Swiss German in Wisconsin: The Impact of English

Abstract

IN SPITE OF the similarity of the terms, Wisconsin German is different in nature from Pennsylvania German or Texas German, as Eichhoff has pointed out in his recent survey of German spoken in Wisconsin.1 The geographical variation of the latter two is that of closely related dialects. In Wisconsin, however, German is spoken in a large number of individual communities which use different dialects, ranging from Low German, which is well represented in the state, to the High German dialects of Germany and Switzerland. There is little or no evidence of the leveling of these dialects, and the rapid decline of German speaking in this century makes it virtually certain that there will be no such development in the future. The importance of the German-speaking populace in Wisconsin since the middle of the last century is well known. The number of Wisconsin residents who were born in Germany or had at least one parent who was born there reached nearly 800,000 in 1910. Eichhoff (pp. 48-49) estimated that around 1900 approximately one-third of the population of the state was at least able to understand German. Yet, in spite of this history, relatively few studies of Wisconsin German have so far been published. The causes may be connected with its diversity and the frequently small size of the settlements. This article is a study of the influence of English on the Swiss German of New Glarus, the major Swiss settlement in the state, which is located twenty-five miles southwest of Madison. After the historical background has been outlined and the research methods have been described, the changes in language use in the area in the past century and a quarter will be discussed and the influence of English on the phonology, grammar, and lexicon of the Swiss German spoken there will be examined.2