Thursday, June 23, 2022

Well, there's Tex-Mex...

...so I guess there's nothing unusual about Texas German.

I knew that there were a lot of German immigrants to Texas, starting back in the middle of the 19th century, but was unaware that a specific dialect had developed, and is still spoken today.

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9 comments:

  1. JeffSJune 23, 2022 at 12:41 PM

    There are still a lot of different dialects in Germany -- or at least when I was stationed there, in the early 1980s. Probably still so, especially since The Wall collapsed, and East Germany opened up.

    And there used to be High German, Middle German, and Low German. My understanding that those dialects went away after Dubya Dubya Two, and Germans began borrowing a lot of English (ok, AMERICAN) words.

    But I must admit that I never ever heard of Texas German until this morning.

    Thanks, Paco!

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  2. Stephen A SkubinnaJune 23, 2022 at 1:02 PM

    Apparently one of the state dishes of Texas, chicken fried steak, was from German immigrants doing their take on Wiener Schnitzel.

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    1. AnonymousJune 23, 2022 at 1:16 PM

      Well, God bless ‘em, cause I love chicken fried steak.

      Delete
  3. tomJune 23, 2022 at 3:01 PM

    a friend of mine was from New Braunfels which was founded and settled in 1845 by Prince Carl of Solms from Germany, he said that the Prince moved his whole town from Germany to Texas and that there is a famous Oktoberfest at their festhaus.

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    1. AnonymousJune 23, 2022 at 3:24 PM

      I’d be willing to wager they put on a fabulous Octoberfest. - Paco

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  4. rinardmanJune 23, 2022 at 3:51 PM

    Did they put a fence around New Braunfels, and turn it into an internment camp during WWII?

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  5. bruceJune 24, 2022 at 5:13 AM

    Barossa Valley is the old German part of Australia, way down south where there is a Mediterranean climate and lots of wineries. Just checking my memory on Wikipedia I discovered they speak a unique dialect of German there too!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barossa_Valley

    I had a couple of friends from there who I met at different times, and both were named Schubert and related to the composer they said.

    Toured there in the 70s and ate schnitzel watching Bavarian folk dancing. In South Australia that is.

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  6. RebeccaHJune 24, 2022 at 1:31 PM

    I knew about the Texas Germans, but never lived where the language was spoken. I do know they're the ones who inserted the accordion into Tex-Mex mustc, known as conjunto or Tejano music. Remember Freddy Fender? I loved his songs.

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    1. AnonymousJune 24, 2022 at 2:29 PM

      I saw Freddy Fender on a talk show one time, and he had a fascinating accent, a combination of Texas twang and subtle Spanish overtones. - Paco

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