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 “fnal 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‐ fnal /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 fnal /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 afect American English and Phonology,” and includes articles on Wiscon‐ pronunciation); EWE seems to “have taken its cue sin (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-fnite modal: [hawwe + modal]) form a Boas’ and Pierce’s “Lexical Developments in single syntactic unit (p. 165). Based on examples ” 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 infnitive 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 difering levels of competency, generally verb clusters in PD subordinate clauses, Louden limited to very specifc “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, specifcally 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 infnitive 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 ”) and a Measure of Language Change: Extraposition in Mennonite (Göz Kaufmann, “Look‐ Pennsylvania German,” by Gesche Westphal Fitch, ing for Order in Chaos: Standard Convergence and “From Preposition to Purposive to Infnitival 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).

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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 difcult 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). diferent from SG (p. 382). Conversely, the right Padovan shows that, diachronically, Old and periphery seems to have “loosened” in PG even Modern Cimbrian difer 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 profers 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 feld” (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). Extraposed adver‐ sisch. She analyzes ientz (now) and ientzer (now) bials are also more represented in PG than in SG as a means of marking a “turn constructional or PL (p. 371). unit” (TCU) or a turn as complete or incomplete. A breakdown of the extraposition of all brack‐ As such, lexical resources are used by interlocu‐ et structures is shown as follows: PG 25.2 percent, tors as “indicators of status of the utterance, topic, PL 18.1 percent, SG 8.2 percent (p. 376). These and sequence underway” (p. 416). Betz looks at re‐ numbers elucidate how ongoing language change sources for accomplishing this in Colloquial Stan‐ “shares some traits with Palatinate variants,” dard German (p. 416), and shows that the ientz which in turn show high rates of extraposition, and ientzer do not exist as such in SG (outside of but low rates of adverb placement in the Mit‐

3 H-Net Reviews the “base” token jetzt), although Northern Bavari‐ contributed an article on the Amana (Iowa) an eytz and eytzat function similarly (p. 444). Sprachinsel as well as constructive introductory Betz shows that ientz and ientzer function se‐ remarks that set up the relevancy of every contri‐ mantically as temporal adverbs, yet they difer in bution. Indeed, contributions are generally well placement within a turn--ientzer is TCU fnal, structured and they also give valuable and com‐ ientz TCU initial. Additionally, both have the same plete bibliographic information, often incorporat‐ semantic content, but fulfll diferent interactional ing not only new research on the topics at hand, functions and/or show a diferent structural dis‐ but also referring back to older, seminal litera‐ tribution, that is, are in diferent syntactic envi‐ ture. For a volume of this size (approximately fve ronments (p. 420). She emphasizes that this inter‐ hundred pages), it also includes an encompassing play of semantics and syntax must be taken into topical index and a complete list of further compi‐ account in understanding the interactional func‐ lations in the Studies in Language Companion se‐ tion accomplished by ientz/ientzer, eytz/eytzat. In ries. As with any collection of this size and scope, this way, these tokens (which can be diferentiat‐ minor infelicities exist (for example, typographic ed from the discourse particle nau [dann], [now]) errors such as extra spaces and the inclusion of can best be defned “with the understanding that potentially debatable sociolinguistic concepts this classifcation cannot be based on semantics such as “prestige”) but these are few and far be‐ and syntax alone” (p. 448). In addition to her con‐ tween. This volume is to be recommended, espe‐ clusions, it merits mention that Betz makes the cially to linguists and Germanists (both professors data she presents accessible to readers less famil‐ and advanced graduate students) concerned with iar with CA by including an appendix with an the most up-to-date research on varieties as di‐ overview of the Jefersonian transcription con‐ verse as the speech communities represented in ventions used by the majority of North American this volume. CA researchers (p. 448). Notes Overall, this volume presents a great collec‐ [1]. See Gregory Iverson and Joseph Salmons, tion of current, relevant contributions to the “Final Devoicing and Final Laryngeal Neutraliza‐ study of German-language islands from a multi‐ tion,” in The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, tude of generative and structural approaches. As 5 vols., ed. Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, mentioned earlier, this volume is noteworthy for Elizabeth Hume, and Keren Rice (Malden, MA: Wi‐ its depth on a number of levels--it presents new ley-Blackwell, 2011), vol. 3, 1622-1643. work on spoken in diaspora from [2]. Lester W. J. Seifert, “The Problem of around the world (that is, the data presented is Speech Mixture in the German Spoken in North‐ not confned to any one region), and is broad in western Dane County, Wisconsin,” Transactions its selection of German-speaking communities of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and and approaches used to interpret the data (from Letters 39 (1949): 127-139. Optimality Theory, to syntax in CA, and obstruent [3]. For a related discussion, see Joseph phonology and acoustic phonetics, etc.). In this Salmons and Thomas Purnell, “Language Contact manner this volume is (according to the editor) and the Development of American English,” inThe the frst of its kind to be set up with this sort of Handbook of Language Contact, ed. Raymond “all-encompassing” generative/structuralist ap‐ Hickey (Oxford: Blackwell, 2010), 454-477. proach. Michael T. Putnam not only constructed and subdivided the volume efectively, but he also

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Citation: Derek Drake. Review of Putnam, Michael, ed. Studies on German-Language Islands. H-TGS, H- Net Reviews. December, 2012.

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