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German Linguistic Islands Michael Putnam, ed.. Studies on German-Language Islands. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2010. xii + 477 pp. Reviewed by Derek Drake Published on H-TGS (December, 2012) Commissioned by Daniel Nützel (Indiana University Indianapolis) The volume Studies on German-Language Is‐ ment and the Distribution of Obstruents” by Birgit lands, edited by Michael T. Putnam, focuses on Alber). German-speaking Sprachinseln around the world, Remy begins with a discussion of terms used and is divided into six sections: (1) “Phonetics and to describe “final laryngeal distinctions” (pp. 13– Phonology,” (2) “Morphology and Lexical Studies,” 15). [1] The author examines the perception of f‐ (3) “Syntax I--Verb Clusters,” (4) “Syntax II--The nal obstruents in Manitowoc (by a speaker with Syntax of Cimbrian German,” (5) “Syntax III--The ancestry from Kiel), such as German underlying Syntax of Pennsylvania German,” and (6) “Prag‐ final /s/(alles), underlying fnal /z/ (logs), underly‐ matics and Conversation Analysis.” ing fnal /g/ (logs), underlying fnal /d/ (Hund, etc.), This work is valuable in its collection and pre‐ underlying fnal /b/ (gab, etc.), and an underlying sentation of German Sprachinseln from around final /bt/ cluster (erlaubt). Remy also examines the the world--that is, this volume does not focus perception of fnal obstruents in Ozaukee (by a strictly on one approach (for example, “socio- and speaker with Pomeranian ancestry), examining ethnolinguistic aspects of dialect communities,” p. German underlying fnal /s/, /z/, /g/, /d/, /b/ (Klub, 1) and/or one geographic region in its treatment glaub), as well as looking at glottal pulsing in his of German-language islands. The following re‐ acoustic analysis (pp. 17–22). view, then, examines all of the sections described With the examples given by speakers from above, but focuses on select key contributions to both regions, Remy shows that Eastern Wisconsin highlight the breadth of topics covered in this vol‐ (EWE) English production of fnal /d/ is almost al‐ ume, which range from phonetics to Conversation ways devoiced, regardless if preceded by nasal, Analysis. liquid, or vowel in German (though preceding and Section 1 begins the volume with “Phonetics following sounds seem to affect American English and Phonology,” and includes articles on Wiscon‐ pronunciation); EWE seems to “have taken its cue sin Standard German (Renee Remy, “On Final La‐ from the German speakers in the area” (p. 30) ryngeal Distinctions in Wisconsin Standard Ger‐ whereby there is also a convergence of English man”) and on past participle formation in the Up‐ speakers on the German norm and vice-versa (p. per German dialect of Mócheno in Trentino, Italy 31). (“Past Participles in Mócheno: Allomorphy, Align‐ Section 2 (“Morphology and Lexical Studies”) presents articles on gender distribution in Hen‐ H-Net Reviews derson (Nebraska) Plautdietsch (Anna Toeboesch), (PD), 3-4 verb clusters in subordinate clauses the morpho-syntactic role of anaphors in Amana show only one lexical verb within a clause, where German (Michael T. Putnam), the lexicon in Texas additional lexical verbs are to the right of the German (Hans C. Boas and Marc Pierce), and gen‐ clause periphery; thus, non-lexical verbs in verb der assignment in Pennsylvania German (B. clusters (such as fnite auxiliary hawwe [to have] Richard Page). and a non-finite modal: [hawwe + modal]) form a Boas’ and Pierce’s “Lexical Developments in single syntactic unit (p. 165). Based on examples Texas German” examines the typology of lexical of possible constructions, he establishes a “Pre‐ borrowings in Texas German (TxG), a variety that liminary Verb Cluster Rule: verbal complements the authors feel will “die out in 30 years” (p. 129). containing an infinitive in PD must be located Similar to earlier work on Wisconsin German va‐ right of the clause periphery” (p. 170). rieties, Boas and Pierce assert that TxG speakers In light of the synchrony and diachrony of 3- show differing levels of competency, generally verb clusters in PD subordinate clauses, Louden limited to very specific “domestic” (or “semantic”, shows that verbs that occur in 3-1-2 clusters have p. 147) domains.[2] Furthermore, the language, decreased since the 1930s and 1940s. To that end, specifically the lexicon, hasn’t undergone “dra‐ 3-1-2-4 are in fact 2-1 | 3 structures (see ex. 15); matic” changes in the last forty years--yet dialec‐ thus 3-1-2 clusters are actually 2-1 structures: “2-1 tal origins of lexical items can be traced to order is preserved in all surface orders, and if the Gilbert’s work on the dialect in the 1960s. TxG is number of lexical verbs within the clause exceeds thus “stage 2” in Thomason and Kaufman’s 5-stage one, then the most deeply embedded infinitive borrowing scale (“lexical borrowing and slight (“3”) is extraposed” (p. 180). structural borrowing in combination with con‐ Sections 4 and 5 are also both devoted to syn‐ junctions and adverbial participles,” pp. 134, 147). tax--section 4 on Cimbrian includes articles on The authors discuss the nature of these borrow‐ areal contact (“Spoken Syntax in Cimbrian of the ings, both from English into German and vice ver‐ Linguistic Islands in Northern Italy--and What sa, but conclude, based on lack of salient changes They (Do Not) Betray about Language Universals in their data and Gilbert’s 1960s TxG data, that the and Change under Areal Contact with Italo-Ro‐ lexical changes occurring in TxG are “unsystemat‐ mance,” by Werner Abraham), grammaticaliza‐ ic” and not indicative of “lexical erosion” (p. 147). tion in the Cimbrian CP (“Diachronic Clues to While supported by sound theory for lexical Grammaticalization Phenomena in the Cimbrian change and borrowing between English and colo‐ CP,” by Andrea Padovan), verb second in Cimbri‐ nial German in the United States, these conclu‐ an (“Hidden Verb Second: The case of Cimbrian,” sions may, indeed, make the assumption that lan‐ Günther Grendorf and Cecilia Poletto), and the guages change and die out in an unordered fash‐ Cimbrian pronominal system (“Revisting the ion. Wackernagelposition: The Evolution of the Cim‐ Section 3 is devoted to the syntax of verb clus‐ brian Pronominal System,” by Ermenegildo ters, featuring contributions on Pennsylvania Bidese). Section 5 examines syntactic issues in Dutch (Mark Louden, “Synchrony and Diachrony Pennsylvania German (“Changes in Frequency as of Verb Clusters in Pennsylvania Dutch”) and a Measure of Language Change: Extraposition in Mennonite Low German (Göz Kaufmann, “Look‐ Pennsylvania German,” by Gesche Westphal Fitch, ing for Order in Chaos: Standard Convergence and “From Preposition to Purposive to Infinitival and Divergence in Mennonite Low German”). Marker: The Pennsylvania German fer…zu Con‐ Louden establishes that, in Pennsylvania Dutch struction,” by Kersti Börjars and Kate Burridge). 2 H-Net Reviews In investigating the Cimbrian CP, Andrea telfeld (p. 382). The high rate of extraposition in Padovan looks at the complementizer ke and oth‐ PG may be attributed to “either a natural tenden‐ er particles (az, Italian loanword and according to cy of its base dialects” or to the “bilingual coexis‐ the author the “original” Germanic complemen‐ tence of English and German” which could allow tizer) that have undergone “diachronic analysis” for a surface order similar to English; however, to show that the “expansion” of loan words does the author notes that this is difficult to know with‐ not occur randomly (p. 280). He shows how out a diachronic analysis (p. 382). “speech act elements” (for example, Italian allora A synopsis of extraposition, then, shows that [then]; pero [yet, but]; Molise Croatian lor [since]) the Nachfeld seems to have “opened up” to ad‐ can take on the function of a complementizer, es‐ verbs in PG, yet adverb placement in the Mit‐ pecially in the grammar of younger speakers (p. telfeld is (statistically) low and is similar to PL and 280). different from SG (p. 382). Conversely, the right Padovan shows that, diachronically, Old and periphery seems to have “loosened” in PG even Modern Cimbrian differ in that ‘z is the “only ex‐ though it still maintains V2/1 and OV word order. pletive element and da is just a head” (p. 297). ‘z is This syntactic fexibility is attributed to contact absent from interrogatives and topicalizations; with English and shows maintenance of older es‐ *izta kalt (where the presence of da is “blocked”) tablished syntactic rules of European variants re‐ does not exist, but weather verbs such as reng (to lated to the “colonial” variety of PG in America, rain) have obligatory ‘z in interrogatives (p. 297). but may be becoming more fexible as a result of Da is incorporated into the verb into presentative/ substrate language (German) contact with English existential constructions (see ex. 30c-f), and the (pp. 382–383). [3] relative complementizer bo is also incorporated Section 6 (“Pragmatics and Conversation into boda (emphasis in original). In light of such Analysis”) includes contributions by Emma Betz possibilities, Padovan proffers a conception of da on Siebenbürger Sächsisch (“Word Choice, Turn as “a default pronominal clitic in the topic sub‐ Construction, and Topic Management in German field” (p. 298). Conversation: Adverbs That Are Sensitive to Inter‐ Gesche Westphal Fitch’s “Changes in Frequen‐ actional Position”) and Hunter Weilbacher on dis‐ cy as a Measure of Language Change” examines course pragmatics in Texas German (“Texas Ger‐ extrapositional elements (such as “event-related man Discourse Pragmatics: A Preliminary Study adverbs,” p. 377), showing that Pennsylvania Ger‐ of the English-origin Discourse Markers Of man (PG) has the highest rate of extraposition (of Course, See, and Now”). Betz assesses the relation‐ the three varieties at hand), and that Palatinate ship of word choice and turn construction in the dialects (PL) show a higher rate of extraposition Romanian German dialect of Siebenbürger Säch‐ than Standard German (SG).
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