Preserving Swiss Dialect Features in the Diaspora: The Case of New Glarus

Author(s) : Anita Auer, Alexandra Derungs

Source : http://www.lingref.com/cpp/wila/8/paper3425.pdf

Abstract:

“When many people from different nations left Europe for North America during the so-called “Age of Mass Migration” (1850–1920s), a great number of Swiss also left their homeland in search of betterment in North America. A Swiss settlement of particular interest is New Glarus, Wisconsin, which started as a colony in 1845 and has retained its Swiss identity until now. After all, it is still known as America’s Little Switzerland today. While other German dialects in the diaspora have already received a fair amount of attention (cf. for example Salmons 1993 and Boas 2009), in comparison, Swiss German dialects have hitherto been marginalized, i.e. the only existing studies we are aware of are those by Lewis in relation to New Glarus (cf. Lewis 1968, 1969, 1973) and Fleischer & Louden (2010) on the Swiss (Bernese) dialect spoken around Berne, Indiana.”