After years of work, the Texas German Dialect Project is proud to announce a new tool for exploring transcripts from TGDP open-ended socio-linguistic interviews! Transcripts have been enriched with several new annotation layers (e.g., language, orthographic normalization, part-of-speech, and lemma) and basic speaker metadata is now available. The open-ended interviews can be searched in multiple ways, e.g., using filters (e.g., by speaker, interview location, interview date) and by using the CQP query language for exploring the transcripts themselves. This new version of our open-ended interviews is available HERE or by going to the “Dialect Archive” menu.

TGDP presentation at the 52nd annual New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) conference in Miami, Florida: “On the predictability of Koiné and New-dialect Formation: Branching Pathways of Feature Developments in Texas German.” (Luke Lindemann, Matthias Warmuth, Hans C. Boas).

TGDP presentation by Margo Blevins at the New Braunfels German American Society: “The Texas German Dialect Project: Preserving Texas German Voices for Future Generations.” (October 1, 2024)

German author Thomas Meinecke, who donated his recordings of interviews with Texas Germans from the 1990s to the TGDP last year, publishes his latest novel Odenwald, with Suhrkamp publishing house in Germany. The novel’s story line includes the Texas German dialect as well as TGDP members Hans Boas, Glenn Gilbert, and Jim Kearney. (October 14, 2024)

New student research assistants are joining the TGDP: Tanja Haupt, Leon Nast, Kathrin Norman, Anna Reschke, Moritz Schanbacher, and Julia Schauer. Welcome to the TGDP team!

TGDP presentation by Hans C. Boas at the Boerne public library: “Preserving Texas German Voices for Future Generations.” (September 18, 2024)

Dr. Joren Somers, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Gent in Belgium, is at UT Austin for the academic year 2024-25 and is joining the TGDP to conduct research, among other things, about language contact. Welcome Joren!

TGDP member Ekaterina Levina graduates with her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, with a dissertation on “Accusative external possessives in German, English, Spanish, and Russian.” Congratulations Katja !!!

This fall 2024 semester, TGDP member Jana Weiss offers a class on Texas German history and culture at UT Austin (UGS 302, The Texas-German Experience).

TGDP members Hans C. Boas and Jim Kearney are interviewed for a story about Texas German culture and history in the German news magazine DER SPIEGEL. Click here [ PDF ] for the article.

New TGDP publication: “Zur Dokumentation und Erforschung deutschsprachiger Pressetexte in Texas: Welchen Einfluss hatte das Standarddeutsche auf das Texas-Deutsche?” In C. Foeldes (ed.), Auslandsdeutsche Pressesprache in Europa, Asien und Nordamerika, 301-320. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. (Hans C. Boas & Ekaterina Levina). Click [ here ] for PDF.

TGDP presentation at the monthly meeting of the Comal County Genealogical Society: “The Texas German Dialect Project 2001-2024.” (Hans C. Boas) (April 9, 2024)

Former TGDP member Heiko Wiggers passed away on April 10, 2024. Heiko was with the TGDP from 2002 until he graduated with his Ph.D. with a dissertation on Low German from the University of Texas. After graduation, Heiko became a German professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Heiko was a wonderful, gentle, smart, and funny person and an outstanding linguist. We very much enjoyed working with him for over the years. Our deepest sympathy to his family.

TGDP member Jana Weiss starts a blog miniseries on Texas German, together with students from her spring 2024 Texas German class at UT. What a wonderful way to learn more about Texas German history, culture, and language!

Dallas College student Everett Durand produces and films a documentary film Texasdeutsch fuer Immer on Texas German, click here for the film on Youtube.

TGDP presentation by Verena Sauer at the 48th Annual Symposium of the Society for German American Studies: “Hochdeutsch and Plattdeutsch as Concepts in the Minds of Texas Germans.” the University of Texas at Austin (April 5, 2024)

Presentation by TGDP members and collaborators Barbara Berthold (UT Arlington), Jana Weiß (UT Austin), Margo Blevins (UT Austin), & Karen Pupp Spinassé (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul) at the 48th Annual Symposium of the Society for German American Studies: “Community-Engaged Teaching in German American Studies: A Roundtable Discussion on High Impact Practices.” University of Texas at Austin (April 6, 2024)

Presentation by Patrick Wolf-Farré (Vienna) and Margo Blevins (Austin) at the 48th Annual Symposium of the Society for German American Studies: “Towards a Classification of German-Speaking Minorities in Latin America.” University of Texas at Austin (April 6, 2024)

The March 2024 issue of Texas Highway Magazine features a story about the TGDP including interviews with Hans C. Boas and Jim Kearney. Click HERE for the PDF of the article.

TGDP member Ellen Jones receives a Graduate Continuing University Fellowship from the University of Texas for 2024-2025. Congratulations Ellen !!! 

German Americans! Texas Germans! Central Texas! The TGDP is proud to participate in the 48th Annual Symposium of the Society for German American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, April 4-6, 2024. Click HERE for the conference program.