6 Noun Phrase Case Shift in Volga German Varieties on the Great Plains of Kansas

Redefining Language Death: Evidence From Moribund Grammars

“…Incorporating earlier evidence into the discussion, however, calls into question whether this can be considered a diachronic change at all; rather, it suggests that this is a stable morphological system going back at least 70 years. Keel (2015) notes that his data is consistent with previous studies on the community of Schoenchen (Johnson, 1994) and Ellis and Rush counties (Kaull, 1996), with the same four-case nominal system. The stability of the system likely stretches back to the preimmigration variety, as Keel cites Soviet dialect studies from the 1940s detailing the partial collapse of the accusative and dative cases, the absence of a productive genitive case, and the emergence of a prepositional case (Berend & Jedig, 1999;Keel, 2015, pp.…”

“…Keel () studies a handful of communities in Kansas that were settled by German‐speaking immigrants from near the mouth of the Volga River, arriving as early as 1875. These communities include predominantly Catholic populations in Victoria/Herzog, Schoenchen, and Ellis and Rush counties; and the Protestant community in Milberger, Kansas.…”

“…Their grammar exhibits a partial collapse of the accusative and dative cases, a lack of genitive case, and the emergence of an innovative prepositional case. The system of Victoria/Herzog is given here (Table ) (Keel, , p. 143).…”

“…The absence of dative structures in the final generation therefore reflects only a loss of these certain domains in which Standard German was used, but should not be conflated with a change in the baseline HL variety, which in the following data show striking similarity to the nominal systems of the preimmigration German varieties of the founder generation. Keel (2015) studies a handful of communities in Kansas that were settled by German-speaking immigrants from near the mouth of the Volga River, arriving as early as 1875. These communities include predominantly Catholic populations in Victoria/Herzog, Schoenchen, and Ellis and Rush counties; and the Protestant community in Milberger, Kansas.…”

“…Despite the growth of research on heritage languages (HLs) over the past three decades, we, as a field, have yet to sufficiently account for the grammar of the final generation of speakers of heritage languages, also known as moribund heritage languages. While numerous empirical studies have shown demonstrable changes in HL grammars across the lifespan (Benmamoun, Polinsky, & Montrul, ; Boas, ; Montrul, , ; Polinsky, , ; Putnam, Kupisch, & Pascual y Cabo, ; Roesch, ), similar empirical studies show robust maintenance of grammatical structures characteristic of preimmigration varieties in the final generation of HL speakers (e.g., Bousquette, ; Hopp & Putnam, ; Keel, ; Page & Putnam, ; Sewell, ). Still another branch of recent literature shows a third path, where HLs exhibit changes resulting in innovative grammars that are divergent from preimmigration varieties, but nevertheless maintain economical complexity and communicative functionality (Bayram, Pascual y Cabo, & Rothman, ; Łyskawa & Nagy, ; Putnam & Sánchez, ; Yager et al., ).…”