German words come up again and again when you drive through the German Belt. At
least the names of the cities refer to the German past. For a long time
only the German language was spoken. The immigrants came from different
regions. Thus, the dialects mixed to an own language. Over time, the
English language also influenced the unique mixed dialect. During the two
world wars it was partly completely forbidden to speak German in public. This
meant that the unique dialect was hardly passed on to children and
grandchildren. Today, only a few people speak Texas German. Linguist Prof.
Hans C. Boas founded the “Texas German Dialect Project” at the University
of Austin in 2001 and has been documenting this special dialect ever since. He
says that in about 20 years it will be completely lost.