Texas German (german: Texasdeutsch) is a group of German language dialects spoken in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

by descendants of German immigrants who settled there in the mid-19th century. These "

German Texans German Texan (german: Deutschtexaner) is both a term to describe immigrants who arrived in the Republic of Texas from Germany from the 1830s onward and an ethnic category that includes their descendants in today's state of Texas. The arriving Ge ...

" founded the towns of Bulverde,

New Braunfels New Braunfels ( ) is a city in Comal and Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas known for its German Texan heritage. It is the seat of Comal County. The city covers and had a population of 90,403 as of the 2020 Census. A suburb just north ...

, Fredericksburg, Boerne, Pflugerville, Walburg and Comfort in

Texas Hill Country The Texas Hill Country is a geographic region of Central and South Texas, forming the southeast part of the Edwards Plateau. Given its location, climate, terrain, and vegetation, the Hill Country can be considered the border between the Americ ...

; Muenster in North Central Texas; and

Schulenburg Schulenburg is a city in Fayette County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,633 at the 2020 census. Known for its German culture, Schulenburg is home of the Texas Polka Music Museum. It is in a rural, agricultural area settled by Germa ...

Brenham Brenham ( ) is a city in east-central Texas in Washington County, United States, with a population of 17,369 according to the 2020 U.S. census. It is the county seat of Washington County. Washington County is known as the "Birthplace of Texas ...

, Industry, New Ulm and

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

in east Texas.

History and documentation

While most heritage languages in the United States die out by the third generation, Texas German is unusual in that most German Texans continued to speak German in their homes and communities for several generations after settling in the state. The State of Texas recognized German as having equal status to

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

from 1846 up until

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, when Texan education rules were established mandating English-only instruction, requiring children to learn English in school regardless of what was spoken at home. Due to the assimilation of these communities and public hostility towards the German language during both

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Texas German speakers drifted towards English, and few passed the language to their descendants. By 1950, the number of new speakers of the language was virtually zero. The dialects are near extinction, as they are now spoken almost exclusively by a few elderly German Texans. Currently, Dr. Hans Boas at

the University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

is recording and studying the dialect, building on research originally performed by Dr. Glenn Gilbert of

Southern Illinois University Carbondale Southern Illinois University (SIU or SIUC) is a public research university in Carbondale, Illinois. Founded in 1869, SIU is the oldest and flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system. The university enrolls students from all 50 st ...

in the 1960s. Boas' book on the language, ''The Life and Death of Texas German'', describes the German dialects which may have been the source of the language spoken in Texas. A short documentary project named "All Güt Things" was produced about Texas German in 2016. An episode with the title "Texas German" was published on the podcast Yellow of the Egg in 2022, where Dr. Hans C. Boas (Director of the Texas German Dialect Project) was a guest.

Current distribution and population

Map of Texas highlighting Gillespie County

As of the U.S. 2000 Census, some 1,035 people report speaking German at home in Fredericksburg, the town with the largest community of Texas German speakers, representing 12.48% of the total population, 840 in

, 150 in

, 85 in Stonewall, 70 in Boerne, 65 in

Harper Harper may refer to: Names * Harper (name), a surname and given name Places ;in Canada *Harper Islands, Nunavut *Harper, Prince Edward Island ;In the United States *Harper, former name of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County * Harper, Illi ...

, 45 in Comfort and 19 in

, all of which except for Schulenburg and Weimar, lie in the traditional Texas German heartland of the Hill Country. Gillespie County, with the communities of Fredericksburg,

, Stonewall, and Luckenbach, has a German-speaking population of 2,270, 11.51% of the county's total. In all, 82,100 German-speakers reside in the state of Texas, including European German speakers.

Comparisons with German and English

Texas German is adapted to U.S. measurement and legal terminologies. Standard American German words typically were invented, introduced from other German dialects of the region, or English loanwords were introduced for words not present in 19th-century German. Dialect leveling is also found throughout many of the American German dialects including Texas German. In some cases, these new words also exist in modern Standard German, but with a different meaning. For instance, the word (used for "airplane") means

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

in Standard German. The table below illustrates some examples of differences:

References

Sources

External links