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Introduction
Wisconsin German refers to dialects of German which are spoken in Wisconsin, U.S.A.

By the mid 19th century, many immigrants were choosing to move to and settle in Wisconsin. One significant group was German speakers, who by the latter half of the 1800s chose Wisconsin over other American states as their destination. This was partially due to the state’s rich resources, vast amounts of land, and the entrepreneurship of land agents, but also because these immigrants were seeking new economic opportunities, and religious or political freedom. These German speakers were not from a single region, but from many different regions and states, such as Mecklenburg Schwerin, Pomerania, Posen, Rhine-Westphalia, Switzerland, Bavaria, Luxemburg, Baden, Saxony, Hessian, Württemberg and Austria. Each group brought their own dialect with them, which they continued to use in the home, community and even in local Wisconsin businesses. Additionally, a form of Standard German, or Wisconsin High German, was used parallel to the community’s dialect, such as in churches, and elementary and secondary schools; this meant that many Wisconsinites were trilingual, speaking their heritage dialect, Wisconsin High German and English.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Wisconsin_German

History
German Immigration to Wisconsin



Language Maintenance and Community structures
 * schools


 * churches
 * stores


 * Press

Wisconsin German Varieties and Documentation

 * How Wisconsin German (dialects and high German) differs from German;

Documentation:
One of the first recordings of Wisconsin German dialects were made in the 1940s by Lester “Smoky” Seifert, a professor of German-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Seifert, an East Low German speaker himself, recorded over one hundred written interviews with Wisconsin German speakers, in which he included both linguistic and cultural questions (Eichhoff 55).



Language Shift
Current state of Wisconsin German heritage languages