A cultural blog with Kyrie O'Connor

Texas German is going extinct


Totally the wurst!






Categories: language
Kyrie O'Connor

26 Responses

  1. Craigley says:

    Talk about a concept that works: Adopt the language of the land you live in.

    My Dad’s side of the family spoke it. They all still live in Fredericksburg but nobody prays towards Berlin.

  2. WeaklyReeder says:

    I used to work with someone who claimed that most Texas German speakers did not give a V sound to W like I think they do in most of German-speaking Europe. Can any reader out there verify that?

    • John Kainer says:

      My Family is from Fayette County. My uncle Edwin’s name was always Ed’v'in. So from my German heritage – mid 1800′s imigration here, the answer is no.

  3. Ralph W says:

    I am primarily of German heritage. I cannot speak German, nor can my mother. Her father insisted on speaking English (he said “talking American”). He always felt that people who wanted to hear German or any other foreign language should go back home. His thinking was that if they wanted to stay, they needed to learn his loved “American”. He had nothing against learning a second language & actually encouraged it, AFTER a generation was fluent in English & thought in English. I strongly agree with him.
    Mother, now 96, became fluent in Spanish. That along with having been innoculated against small pox due to being a student at a major college, got her ‘drafted’ by the county health officer to care for a family of migrant workers who came down with small pox. The good doctor knew of no other person in the county that met both criteria.

  4. The Partner says:

    When I first came to Round Top and Winedale there were a number of people with the accent quite strongly. Now it is mostly those over 60 as the excerpt you quoted indicated. I never heard the V sound, but there is a particular rhythm and intonation, and I have heard that in one young man recently in RT. I mourn the loss of all such regional individualities.

  5. Lazarus says:

    Good size Lutheran school in a public 3A school district … Dairy farms … year-round gardens … buried crocks of cabbage … monthly volunteer-fireman training near a large pond (to provide water for the hoses), sawhorses with tapped wooden kegs (to provide home-brewed beer for the hose holders) —

    Where? A rural area called Klein, Spring to one side, Tomball another.
    All the cow pastures and gardens are now covered with concrete, schools, expensive homes, and Starbucks . . .
    Not only the dialect is dying out.

  6. O.C. Jones says:

    Wonder how the Czechs in Texas are holding out?

  7. thejavelina says:

    This article has been linked on

  8. Austincoog2 says:

    My dad was German, my mom Mexican-American, but I learned niether as a child. I think it a shame when a language is lost, even if that means there will be some Americans who never learn English, its worth the price, as their grandkids will probably be bilingual. My son is in a dual language program, English MWF and Spanish TTH, but I wish there were a German-dual language somewhere, that would be great.

  9. phantom says:

    I don’t think it was passed along because the German immigrants of that time wanted their children to become Americans and not German-Americans. I am of German ancestry and my Great Grandparents spoke it but they did not teach their children anything but English for this very reason.

    • VoiceofReason says:

      Along the Gulf coast, German-speaking families were shamed into hiding their bilingual skills after the First World War, and too frightened to speak German in public after the Second World War. Children born in the 1930s and later simply were not taught German to protect them from ridicule.

  10. CypressMom says:

    My grandparents, who came from Mason and Fredericksburg, both spoke it, especially when they wanted to keep a secret since they didn’t teach it to their daughters. I remember visiting one great, great aunt who was a 101 and had forgotten her English but remembered her first language, Texas German – grandma had a great conversation with her. My daughter is now learning German in school but it won’t be the same.

    • Stan strauss says:

      If you take German in High School or College, they try to force you to change your accent . If you ever go every one loves the Tex- Ger

  11. jim says:

    Don’t know much about Tex-Germans, aside from the sausage traditions up in Fredricksburg and Admiral Nimitz, but I’m a quarter Iowa-German. An ancestor of my mom’s father, back in the early 1800s when Germany was a collection of warring small kingdoms and duchies, went ditty-bopping out the back door when the duke’s men were knocking on the front door to conscript him. He made his way to Hamburg and stowed away on a ship bound for the US (making me the descendant of both a draft dodger and an illegal alien, which I get a huge kick out of) and wound up in a part of Iowa where there were a lot of Germans. Granddad was born (just barely) in the 20th century and spoke German at home and didn’t learn English until he started school. Until 1917, that is, when speaking German was deemed unpatriotic even for third-generation Americans whose fathers had fought in the Civil War, and English-at-home became the standard. By the time I came along Granddad had lost all of his German including the accent.

    Regarding Czech – about 15 years ago I was at a Sunday-afternoon multi-band show at Jovita’s in South Austin and my favorite band of the day was a bunch of guys in their 30s and 40s doing polkas in Czech. Wish to heck I could remember the name of the band, because the singer noted “We’re the oldest band in Texas, my great-grandfather was one of the original members” before belting out the next number.

    As far as the English-only trolls go… my biggest influence in 12 years of public school was a Jersey hippie whose Lithuanian parents and grandparents found themselves trapped between Nazis and Stalinists and quite sensibly hopped a refugee ship bound for New York. As is the case with immigrant parents who both work, Bob was raised (on the Lower East Side in the late 40s) by his grandmother, who shopped and chatted with the multi-ethnic neighborhood vendors. As a result, by the time he started kindergarten Bob had equal fluency in Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Yiddish, Polish, Russian, and English. But whenever a word slipped out in school that wasn’t English he would get slapped for “speaking Communist.” Not only was he raped of his heritage, can you imagine what a native-fluency speaker with that range would have been worth to the CIA or Special Forces by the time he was a teen and old enough to enlist?

    You are right, Kyri. Missouri Synod Lutherans are weird. Very, very weird. “Shiite Protestants” is the phrase that comes to mind… of course we have to kill the Catholic women and children, that will just leave less Papists for the next generation of real Christians to kill.

    • Kyrie says:

      I beat it out of that church as fast as I could. I don’t think it ever scarred me.

    • dgray says:

      Would that old polka band be the Pateks? They used to broadcast on the radio around Shiner and Yoakum.

    • jim says:

      dgray – That sounds right, but it was a long time ago. Just thought it was neat knowing that the music was changing hands like that from generation to generation. One of the most fun bands on youtube is Folk Uke! which is Willie Nelson’s daughter and Arlo Guthrie’s daughter. Man, those young ladies are fun, if kinda wulgar.

      Another dying language – I live over in 5th Ward and once you get between Liberty Road and Cavalcade you are in the old Frenchtown neighborhood. The older folks born there pre-TV (1950 or so) spoke Cajun French at home until they started school and still use it among themselves. Most of their kids and grandkids never learned aside from a few phrases, but I’ve met a few teens who picked up quite a bit so they could talk to their grandparents without their parents being able to follow. Used to be a couple of zydeco clubs where by midnight everyone was speaking French or trying to.

  12. Doug Westphal says:

    My Great-Grandparents came to the US from the northern region of Germany and settled in the small communities of Zimmerschiedt and Frelsburg, Texas. There they raised their families and ultimately my Mom and Dad. They all spoke German as their first language. They learned English on their own, no bilingual education, and, in fact, Dad could not speak English until he entered school, learning English on his own. Growing up in this environment, I can understand pretty well, but have a hard time speaking. The older German and Czech families (50 and above) in the Frelsburg area still speak in their native languages among themselves. However, the children are not picking up the practice. I understand German is still taught as an elective in the Columbus Schools. There is also a very active German Society in the Central Texas area.

  13. Kaye Langehennig Wong says:

    Both my parents were born and raised in and around Fredericksburg, TX and I spent a good amount of time there as a child. My maternal Oma used to like to take me along on errands and I remember going with her to the bakery, the post office and Dooley’s and everyone she ran into would converse with her in German. I have such fond memories of those times.

    My dad learned to speak English when he went to school. My mother learned before school because they had some neighbors who spoke English. My dad had a German accent until the day he died, and my mother said I had one from imitating him until I started school. My parents never taught us German, but they used it when they wanted to talk about stuff they didn’t want us to understand. I was always fascinated by my heritage and wished I understood them. My maternal grandmother lived well into her 90′s and as she became more elderly she forgot I didn’t speak German. So, I took German in high school and then continued on in college. The German I learned in school is quite different from my family’s version. My mother referred to their dialect as Plott (or something, not sure of spelling) Deutsch. Anyway, my conversations with my Oma the last few years consisted of her speaking German to me and me answering in English (not sure she would get my Hoche Deutsch) and it worked quite well. My father’s brother who is 91 still has the familiar accent from my childhood.

    I still very much enjoy visiting Fredericksburg.

    As far as the church goes, I was raised in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church and loved my church and my congregation. Growing up, the church members were like family to me. I still think of myself as Lutheran, however I strongly disagree with many of their positions. I can’t begin to imagine what the problem is raising up prayers with others, no matter their denomination, for a common cause. I hope the church will change their stance on many things. Otherwise, it’s not going to be only the dialect that dies out.

  14. txloanguy says:

    The small German schools in Central Texas kept the language going. My grandmother taugh in one after going to the Univ. of Texas for a while. Her family came over in 1850 and settled near Halletsville. I heard Texas German many times but never learned it. When the unheaval in Germany drove them here, many dissidents came and settled, as did my relatives. But I got even with my Socialist ancestors. I’m conservative. Hah.

  15. tx girl says:

    My father’s family was among the first Texas settlers from Germany to arrive in Texas. They settled in the area around Schulenburg. As a child I remember hearing some relatives speak Texas German but my father did not however he has a distinct accent that many mistake for Cajun. My uncle has a very very thick accent and sometimes it is hard to understand what he is saying. My dad tends to drop the H in words like “birthday” and sometimes puts a R where there should be a N. As an adult I don’t notice it as much as I did as a child. I hate thinking the German culture might be dying in Texas.

  16. Scott Kirkpatrick says:

    Guess what Kyrie, we don’t seem to be missing you in the LCMS either. Good day.

    • Kyrie says:

      Funny, I remember the LCMS as being better at knowing where commas go.

    • Karl Heinz says:

      Not a very gracious remark. What happened to turning the other cheek?

      While there are some individual congregations of the LC-MS who are more tolerant, as a synod, the official view is to shun evolution in favor of creationism (I refer you to the LC-MS website which cites Behe and Dembski), and the Concordia College system (most, don’t know if all of the colleges in the system) is creationist in their teaching. This is unnecessary, imo, but they, being fundamentalist literalists, disagree. It’s their club and they can set their own rules.

      The LC-MS also had a similar experience with clergy “worshipping” with other, non-approved LC-MS groups, after the 9/11 tragedy. The minister then refused to apologize and the powers that be suspended him (or whatever official term is to be used) and reinstated him about two years later. The president of the synod at the time, Kieschnick (sp) defended that minister, and that defense was one of the reasons that Kieschnick was voted out of office and replaced by a more conservative person, Matt Harrison. That vote, iirc, took place here in Houston.

      Please note that the other, larger, more tolerant Lutheran body, the ELCA, is not the same as the LC-MS.

  17. Ralph W says:

    A lot of interesting posts: As the V for a W. Many people in Washington Co. subbed a V for a W when I was a kid. Those who spoke German in my area, spoke it at home. They spoke what was called “Low German”. In public they spoke English. Prejudice can be found in many cultures. I recall a bunch of women at our home when I was about 6. They were discussing the future wife of a local guy. The bride-to-be came from about 20 miles away. Those women were discussing the fact that her family spoke “High German”. From the tone of their voices, I assumed it was scandelous to marry someone from a “High German” family. I think that is why I recall the ibcident.
    One of Dad’s ancestors came here (from Germany) when Texas was owned by Spain. One of Mom’s (from Germany but partially of French blood) arrived at San Felipe just before or just after the Texas revolution. I think after. My grandfather (Dad’s side) used many Spanish words. They were thrown in with the English. These words related to ranching more than anything else. I was grown before I realized they were Spanish words, not English.
    The commuminity I came from was unusual. Supposedly we were mostly of Greman heritage. We had Schroeders & Wellmans, the Smiths & Jones of Germanmy, but most folks had short names (4-5 letters). We were not Lutheren or Catholic. The older generation drank very little or not at all, usually an occasional beer, never wine. And a high percent were dark featured.

  18. Don Keenan says:

    Both my Grandmothers could speak German or the Texas German you refer to.
    My paternal Gma was from Galveston. My maternal Gma was from Brenham Washington County. My mother said she would talk to a neighbor in German but wouldn’t teach her children. She didn’t want her children to know what she was talking about.