When Did Americans Lose Their German Accents?

[Ptah]

[1000words]

1. When they bombed Pearl Harbor!

Happy Birthday, John Belushi.

[TexasTowelie]

3. More likely when they sank the Lusitania.

Living in the Central Texas area which is heavenly German and also having a grandfather of German heritage that fought in the Army in World War I provides some insight about the times. There was a almost as much as animosity against the Germans in the area during World War I as what the Japanese experienced in World War II.

[Art_from_Ark]

32. My grandmother's native language was German

even though she was born in the USA. When she was alive, I never realized what she must have gone through as a high schooler when the teaching of German was outlawed in US public schools.

[AngryAmish]

2. okaladokaly. ...

[gerogie2]

4. When English was made the language

Believe it or not at one time in the 1880's in the mid-west German was the most common language.

[icymist]

5. Ich verstehe nicht

Verstehen Sie?

[tandot]

6. When did Americans lose their Native accents (or better: language)?

and...

Irish
Scottish
Portuguese
Spanish
Italian
...

and, most importantly ...

all the accents from the different African nations who "exported" slaves

[joshcryer]

29. Interestingly, the basic American accent was how the colonials spoke.

The Queens English evolved over time, the American English we know today is more what the original colonials sounded like, obviously with regional dialect exceptions, I'm talking the basic pronunciation differences. Blew my mind when I learned that.

[pipi_k]

7. Or...

how long does it take for someone to lose his/her German accent?

I had a SIL, born in Germany, who had been in the US for well over 30 years but still had a very pronounced German accent.

Which isn't really the issue, as I always wondered why people who come here from other countries mostly retain their native accents, but many times I've seen people from my neck of the woods move down South, and within just a few years they have a noticeable Southern accent.

The other thing that has always fascinated me is how people with accents will insist they don't have one.

I live in Western Mass and I don't have an accent at all...

[Historic NY]

8. about the time...

[link:

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[Spider Jerusalem]

9. When did they have them?

The thirteen colonies were mostly settled by people from the British Isles. There were Germans, yes, but there were a lot fewer of them. The dominant accent in most places (except for parts of Pennsylvania) would have been English.

And the often-reported "fact" that "German is the most common ancestry of Americans" isn't actually true; it's based on self-reported data from the Census. Quite a lot of people who have substantial British colonial ancestry will report "German" or "Swedish" or "Irish" on the Census because their most-recent immigrant ancestor came from Germany, or Ireland, or wherever. And in much of the South, which historically saw low levels of immigration, the most commonly self-reported ethnic background is "American"...which means "British colonial ancestry" most of the time, but the collective memory of their ancestor's origins is lost because it was 250, 300 years ago.

[bluestate10]

10. The country's population is something like 25% German origin. nt

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. And probably more like 40% British origins, or more

32.6% reported British ancestry in the 1980 census. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_American#1980_Census

The largest "ethnic origin" group among Americans is British Isles, not German.

[XRubicon]

11. Very interesting

[kwassa]

12. I know nothink, I know nothink.

[jberryhill]

14. Dis, dat, deze and doze...

For "this, that, these and those"

People in certain NYC areas still sound kinda Dutch to me. When Dutch people speak English, they sound more American than British English speakers, at least to me.

[defacto7]

16. The Dutch language

has many sounds that are closer to American English that are not part of most British English accents, E.G. the hard "R" and strong diphthong use farther back in the throat. British English and German are more frontal. Irish and Scottish English is closer to most American English accents.

[dem in texas]

15. When WWI Started

I saw a show on PBS and it said school books in areas in the US with larger German populations were printed in German until WWI. My nephew lives down by Mason (Texas) and he said a lot of the old timers down there still speak a form of German.

I also read in a book about Texas that at one time (before 1900) most of the signs in San Antonio were in either Spanish or German.

[hfojvt]

24. many had lost it long before that

The Pennsylvania Dutch were here before the Revolutionary War, including my paternal ancestor, but they were using English pronunciation of their name by at least 1875. A fact I know for certain because my great-great grandfather's marriage certificate, even in heavily German Sauk County, Wisconsin, is spelled with an English spelling - the way we pronounce it still today.

Although what I find somewhat interesting is that my German-Swiss ancestries, from my dad's dad, my dad's mom, and my mom's mom they ALL seem to come from the same Rhine area of Germany.

[defacto7]

17. Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota

are very German. There are a lot of German speaking families and communities that still speak a loose form of German now even after generations.

My German grandfather lived in Oklahoma after his family migrated in 1905... by way of Brazil... Lots of Germans there.

[Packerowner740]

21. I am from wisconsin originally. My relatives came from Luxembourg and Austria around 1865

As late as the 1970s my great grandparents had a very german accent.

[defacto7]

22. I have some friends in Milwaukee

who still speak it or at least they try to keep up with it and pass it on. Their kids have to speak German one day a week but it usually only lasts through dinner. They have a community of friends who still make stollen every Christmas and rolladen at New years. Well for that matter... so do we!

[Packerowner740]

25. I lived just on the edge of Milwaukee and Wauwatosa

My older sisters actually had german classes in school in the late 60s. We moved to Texas in 1972 and we had Spanish from there on.

[defacto7]

26. Utah now for me....

all Spanish.

[Packerowner740]

27. I think that seems to be the norm.

Much more useful to learn Spanish because it is more common to encounter day to day.

My wife was born in Mexico, lived there until she was about five then moved with her family to Texas. I can understand most Spanish and can speak some.

[Luminous Animal]

23. Michigander here with a french accent..

Most of my small insular farming community was DeLor, Boulier, Sauget...

I haven't lived there for 45 years but now and again the accent slips out and people ask me what part of Europe I'm from.

[nikto]

18. Vot are you talking about?

Vee never lost zee accent of der Vaderland.

Have you?
Zen vee vill send in za' Gestapo. Schnell!

Schnell!!!!

[baldguy]

19. My grandparents never did.

[Packerowner740]

20. My great grandparents still had their german accents. They died in the early 70s

My grandparents did not have the accents.

[defacto7]

28. My wife... Full native German...

She speaks English perfectly in several American dialects and you hardly can tell she's German. She speaks a great South Carolina drawl. The thing that gives her away is when she is in a hurry she switches verb noun order out of habit, like, "Will you the dog bring in when I leave?" She actually has me doing it now.

[Shrike47]

30. My ancestors all British, both sides. We never had a German accent.

The husband's ancestors are German and Swiss. They had the accent about 3 generations back,
@1900.

[MrScorpio]

31. Wie gehts?