Why is America not speaking German?

[Skybird]

http://www.welt.de/geschichte/article121352619/Nach-dieser-Karte-muesste-Amerika-Deutsch-sprechen.html

Klick the map, the "+". The map is from the US census bureau 2000. The colour code indentifies the single biggest ethnic groups in the various regions.

I knew that people of German descent form a big group of the American population. However, I did not know that there are SO MANY, forming the biggest ethnic group in the US - more than Anglosaxons (around half as many only). :huh:

No wonder that our populatation in Germany is shrinking. :D We want back our people! :ping:

The census data of 2000 showed 49.2 million people said to be of German descent, Africans: 41 million, Irish: 35.5 million, Mexicans: 32 million, English: 27 million.

The article also says that in the Civil War, almost one quarter of the North's army was German, 516 thousand men - of which 210 thousand even had been born in Germany. And 1794, the House of Representatives voted only with a slight majority against the proposal to have all legal texts and official declarations published and announced not just in English, but German as well.

Okay, from next week on I introduz German language courses in zis forum, inclusive ze confusing grammar and korrekt zackiges pronounciation and all zat. Time to free ze world from zis terrible spitting sound zat is ze "th" ! It's "z", is zat so difficult to see? Whenever I talk to somebody using the "th", I feel like needing to clean my glasses. :nope:

[U505995]

I think the more important question is. Why is Germany not learning to speak Chinese?

[Red October1984]

Okay, from next week on I introduz German language courses in zis forum, inclusive ze confusing grammar and korrekt zackiges pronounciation and all zat. Time to free ze world from zis terrible spitting sound zat is ze "th" ! It's "z", is zat so difficult to see? Whenever I talk to somebody using the "th", I feel like needing to clean my glasses. :nope:

SOMEBODY WILL FINALLY TEACH ME!!!

WOOHOO!! :har:

[Oberon]

I think the more important question is. Why is Germany not learning to speak Chinese?

Turkish, surely?

[Betonov]

Oh hell no. I failed a year in highschool because of german.
I'm not going trough that again.

[AVGWarhawk]

I think the more important question is. Why is Germany not learning to speak Chinese?

Because the US will before long! :haha:

[Dread Knot]

The article also says that in the Civil War, almost one quarter of the North's army was German, 516 thousand men - of which 210 thousand even had been born in Germany.

Probably felt quite at home fighting on battlefields with names that ended in 'burg. :)

There was a General Adolph von Steinwehr from Brunswick at Gettysburg, whose brigade got badly beaten up. But then almost everybody got badly beaten up at Gettysburg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_von_Steinwehr

[Betonov]

Because the US will before long! :haha:


We're lucky. We're learning Russian :D

[Ducimus]

I think the more important question is. Why is Germany not learning to speak Chinese?

What if your half German and half Chinese? :O:

Because the US will before long! :haha:

We'll have to learn how to speak Spanish before that.

[Nippelspanner]

Oh hell no. I failed a year in highschool because of german.
I'm not going trough that again.
*clears throat*

Let me correct thee!
You failed a year in high school because you were too lazy and did not work hard enough to learn this magnificent Language! :know:

[Skybird]

Turkish, surely?
There are some Greens with a walking intellectual vacuum named Ströbele as their spokesman who want the German national anthem being sung in German and Turkish. No joke.

[Betonov]

*clears throat*

Let me correct thee!
You failed a year in high school because you were too lazy and did not work hard enough to learn this magnificent Language! :know:

Mein Deutsch ist ganz ausreichend :stare:
Aber mein Lehrerin were eine [nicht für Kinder] :O:

[Schroeder]

Mein Deutsch ist ganz ausreichend :stare:
Aber mein Lehrerin were eine [nicht für Kinder] :O:
War eine, nicht were eine. :know:
So back to class you go!:stare:

[Skybird]

Or he meant a Werlehrerin.

It seems his schoolyears were quite traumatizing an experience for him. :D

[Oberon]

Don't make me pull out my pidgin German now, Schroeder has only just got back from therapy. :O:

[Stealhead]

Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswe rk-
bauunterbeamtengesellschaft.


That is why America does not speak German.

[Oberon]

Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswe rk-
bauunterbeamtengesellschaft.


That is why America does not speak German.

http://mkenyaujerumani.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Longest-German-Word.png

[Skybird]

Say what you want - it's German precision. :D Or precise German, if you prefer. :D :D

[Madox58]

If Germany bordered the U.S.A.?
We probably would be instead of Spanish. Eh?
:03:

[Karle94]

Ik sprekt Neederlands.

[Sailor Steve]

"Since long, my gentlemen, have I the passionate longing nursed a speech on German to hold, but one has not me permitted."
-From Mark Twain;s literal translation of his 'Concordia Speech', given in German, October 31, 1897

"I have not sufficiently mastered German, to allow my using it with impunity. My collection of fourteen-syllable German words is still incomplete. But I have just added to that collection a jewel—a veritable jewel. I found it in a telegram from Linz, and it contains ninety-five letters:
Personaleinkommensteuerschatzungskommissionsmitgli edsreisekostenrechnungs erganzungsrevisionsfund
If I could get a similar word engraved upon my tombstone I should sleep beneath it in peace."
-Mark Twain, speech in Vienna, March 10, 1899

[TarJak]

If Germany bordered the U.S.A.?
We probably would be instead of Spanish. Eh?
:03:

Now you're speaking Canadian. Eh.

[Schroeder]

Ik sprekt Neederlands.
Doesn't it have to be "Ik spreek nederlands"?:doh:

[Penguin]

All ze North beloggs to us:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/German1346.gif

People with my family name have also settled around the Great Lakes.
Personally i find the Texas German dialect or the Pennsylvania Dutch ver interesting. They preserved some old language which isn't used anymore, combined with modern English loanwords and an American speech pattern.

For the Brits: did you know that there are still people in the US who speak English :03:: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZgw09CG9E - a very fascinating dialect!



No wonder that our populatation in Germany is shrinking. :D We want back our people! :ping:

Maybe its the combination of Manchester Capitalism combined with elitist rule, which you lately promote and which was prevalent in the 19th century, that lead to this mass immigration. :know:


Time to free ze world from zis terrible spitting sound zat is ze "th" ! It's "z", is zat so difficult to see? Whenever I talk to somebody using the "th", I feel like needing to clean my glasses. :nope:

The goal is to aim for the person who you're talking to, not your glasses. When the other one is covered in spit, you're doing it right. :O:

[Herr-Berbunch]

All ze North beloggs to us:

No, no, no - it's 'All your North are belong to us'. :sunny:

[Penguin]

http://mkenyaujerumani.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Longest-German-Word.png

Sehr witzig, Herr Tommy! :timeout: Having dealt extensively with tax laws in the past weeks, it puts salt into my wounds :wah:
If this would only be the only law with an insane name, our bureaucrazy is creative in inventing incomprehensive language. Sometimes even a few different letters in bandworm names can mean the difference between money returns or being hanged in front of the tax authority.

[Nippelspanner]

All ze North are belongs to us:
Now itz korrekt!

[CaptainMattJ.]

Funny, i could imagine my veteran great uncle saying something along the lines of "...and if it wasn't for us, we'd all be speaking german by now!" :O:

I'm a direct descendent of a Müller, which was a rather large family living in Herolz, right next to the town of Schlüchtern, Hesse. My great grandmother on my father's side immigrated from the fatherland to here in 1898, while my grandfather was born from an Irishman. My mother's mother was greek and my mother's father was a long descended brit. My dad still tells me stories of "Grandma Müller" and his trips to Herolz. Apparently that side of the family is related in some way to the majority of people living in Herolz.

Personally i think its sad that German culture isnt as pronounced here as latin, french, irish, and italian culture is. Though my grandmother has plastered her walls with pictures of the many past Müllers and of Herolz, and hangs a sign in her kitchen reading "Rauchen Verbotten" (smoking forbidden).

[U505995]

Because the US will before long! :haha:

You know what I have to say to China? Come at us bro, we'll be waiting behind our fleet of stealth bombers, fighters, attack subs, aircraft carriers, and god forbid that ugly as sin Zumwalt destroyer cruiser thing. If you make it past all that you still have to get past our fully equipped military. If they make the dumb mistake of invading our shores they will have plenty of angry, armed to the teeth civilians to contend with. So come on China, invade us, I dare you.

[nikimcbee]

Oh hell no. I failed a year in highschool because of german.
I'm not going trough that again.

Ve have vays of making you learn.:yeah:

[Madox58]

You know what I have to say to China? Come at us bro, we'll be waiting behind our fleet of stealth bombers, fighters, attack subs, aircraft carriers, and god forbid that ugly as sin Zumwalt destroyer cruiser thing. If you make it past all that you still have to get past our fully equipped military. If they make the dumb mistake of invading our shores they will have plenty of angry, armed to the teeth civilians to contend with. So come on China, invade us, I dare you.

But they have tunnels to avoid most of that from what I hear.
:hmmm:
:har:

[CaptainMattJ.]

You know what I have to say to China? Come at us bro, we'll be waiting behind our fleet of stealth bombers, fighters, attack subs, aircraft carriers, and god forbid that ugly as sin Zumwalt destroyer cruiser thing. If you make it past all that you still have to get past our fully equipped military. If they make the dumb mistake of invading our shores they will have plenty of angry, armed to the teeth civilians to contend with. So come on China, invade us, I dare you.
I actually think the zumwalt looks cool in a retro ironclad kinda way.

As far as an invasion, contrary to the many scenarios in games like COD, its impossible. An invasion across the pacific would be a very short and very disastrous folly, ESPECIALLY against the #1 military in the world (No offense).

They'd not only have to contend with and defeat the largest, most well-trained and powerful navy in the world, but would then have to muster the astronomical logistical capacity to attack the mainland where they'd also have to contend with the largest, most well-equipped and most experienced army, air force, and marine corps in the world.

Ironically, the biggest threat to this country is an all out cyber war.

[Jimbuna]

I actually think the zumwalt looks cool in a retro ironclad kinda way.

As far as an invasion, contrary to the many scenarios in games like COD, its impossible. An invasion across the pacific would be a very short and very disastrous folly, ESPECIALLY against the #1 military in the world (No offense).

They'd not only have to contend with and defeat the largest, most well-trained and powerful navy in the world, but would then have to muster the astronomical logistical capacity to attack the mainland where they'd also have to contend with the largest, most well-equipped and most experienced army, air force, and marine corps in the world.

Ironically, the biggest threat to this country is an all out cyber war.

I can't see them ever considering armed action but financial pressure on the global markets...now that could well be another matter.

[Cybermat47]

America's not speaking German?!

Dammit, do we need to reinstall again? You know it takes forever to install the 2nd Amendment and Arnold Schwarzenegger mods!

[Betonov]

Didn't the English language evolve from German. Or should I say had a common ancestor :)

If thats true, Americans do speak German-ish

[Sailor Steve]

Yes, and yes. The Saxons brought their language with them. We spoke a version of that until the Normans threw some French into the mix. We've been collecting bits and pieces ever since. Our branch picked up a lot of Spanish and spread it back to the Mother Country.

Some nations strive to keep their language pure, usually without much success. America is such a polyglot that we seem to embrace pretty much everything and then spread it around.

Everybody loves a mutt.

[Cybermat47]

Everybody loves a mutt.

My dogs are mutts.

One ate a cicada today :)

[Oberon]

America's not speaking German?!

Dammit, do we need to reinstall again? You know it takes forever to install the 2nd Amendment and Arnold Schwarzenegger mods!

:har::har::har:

[Jimbuna]

America's not speaking German?!

Dammit, do we need to reinstall again? You know it takes forever to install the 2nd Amendment and Arnold Schwarzenegger mods!

LOL :)