German Dissertations and Theses
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/32786
2024-03-29T10:49:05ZDialektstudie des Katherinenstaedter Deutsch
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/33336
Dialektstudie des Katherinenstaedter Deutsch
Shire, Ilse Theresia
Die vorliegende Arbeit ist eine Dialektstudie über den wolgadeutschen Dialekt, wie er in Katerinenstadt, Kansas gesprochen wird. Die Sprecher gaben in einem Interview die ins Englische übersetzten Sätze von Georg Wenker in ihrer Mundart wieder. Im Anschluss daran wurden die Sprecher dazu veranlasst, frei zu sprechen. Die so gewonnenen Laute wurden in dem phonetischen Teil der Arbeit analysiert und in ihrer Umgebung festgehalten. Im historischen Teil der Studie wurden die Gesetzmässigkeiten der Sprache mit linguistisch bekannten Gesetzmässigkeiten verglichen. Die Arbeit gibt einen Einblik in die Regeln und Besonderheiten dieses Dialekts und stellt somit eine Grundlage zur Erforschung dieser wolgadeutschen Mundart dar.
M.A. University of Kansas, Germanic Languages and Literatures 1981
1981-05-31T00:00:00Z"It just doesn't sound right": Spracherhalt und Sprachwechsel bei deutschen Kirchengemeinden in Cole County, Missouri : Resultate einer Spurensuche
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/29949
"It just doesn't sound right": Spracherhalt und Sprachwechsel bei deutschen Kirchengemeinden in Cole County, Missouri : Resultate einer Spurensuche
Dippold, Doris
A major focus of current sociolinguistic research is the issue of minority language maintenance and language shift. German-American speech islands, existing well into the twentieth century, are providing a valuable basis for such research.
This thesis presents the results of research involving twenty-one church congregations in Cole County, Missouri, with a German heritage and representing five different denominations: Roman-Catholic, German-Methodist, Evangelical-Lutheran (Iowa Synod, Missouri Synod} and German-Evangelical. Its goal is to comprehend the process of language shift in these congregations and bring out its dominant influential factors. To achieve that goal, publications and records of the congregations were analyzed in the following four categories: church services, parochial and Sunday schools, church clubs, official records and public relations. Combined with some information gained through interviews with and questionnaires from older church members, those written sources provided data on the general timeline and the factors influencing language shift, and finally, the way the congregations with their members saw and see themselves: as Germans, German-Americans or Americans. These data were compared to the statistics of the denominations and previous research.
The results show clearly that the First World War is just one of many factors,·but not the·major reason of language shift in those German-American congregations. Though it may have initiated the change in some cases or was even being "used" as such an initiator, I am suggesting that shift in language use and cultural perception cannot happen without changes in the social and demographic structure of the immigrant communities. Apart form that, diminishing institutional support leads to language loss as well as loss of cultural awareness.
Those results being extracted, the research also offers valuable insight into questions of ethnicity and identity and is a basis for future work in these areas.
M.A. University of Kansas, Germanic Languages and Literatures 2002
2002-05-31T00:00:00ZThe Low German Dialect of Concordia, Missouri
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/29946
The Low German Dialect of Concordia, Missouri
Ballew, William Noble
A resurgence of interest recently in various German dialects present in many regions of the United States has led to the gathering of data in many small towns throughout the Midwest whose dialects and dialect speakers will have died out within the next decade. With this realization, research efforts in these communities have been stepped up over the last five years, as we all feel the pressure of a most certain deadline. The researchers of this project, primarily graduate students at the University of Kansas under the supervision of Dr. William Keel, are seeking to record, analyze, and preserve these dialects for future study before they have completely died out. This paper is part of ongoing research into the Low German dialects spoken in the region of Western Missouri in and around Lafayette County, particularly in the towns of Concordia and Cole Camp (Benton County). Thus, this project has both dialectological and historical significance in helping to complete the bigger picture of Germans in America, their language and their culture.
As a specific example, fieldwork in the town of Concordia will be used to illustrate how cultural ties to the German homeland, the historical development of the town, its religious affiliations, and its Low German Club have contributed to a revitalization of sorts in its efforts to preserve its heritage and language. Included will be discussions of the town's history, the basic structure and sounds of the dialect, interesting or unusual characteristics of the spoken dialect, and some of the language behaviors exhibited by various speakers. Finally, some implications of the marketing and death of Concordia Low German will be examined.
Dissertation--(Ph.D.)--University of Kansas, Germanic Languages and Literatures, 1997.
1997-12-31T00:00:00Z“Annexation or Reunification?” Linguistic Appraisal of German and Russian news reporting on Crimea
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/26702
“Annexation or Reunification?” Linguistic Appraisal of German and Russian news reporting on Crimea
Cassidy, Lauren
“Fake News” has reached new heights of contestation within recent times around the globe. Appraisal Theory provides a framework through which instances of news platforms’ positive and negative judgments can be identified, including their stances toward what counts as truthful reporting. Previously, researchers have identified the stances of news agencies by conducting linguistic analyses on news articles, showing how new agencies are able to assert their views through textual constructions. However, the expression of stance in German and Russian news articles showing different sides to the same conflict involving the Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula has remained largely unexplored. To address this gap, I selected articles reporting on Russian involvement in Crimea from a liberal German news source, a conservative German news source, and a Russian-state sponsored news source based in Germany. Using a manual linguistic coder, I identified each instance of positive and negative attitude towards Russian involvement in Crimea within each news article. The analysis reveals that German and Russian news sources use different linguistic constructions to moralize Russian actions in Ukraine, with each side reporting information to support a German or Russian worldview respectively. The study shows how news agencies attempt to align readers with a particular worldview and that even if news sources appear to provide information from multiple sources or perspectives, they can still constitute bias.
2018-05-31T00:00:00Z