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Chapter 2. Wisconsin immigrant letters

German transfer to Wisconsin English
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Abstract

This chapter outlines German transfer to Wisconsin English based on the analysis of ego-documents written by German immigrants and their descendants to Wisconsin in the nineteenth century. The analysis of 111 letters from four generations of a German-American family revealed 450 instances indicative of German transfer to English. Using these documents, we show how native German speakers learning English transferred German-like features and structures (phonological, syntactic, and semantic transfer) to their English and how some of these transfers remain in the regional English today. This is supplemented by an additional 101 letters from another family and their acquaintances in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These additional documents exhibit similar patterns of transfer, indicating that the transfer is not due to regional differences, but likely due to other factors such as generational language shift.

Abstract

This chapter outlines German transfer to Wisconsin English based on the analysis of ego-documents written by German immigrants and their descendants to Wisconsin in the nineteenth century. The analysis of 111 letters from four generations of a German-American family revealed 450 instances indicative of German transfer to English. Using these documents, we show how native German speakers learning English transferred German-like features and structures (phonological, syntactic, and semantic transfer) to their English and how some of these transfers remain in the regional English today. This is supplemented by an additional 101 letters from another family and their acquaintances in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These additional documents exhibit similar patterns of transfer, indicating that the transfer is not due to regional differences, but likely due to other factors such as generational language shift.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Chapter 1. Mining emigrant correspondence for linguistic insights 1
  6. Part I. The language of emigrant correspondence
  7. Chapter 2. Wisconsin immigrant letters 27
  8. Chapter 3. ‘I hope you will excuse my bad writing’ 43
  9. Chapter 4. Singular, plural, or collective? 67
  10. Part II. The language of the Irish emigrant experience
  11. Chapter 5. Homesickness, recollections and reunions 87
  12. Chapter 6. ‘I have not time to say more at present’ 119
  13. Chapter 7. ‘Matt & Mrs Connor is with me now. They are only beginning to learn the work of the camp’ 139
  14. Chapter 8. Grammatical variation in nineteenth-century Irish Australian letters 163
  15. Chapter 9. ‘[S]eas may divide and oceans roll between but Friends is Friends whatever intervene’ 185
  16. Part III. Vernacular correspondence
  17. Chapter 10. ‘[T]his is all answer soon’ 213
  18. Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic features in earlier African American English 239
  19. Chapter 12. Memoirs from Central America 261
  20. Index 287
Keeping in Touch
This chapter is in the book Keeping in Touch
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.10.02bag

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Chapter 1. Mining emigrant correspondence for linguistic insights 1
  6. Part I. The language of emigrant correspondence
  7. Chapter 2. Wisconsin immigrant letters 27
  8. Chapter 3. ‘I hope you will excuse my bad writing’ 43
  9. Chapter 4. Singular, plural, or collective? 67
  10. Part II. The language of the Irish emigrant experience
  11. Chapter 5. Homesickness, recollections and reunions 87
  12. Chapter 6. ‘I have not time to say more at present’ 119
  13. Chapter 7. ‘Matt & Mrs Connor is with me now. They are only beginning to learn the work of the camp’ 139
  14. Chapter 8. Grammatical variation in nineteenth-century Irish Australian letters 163
  15. Chapter 9. ‘[S]eas may divide and oceans roll between but Friends is Friends whatever intervene’ 185
  16. Part III. Vernacular correspondence
  17. Chapter 10. ‘[T]his is all answer soon’ 213
  18. Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic features in earlier African American English 239
  19. Chapter 12. Memoirs from Central America 261
  20. Index 287
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