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GERMAN LANGUAGE AND GERMAN IDENTITY IN AMERICA: EVIDENCE FROM SCHOOL GRAMMARS 1860–1918 1
Author(s) -
Langer Nils
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
german life and letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1468-0483
pISSN - 0016-8777
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0483.2008.00439.x
Subject(s) - german , immigration , rule based machine translation , linguistics , identity (music) , sociology , cultural identity , history , political science , art , social science , philosophy , aesthetics , law , negotiation
One of our jobs as ‘AuslandsgermanistInnen’ is to promote an understanding of German culture in the home community. In our particular case, in the UK, this involves teaching a language and concepts which are – at least on the surface – fairly foreign to the target audience. How does the transmission of cultural and linguistic knowledge take place between motherland and linguistic enclaves? This paper will address this question with regard to the retention and loss of German culture and language by recent and settled immigrants in America at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century. In particular, evidence from German school grammars printed in the USA will be examined to investigate what kind of cultural references were taught to school children.