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A Tale of Three Cities: Urban-Rural Asymmetries in Language Shift?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2011
Abstract
In the 19th and 20th centuries, eastern Wisconsin went from being heavily German speaking to almost entirely English speaking. The largest city, Milwaukee, is claimed to have experienced language shift more rapidly than the state's rural German communities. We examine this apparent asymmetry, comparing evidence for language shift in urban Milwaukee, the city of Watertown, and the small town of Lebanon, drawing on census data, reports on language of church services, and information on the German language press. Our findings show little asymmetry in rate of shift across the three communities, but evidence is consistent with a correlation between shift and Warren's Great Change.*
- Type
- ARTICLES
- Information
- Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 23 , Special Issue 4: Germanic Languages and Migration in North America , December 2011 , pp. 347 - 374
- Copyright
- Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2011
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