Roy David Fisher talks about this in his book, "Seed of Albion" a must-have for anyone with family here before the Revolution. Although they had success in several parts of England the Puritans (who didn't call themselves that) were concentrated in the new, urban, largely literate middleclass in the counties around London, East Anglia. The family of dialects there were high pitched, nasal and added and deleted the r sound like no other English speakers. Fisher says it can still be heard in the countryside but has mostly disappeared. So why did the r sound and the nasal twang persist in New England? Fisher attributes it to the harsh colonial life that kept people emotionally bound to the England that they or they grandfather left. They preserved what they could of the good life. Also, the powerful elite of New England, ministers and magistrates, the people to emulate, were all from East Anglia. Their descendents kept their power for many generations. So it's not just the folk in Appalachia singing old English Ballads, parts of old English dialects are spoken all over America. Fisher says the Afrikaans of South Africa preserves antique Dutch and the Spanish of Peru old fashioned Castilian forms. Makes me wonder about the German in St. Louis. Connie Seeking Schober, Wilson, Marx, Halpin and Strasser in St Louis Sorry if this shows up twice. The first one just disappeared.

<<Makes me wonder about the German in St. Louis.>> Hi Connie: Most German enunciations quickly passed and certainly by the third generation with St. Louis Germans. There was very little "preservation". While I remember my father using the word "Zinc" for sink sometimes, I do know that he, a third generation German, did not know enough of the language even to make a sentence. By the third generation, there was no discernable accent other than the "St. Louis Accent" that's been spoken about. Unlike Cincinnati, the Germans in St. Louis did not form a single, homogeneous community. St. Louis was not conducive to one large German settlement. Differences in dialect and the desire to live near people from the same section of the fatherland were frequent considerations in the choice of a place to settle. A St. Louisan of German birth, Ernest Kargau, stated that, "those from the northern section of Germany happened to also settle in North St. Louis, and those from Southern Germany settled in South St. Louis." Assimilation took place at a remarkable speed in St. Louis given the majority German population. Speaking to the assimilation process, Carl Schurz, of Wisconsin, a past member of Lincoln's cabinet and a future U. S. Senator from Missouri noted, "The old people have preserved the tradition of the German spirit and German training, but they are unable to bequeath it to their children." The offspring, he found, contrasted "strikingly" with their children. The German spirit fades away. "If the training remains wholly German and all contact with Americanism is avoided, a stupid Pennsylvania Germanism results." (Since living here, I know what this means - and he's right!) Where that is not the case, the waves of Americanism soon overwhelm the second and third generation. The extent to which ethnicity persisted beyond 1880 depended on the success with which German culture could be transmitted to the third generation. The degree of language preservation was much greater in rural areas than in St. Louis. That was true throughout the country, but particularly so in Missouri. The 1940 census showed that the third generation in rural Missouri were nearly five times as likely to claim German as their mother tongue as their counter parts in St. Louis An example of the above was told by William Seabrook who was writing for New America Magazine in 1937 when he visited a town named "New Melle" which was located in Calloway Township, St. Charles Co. Seabrook states, "This area was something different: In a village named New Melle, about 30 miles from St. Louis, I walked into a general store, and for a moment passed unnoticed while a group of farm children, some of them barely toddling, were buzzing to each other and to the shopkeeper in low German, not one word of English - not even interspersed with English slang. There could be trouble if anyone suggested that Germans of St. Louis act just like people everywhere in Missouri. St. Louis never regarded itself as "backwoodsy." Gary Stoltman Mercerville, NJ ----- Original Message ----- From: <SCraycraft@aol.com> To: <MO-STLOUIS-METRO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 9:08 AM Subject: [StL-Metro] New England Dialect was Another Question about Pronunciation > Roy > David Fisher talks about this in his book, "Seed of Albion" a must-have for > anyone with family here before the Revolution. Although they had success in > several parts of England the Puritans (who didn't call themselves that) were > concentrated in the new, urban, largely literate middleclass in the counties > around London, East Anglia. The family of dialects there were high pitched, nasal > and added and deleted the r sound like no other English speakers. Fisher says > it can still be heard in the countryside but has mostly disappeared. > So why did the r sound and the nasal twang persist in New England? Fisher > attributes it to the harsh colonial life that kept people emotionally bound to > the England that they or they grandfather left. They preserved what they could > of the good life. Also, the powerful elite of New England, ministers and > magistrates, the people to emulate, were all from East Anglia. Their descendents > kept their power for many generations. > So it's not just the folk in Appalachia singing old English Ballads, parts of > old English dialects are spoken all over America. Fisher says the Afrikaans > of South Africa preserves antique Dutch and the Spanish of Peru old fashioned > Castilian forms. Makes me wonder about the German in St. Louis. > > Connie > Seeking Schober, Wilson, Marx, Halpin and Strasser in St Louis > Sorry if this shows up twice. The first one just disappeared. > > > ==== MO-STLOUIS-METRO Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from this list, email MO-STLOUIS-METRO-L-request@rootsweb.com; in the subject line, put only the word UNSUBSCRIBE with nothing in the message body. You can contact Michelle or Laura at MO-STLOUIS-METRO-admin@rootsweb.com. >