Language dominance across the lifespan in Wisconsin German and English varieties

Abstract

Abstract Large-scale German immigration to Wisconsin began in the first half of the 19th century and continued until about World War I. These immigrants built German-speaking institutions alongside English and other immigrant language institutions, allowing for the presence of German in many Wisconsin communities over several generations, along with a desire to preserve local history and heritage in the region. These practices are reflected in an archival record that allows for the study of features of local German and English over a period of 150 years. This chapter focuses on two such features, namely variation of voice onset time and final obstruent neutralization. A combination of historical written sources (spanning between the 1860s and the 1940s) and audio recordings from the 1940s and 2013 shows the existence of these features, as well as different periods along their development over time. This study looks at how language acquisition in heritage language communities and shifts in language dominance may have played a role in the emergence and development of these features in Wisconsin German and Wisconsin English varieties.