#031 - German migrations in the US.

#031 - In this episode Gabi gives a brief summary of the waves of German and Ashkenazi migrations from Europe to North America.

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Transcript

Hi everybody! 

My name is Gabi and today I am recording again a new episode of this fabulous podcast called learning languages in society with gabi. 

First and foremost, I should apologize to you all for being absent for such a long time. It has been a three-month hiatus. It has taken me a huge amount of time to catch up with all the things I needed to do for my new place, plus a  break-up and a long battle to switch from night shifts to late shifts in my company. 

All of this has led to this terrible delay. Needless to say I hope an interruption like this one will never happen again.

That being said I am back here and I am ready to continue with my podcast and give you all the coolest info on our favorite topic which is sociolinguistics or the interplay between language and culture or as the merriam-webster dictionary defines it: the study of linguistic behavior as determined by sociocultural factors. 

I am going to pick up from where I left last time.

We were discussing a topic which I always found fascinating which is migrations from Europe to North America.  

As I said in my last episode I am going to start with the migrations from what are nowadays the German territories. We will talk about the linguistic aspects of this set of migrations, but before we delve into the linguistic details of these migrations I thought it would be a good idea to give you all a preliminary historical overview. 

German Migration in the USA: Key Aspects and Dates

Early Migration (1600s-1700s):

• 1683: The first significant group of German immigrants, primarily from the Rhineland region, settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania. This is considered the starting point of organized German immigration to America.
• 1700s: Throughout the 18th century, many Germans, particularly from areas like the Palatinate, migrated to America, often fleeing religious persecution, economic hardship, and wars in Europe. Pennsylvania became a major destination due to its religious tolerance and fertile land.

19th Century Migration:

• 1848: The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states led to a surge in immigration. Many "Forty-Eighters" who according to wikipedia were Europeans who participated in or supported the Revolutions of 1848 that swept Europe. In the German Confederation, the Forty-eighters favoured unification of Germany, a more democratic government, and guarantees of human rights.[1] were political refugees who fled to avoid persecution. They were often educated and politically active, contributing significantly to American society.
• Mid-1800s: Economic conditions, including the failure of the 1848 revolution and the desire for better economic opportunities, prompted large numbers of Germans to migrate. Many settled in the Midwest, establishing farms and small communities in states like Wisconsin, Ohio, and Missouri.
• 1870-1910: This period saw the peak of German immigration to the United States, with over two million Germans arriving. They established strong communities and contributed to various sectors, including agriculture, industry, and culture.

20th Century and Beyond:

• World War I and II: German immigration slowed significantly due to the two World Wars. Anti-German sentiment during WWI led to cultural suppression and discrimination against German-Americans.
• Post-World War II: A smaller wave of immigration occurred, primarily consisting of war refugees and displaced persons from post-war Europe.

Cultural Contributions:

• Education: German immigrants founded many educational institutions and contributed to the development of kindergarten and higher education systems in the USA.
• Culture: German-Americans have significantly influenced American culture, particularly in areas like brewing, with many well-known beer brands having German origins, and in music, with the introduction of various musical traditions.
• Political Influence: German-Americans have held numerous political offices and have been influential in American politics, particularly in states with large German populations.

Key Settlements:

• Pennsylvania: Early hub of German settlement, particularly around Philadelphia.
• Midwest: Cities like Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and St. Louis became major centers of German-American culture.
• Texas: Significant German communities, such as those in New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.

Legacy:

• German-Americans are one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States today, with a significant impact on American culture, economy, and politics. Celebrations like Oktoberfest and institutions like German-American clubs and societies continue to preserve and promote German heritage in the USA.

In regards to specific language patters from German we can find many common words in American English such as • "kindergarten" (children's garden), "rucksack" (backpack), "hamburger" (from Hamburg), and "dachshund" (badger dog).

• Food and Drink: German culinary terms are prevalent, with words like "pretzel," "bratwurst," "sauerkraut," and "lager" being widely used.
• Culture and Music: Terms such as "fest" (festival), "waltz," and "polka" reflect German contributions to American cultural and musical life.

Expressions:

• Phrases like "Gesundheit" (health) when someone sneezes, and "Schadenfreude" (pleasure derived from another's misfortune) have entered common usage.

Place Names:

• Many towns and cities across the United States bear names of German origin, reflecting the areas where German immigrants settled, such as New Braunfels, Texas, and Germantown, Pennsylvania.

Grammar and Syntax:

• German influence on syntax and grammar is less pronounced but can be seen in certain sentence structures and idiomatic expressions that mirror German patterns.

If we want to talk about the influence of German on American English we will also have to talk about the influence of yiddish on American english. I will give you a small summary of Yiddish  language and the people who spoke that language with the help of encyclopedia Britannica 

Yiddish language, one of the many Germanic languages that form a branch of the Indo-European language family. Yiddish is the language of the Ashkenazim, central and eastern European Jews and their descendants. 

Written in the Hebrew alphabet, it became one of the world’s most widespread languages, appearing in most countries with a Jewish population by the 19th century. Along with Hebrew and Aramaic, it is one of the three major literary languages of Jewish history.

The earliest dated Yiddish documents are from the 12th century CE, but scholars have dated the origin of the language to the 9th century, when the Ashkenazim emerged as a unique cultural entity in central Europe. 


Yiddish first arose through an intricate fusion of two linguistic stocks: a Semitic component (containing postclassical Hebrew and Aramaic that the first settlers brought with them to Europe from the Middle East) and a grammatically and lexically more potent Germanic component (gleaned from a number of High German and Middle German dialects). 


In addition, a sprinkling of words from Romance languages also seems to have appeared in Yiddish from early on. From its birthplace on German-speaking soil, Yiddish spread to nearly all of eastern Europe, where the language acquired a Slavic component.

From its inception, Yiddish was the language of both the marketplace and the Talmudic academies. Yiddish literature continued to grow over the centuries, especially in genres not covered by traditional Hebrew and Aramaic. The rise of Yiddish printing in the 16th century stimulated the development of a standardized literary language on a Western Yiddish model. 


Owing to its gradual assimilation to German, as well as to a political campaign to stamp out the language waged by adherents of the late 18th-century Germanizing movement, Western Yiddish faded into eventual extinction.

By the early 19th century, Eastern Yiddish, by contrast, had blossomed; it became the basis for the new literary language. Prompted at first by Hasidism, a mystical movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, and spurred later by other social, educational, and political movements, Yiddish was carried to all the world’s continents by massive emigration from eastern Europe, extending its traditional role as the Jewish lingua franca. 


The Yiddishist movement, dedicated to the growth and enhancement of the language, was strengthened by the proliferation of Yiddish belles lettres. Its achievements include the Czernowitz Language Conference of 1908 (which proclaimed Yiddish a national Jewish language), the orthographic and linguistic reforms introduced by Ber Borokhov in 1913, and the founding of the Yiddish Scientific Institute (now YIVO Institute for Jewish Research) in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania, in 1925. YIVO has been headquartered in New York City since 1940.

Anyway, here we come to the end of this episode. I hope that you enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.