t forget her -
I miss my pretty Fraulein.
Fraulein, Fraulein
Walk down by the river,
Each night when the stars start to shine.
By the same stars above you,
I swear that I love you ...
You are my pretty Fraulein.
In my moments of glory,
A face comes before me ...
The face of a girl I left behind.
I loved her and left her,
But I can’t forget her ...
I miss my pretty Fraulein.
Fraulein, Fraulein
Walk down by the river,
Each night when the stars start to shine.
By the same stars above you,
I swear that I love you
You are my pretty Fraulein ... *
http://www.oktoberfestinfbg.com/
It’s not long until Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg!
October 5 - 6 - 7
I’ve read that during WW1 and again in WW2 many Germans named Mueller changed their names to Miller due to harassment of Germans.
doesn’t anyone know that the only culture worth saving is hispanic. Germans? they’ve got to be kidding. sarc/
How strange, life’s symmetries. I was just talking to a friend last night about his departed brother, a beloved teacher in the town of Munster, TX.
***Boas explains that because there were no skunks in their native country***
I can think of several but they shot or poisoned themselves in 1945.
Everyone in the USA needs to speak English. Not Spanish, or Dutch, or German. English. The liberals love this cultural diversity thing, it divides people and makes them dependent upon the state.
Sorry if Texican-German has to die out, but it is for the good of the country. Now we just need to make Spanish die out.