| To date, there has been limited research on linguistic variation and language shift in North American German-speaking communities. In both academic and popular literature, statements regarding varieties in these communities are often overgeneralized, inaccurate, and unsubstantiated by empirical data. Following the direction suggested by Mattheier (1993), this dissertation examines a fuller range of language variation in one such community by presenting a case study of the linguistic varieties that existed, and in some cases, continue to exist in one Wisconsin German-American community.;Language shift is a multidimensional, complex and uneven process. Examining the key areas of language shift as specified by Fishman (1991), three types of data have been collected. Documentation from church records, school records, municipal records and data from print and radio media provide information on institutional language use in the community. Self-reported data from recorded interviews with speakers allow insight into speakers' perceptions of these varieties. The content of these interviews, complemented by data obtained from personal letters, creates the basis to build speech biographies of the participants and offers a personal perspective on community language use. Finally, a structural analysis of the interviews, translation and storytelling activities allow investigation of language change within the varieties used by speakers today.;The data is then examined in the context of theories of larger social change, developed specifically for North American communities by Warren (1987), and applied to Wisconsin German communities by Salmons (2005). As detailed by Warren, there has been a shift in local community focus to vertical structures, resulting in less local autonomy. As seen in the data, this process of 'verticalization' has had a profound influence on language use in this community. But what is also shown by the results of this study is that the language shift in these communities has been considerable, but is not complete. While the future of German varieties in these communities is uncertain, they have not disappeared without a trace. |
