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A Tale of Three Cities: Urban-Rural Asymmetries in Language Shift?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2011

Felecia Lucht ,
Benjamin Frey  and
Joseph Salmons
Felecia Lucht*
Affiliation:
Wayne State University
Benjamin Frey*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Joseph Salmons*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
*
Wayne State University, Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, 487 Manoogian Hall, 906 West Warren Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202, USA, [[email protected]]
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of German, 818 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA, [[email protected]]
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of German, 818 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA, [[email protected]]
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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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