Page 45 - History of UB Church by A. Funkhouser Ver 1
P. 45
CHAPTER XI
THE TRANSITION FROM GERMAN TO ENGLISH
In 1725, probably nineteen-twentieths of the half million inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies
were using the English language exclusively. The Hollanders of New York and the Swedes of
Pennsylvania and Delaware were fast breaking away from a dependence on the mother tongue. The
Germans in America were as yet few.
After the date just mentioned, the German immigration became heavy and it almost occupied
whole counties between the Hudson and the James. These foreigners were industrious and thrifty
and showed a capacity for substantial citizenship. Rut to a great extent they resisted
Americanization, and to a still greater extent they resisted the adoption of the English language.
They exhibited an extreme tenacity in clinging to the German idiom, especially in the talk of the
home circle. Where Germans lived in close contact with English-speaking people, and where, as a
consequence, intermarriages were frequent, the foreign speech slowly yielded. Rut when a Scotch-
Irishman, for instance, took a German wife, the children were likely to become German-speaking
and thus new territory would be conquered for the use of an un-American medium of thought. Too
few of the newcomers were so broad-minded as pastor Pretorius. He wrote his sons that although
they were of a German father, they were nevertheless born in America, and he pointed out to them
that it would be a shame if they did not use the language of the country.
Over a considerable part of Pennsylvania the degenerate form of German known as
Pennsylvania Dutch is still in daily use. It has no educational value, neither has it any literary
development worthy of mention. Rut in the Valley of Virginia, those who spoke German and those
who spoke English lived as neighbors, and there was much intercourse between them. Before the
present century began, the use of German had been almost absolutely abandoned in this region.
There is, however, an area in the southeast of Pendleton that was settled almost exclusively by
Germans. Here are more than a thousand people, who, in conversing among themselves, seldom
use anything else than a corrupt jargon now reduced to a very few hundred foreign words. Not only
have these words lost their grammatical terminations, but the commonest idea can hardly be
expressed without some help from English words. As in the case of the Pennsylvania Dutch, this
crumbling patois serves no necessary or useful purpose whatever. The people who use it as home
talk can neither understand standard German nor read the huge German Bibles purchased by their
great grandparents. Because of this devotion to a useless form of speech, the dwellers in these
valleys are superstitious as well as unprogressive. It holds them back from entering into the full
spirit of American life and American institutions. This group of people does not include any United
Brethren congregations. As a medium of preaching, the German tongue has been extinct within the
limits of the Virginia Conference for at least eighty years.
Where the German speech has thoroughly and for some time been discarded, the descendants
of the German immigrants of the eighteenth century are almost indistinguishable from the mass of
the American population. Where this has not been the case, the descendants still exhibit foreign
peculiarities, are reactionary in spirit, and as Americans are even yet incompletely assimilated.
An efficient system of popular education, put into force at least a century ago, would long since
have extinguished this unfortunate display of obstinate conservatism. Not until 1870 did Virginia
take any effectual step in this direction. Pennsylvania has been almost as great a laggard. For
many decades both these states were much remiss in the civic as well as educational duties toward
their citizens of non-British origin. In the colonial era the German immigrant was tolerated rather
than made at home. Too often he was looked upon as a subject for extortion. Instead of seeing that
his children, if not himself, developed into genuine Americans, the propensity of the immigrant to
be clannish was fostered and little Germanys on American soil were unwittingly encouraged.
Otterbein was twenty-seven when he arrived in America, and he continued to preach wholly in
German to people who knew little English. To the last his conversational English easily betrayed his
foreign birth, although he finally mastered the art of writing English with force and clearness.
Boehm was born in Pennsylvania, but like Otterbein he preached only in German. To the end of his
long life he could not express himself in English with much ease. Geeting, the third of the founders
Chapter XI 45 The Transition from German to
English
THE TRANSITION FROM GERMAN TO ENGLISH
In 1725, probably nineteen-twentieths of the half million inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies
were using the English language exclusively. The Hollanders of New York and the Swedes of
Pennsylvania and Delaware were fast breaking away from a dependence on the mother tongue. The
Germans in America were as yet few.
After the date just mentioned, the German immigration became heavy and it almost occupied
whole counties between the Hudson and the James. These foreigners were industrious and thrifty
and showed a capacity for substantial citizenship. Rut to a great extent they resisted
Americanization, and to a still greater extent they resisted the adoption of the English language.
They exhibited an extreme tenacity in clinging to the German idiom, especially in the talk of the
home circle. Where Germans lived in close contact with English-speaking people, and where, as a
consequence, intermarriages were frequent, the foreign speech slowly yielded. Rut when a Scotch-
Irishman, for instance, took a German wife, the children were likely to become German-speaking
and thus new territory would be conquered for the use of an un-American medium of thought. Too
few of the newcomers were so broad-minded as pastor Pretorius. He wrote his sons that although
they were of a German father, they were nevertheless born in America, and he pointed out to them
that it would be a shame if they did not use the language of the country.
Over a considerable part of Pennsylvania the degenerate form of German known as
Pennsylvania Dutch is still in daily use. It has no educational value, neither has it any literary
development worthy of mention. Rut in the Valley of Virginia, those who spoke German and those
who spoke English lived as neighbors, and there was much intercourse between them. Before the
present century began, the use of German had been almost absolutely abandoned in this region.
There is, however, an area in the southeast of Pendleton that was settled almost exclusively by
Germans. Here are more than a thousand people, who, in conversing among themselves, seldom
use anything else than a corrupt jargon now reduced to a very few hundred foreign words. Not only
have these words lost their grammatical terminations, but the commonest idea can hardly be
expressed without some help from English words. As in the case of the Pennsylvania Dutch, this
crumbling patois serves no necessary or useful purpose whatever. The people who use it as home
talk can neither understand standard German nor read the huge German Bibles purchased by their
great grandparents. Because of this devotion to a useless form of speech, the dwellers in these
valleys are superstitious as well as unprogressive. It holds them back from entering into the full
spirit of American life and American institutions. This group of people does not include any United
Brethren congregations. As a medium of preaching, the German tongue has been extinct within the
limits of the Virginia Conference for at least eighty years.
Where the German speech has thoroughly and for some time been discarded, the descendants
of the German immigrants of the eighteenth century are almost indistinguishable from the mass of
the American population. Where this has not been the case, the descendants still exhibit foreign
peculiarities, are reactionary in spirit, and as Americans are even yet incompletely assimilated.
An efficient system of popular education, put into force at least a century ago, would long since
have extinguished this unfortunate display of obstinate conservatism. Not until 1870 did Virginia
take any effectual step in this direction. Pennsylvania has been almost as great a laggard. For
many decades both these states were much remiss in the civic as well as educational duties toward
their citizens of non-British origin. In the colonial era the German immigrant was tolerated rather
than made at home. Too often he was looked upon as a subject for extortion. Instead of seeing that
his children, if not himself, developed into genuine Americans, the propensity of the immigrant to
be clannish was fostered and little Germanys on American soil were unwittingly encouraged.
Otterbein was twenty-seven when he arrived in America, and he continued to preach wholly in
German to people who knew little English. To the last his conversational English easily betrayed his
foreign birth, although he finally mastered the art of writing English with force and clearness.
Boehm was born in Pennsylvania, but like Otterbein he preached only in German. To the end of his
long life he could not express himself in English with much ease. Geeting, the third of the founders
Chapter XI 45 The Transition from German to
English
