Chapter 7
Early immigrant English
Midwestern English before the dust settled
We explore the development of final obstruent neutralization (German Bad ‘bath’: /ba:d/ =
[ba:t]) and other features of an emerging Wisconsin English variety that has been shaped by contact, while considering
multiple factors such as input, contact, and influence from other varieties. We draw our data from immigrant letters
and supplement these with what is known about education and language guides available to early immigrants, as well as
contact with other language varieties and dialects. Through time and over remarkably heterogeneous varieties of
English and German, we trace the presence of this feature in German and English, where it has been transformed.
Article outline
- 0.Introduction
- 1.Context
- 2.The twisted path of one innovation and the possible role of education
- 3.The broader picture: English dialect features in immigrant letters
- 3.1The Asbach letters
- 3.2Sophia Goth’s English letter: Excerpts
- 3.3Fred Volkmann English letter: Excerpts
- 4.Feature analysis
- 4.1Transitional nonnative features
- 4.2Enduring but less directly structural features
- 4.3Ambiguous features
- 4.4Possible dialectal American English-origin patterns
- 5.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgments
-
Notes
-
References
References (50)
References
Ahn, Franz Heinrich. 1923. Ahn’s neuer amerikanischer Dolmetscher für Deutsche zum Erlernen der englischen Sprache ohne Lehrer:
Anleitung zur Aussprache des Englischen. Kurgefasste Grammatik nebst leichten Beispielen Gespräche,
Wörtersammlungen, Inserate und Zeitungartikel, Schriftlicher Verkehr usw. (New American Interpreter). New York, NY: Steiger. (Originally published 1920.)![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Allen, Harold. 1973–79. The linguistic atlas of the Upper Midwest. 3 volumes. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Avery, Peter & William J. Idsardi. 2001. Laryngeal dimensions, completion and enhancement. In T. Allen Hall (ed.), Distinctive feature theory, 41–70. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bagwell, Angela & Mike Olson. 2006a. ‘I got my knife yet’: German imposition on Wisconsin English. Paper presented at the Germanic linguistics annual conference
, University of Illinois, April.
Bagwell, Angela & Mike Olson. 2006b. Languages in contact: Uncovering the sources of German imposition on Wisconsin English. Paper presented at the German language and immigration in International Perspective
Conference
. University of Wisconsin-Madison.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bagwell, Angela, Samantha Litty & Mike Olson. (Forthcoming). Wisconsin immigrant letters: German transfer to Wisconsin English. In Raymond Hickey (ed.), Keeping in touch. Familiar letters across the English-speaking world. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Benor, Sarah Bunin. 2015. How synagogues became shuls. In Janne Bondi Johannessen & Joseph C. Salmons (eds.), Germanic Heritage Languages in North America, 217–233. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds). 1985–2017. The dictionary of American regional English. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Curme, George O. 1922. A grammar of the German language, designed for a thoro and practical study of the language as spoken and
written to-day. 2nd edition. New York: MacMillan.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Davies, Winifried V. & Nils Langer. 2006. The making of bad language. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Delahanty, Jennifer. 2011. Changes in Wisconsin English over 110 Years: A real-time acoustic account. PhD thesis: University of Wisconsin – Madison.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Eichhoff, Jürgen. 1971. German in Wisconsin. In Glenn Gilbert (ed.), The German language in America: A symposium, 41–57. Austin: University of Texas Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Elspaß, Stephan. 2005. Sprachgeschichte von unten: Untersuchungen zum geschriebenen Alltagsdeutsch im 19. Jahrhundert. Tübingen: Niemeyer. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Frazer, Timothy C. 2006. Grammar. In Richard Sisson, Christian Zacher & Andrew Clayton (eds.), The American midwest: An interpretative encyclopedia, 291–294. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Frey, Benjamin E. 2013. Toward a general theory of language shift: A case study in Wisconsin German and North Carolina
Cherokee. PhD thesis: University of Wisconsin – Madison.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hickey, Raymond. 2004. Introduction. In Raymond Hickey (ed.), Legacies of colonial English: Studies in transported dialects, 1–30. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hickey, Raymond. 2010. Language contact: Reconsideration and reassessment. In Raymond Hickey (ed.), The handbook of language contact, 1–28. Oxford: Blackwell. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Howell, Robert B. 1993. German immigration and the development of regional variants of American English: Using contact
theory to discover our roots. In Joseph Salmons (ed.), The German language in America, 190–212. Madison: Max Kade Institute.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Iverson, Gregory K. and Joseph C. Salmons. 1995. Aspiration and laryngeal representation in Germanic. Phonology 12. 369–396. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johansen, Kjell. 1962. A vocabulary study of Gillespie and Kendall counties, Texas. MA thesis: University of Texas at Austin.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kerswill, Paul 2002. Koineization and accommodation. In J. K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill, and Natalie Schilling-Estes (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change, 669–702. Oxford: Blackwell.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Labov, William. 2008. Mysteries of the substrate. In Miriam Meyerhoff and Naomi Nagy (eds.), Social lives in language–sociolinguistics and multilingual speech communities: celebrating the work of
gillian sankoff, 315–326. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1997. English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. London and New York: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Litty, Samantha. 2014. Variation in English VOT in three southern Wisconsin counties. Poster presented at The Mid-Continental phonetics and phonology Conference
(MidPhon). University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Litty, Samantha. 2015. Variation in word final obstruent neutralization in Wisconsin English. Paper presented at the sixth annual workshop on immigrant languages in the Americas
(WILA6). Uppsala, Sweden.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Litty, Samantha. 2017. We talk German now yet: The sociolinguistic development of voice onset time and final obstruent
neutralization in Wisconsin German and English varieties, 1863–2013. PhD thesis: University of Wisconsin – Madison.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lockwood, William Burley. 1968. Historical German syntax. Volume 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Petty, Antje. 2013. Immigrant languages and education: Wisconsin’s German schools. In Thomas Purnell, Eric Raimy, and Joseph Salmons (eds.), Wisconsin talk: linguistic diversity in the badger state, 37–57. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Purnell, Thomas. 2008. Prevelar raising and phonetic conditioning: The role of labial and anterior tongue
gestures. American Speech 83 (4). 373–402. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Purnell, Thomas, Dilara Tepeli, and Joseph Salmons. 2005a. German substrate effects in Wisconsin English: Evidence for final fortition. American Speech 80. 135–164. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Purnell, Thomas, Joseph Salmons, Dilara Tepeli, and Jennifer Mercer. 2005b. Structured heterogeneity and change in laryngeal phonetics: Upper Midwestern final
obstruents. Journal of English linguistics 33 (4). 307–338. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Purnell, Thomas, Eric Raimy, and Joseph Salmons (eds.). 2013. Wisconsin talk: Linguistic diversity in the badger state. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rose, Mary. 2006. Language, place and identity in later life. PhD thesis: Stanford.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Salmons, Joseph. 2017. Keineswegs Feinde der englischen Sprache: Deutsch, Englisch und Schulpolitik in
Wisconsin. In
Muttersprache. Zur Soziolinguistik regionaler Mehrsprachigkeit im deutschsprachigen
Raum
(Special issue ed. by Nils Langer) (4). 310–323.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Salmons, Joseph. Forthcoming. Laryngeal phonetics, phonology, assimilation and final neutralization. In Richard Page & Michael T. Putnam (ed.), Cambridge handbook of germanic linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Salmons, Joseph, Dilara Tepeli & Thomas Purnell. 2006. Deutsche Spuren im amerikanischen Englischen? Auslautverhärtung in Wisconsin. In Nina Berend and Elisabeth Knipf-Komlósi (eds.), Sprachinselwelten / The world of language islands, 205–225. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Salmons, Joseph and Thomas Purnell. forthcoming. Language contact and the development of American English. In Raymond Hickey (ed.), The handbook of language contact, 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sawyer, Janet B. 1959. Aloofness from Spanish influence in Texas English. Word 15. 270–281. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Seifert, Lester W. J. 1993. The development and survival of the German language in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In Joseph Salmons (ed.), The German language in America, 1683–1991, 322–337. Madison, Wis.: Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schirmunski, Viktor. 1962. Deutsche Mundartkunde. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tepeli, Dilara, Joseph Salmons & Thomas Purnell. 2007. Was bleibt bestehen? Der deutsche Einfluß auf das Amerikanische.” In Josef Raab and Jan Wirrer (ed.), Die deutsche präsenz in den USA / The German presence in the U.S.A., 595–613. Münster: LIT Verlag.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Coetsem, Frans. 2000. A general and unified theory of the transmission process in language contact. Heidelberg: Winter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Dalen, Carl. 1879. Brieflicher Sprach- und Sprech-Unterricht für das Selbststudium Erwachsener: Englisch. Berlin: Langenscheidtsche Verlagsbuchhandlung.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilkerson, Miranda & Joseph Salmons. 2008. Good old immigrants of yesteryear who didn’t learn English: Evidence from Germans in
Wisconsin. American Speech 83 (3). 259–283. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilkerson, Miranda & Joseph Salmons. 2012. Linguistic marginalities: Becoming American without learning English. Journal of Transnational American Studies 4 (2). [URL].![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilkerson, Miranda, Mark Livengood & Joseph Salmons. 2014. The socio-historical context of imposition in substrate effects. Journal of English linguistics 42 (4). 1–23. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilson, Joseph B. 1980. The English spoken by German Americans in central Texas. In Paul Schach (ed.), Languages in conflict, 157–173. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zwicky, Arnold. 2001. Counting chad. Paper presented at the Stanford SemFest. (Handout available at [URL].)![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Salmons, Joseph & Miranda E. Wilkerson
2019.
English in German-Speaking Wisconsin and the Aftermath. In
English in the German-Speaking World,
► pp. 361 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.