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Texan English is a dialect of American English spoken in the U.S. State of Texas. It is a subdialect and belongs to the group of Southern American English dialects that are spoken throughout the southern region of the United States. Due to the state’s colonial history, Texan English combines a strong influence of Spanish with a mix of Native American languages, German, Czechs, and French languages, resulting in a unique Texas dialect.

History
The development of Texan English has been highly influenced by the state's immigration history. From a historic point of view, English is actually the second European language that was spoken in Texas. The first was Spanish, which had been spoken in the region for nearly 100 years before English. This was due to the fact that the region had been a part of New Spain until 1821.

It was only in the 1820's when the government in Texas liberalized immigration policies that settlers came from the United States. Immigrants came from Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Kentucky, and Illinois (in descending order) and found -except some Native American tribes - a relatively unpopulated region. Soon, English replaced Spanish as the most prominently spoken language. However, the early Hispanic settlement of the state insured that much of the Spanish language mixed with the culture and language that Anglos brought and still remains in todays unique Texan mix.

Due to the fact that immigrants came from different regions of the United States there was considerable dialect mixing in Texas. In addition, migration from Europe to southeast and central regions started in the 19th century which brouht large numbers of Germans, Austrians, Czechs, Italians, and Poles to Texas. German Immigration to Texas, starting from 1834 on, also highly influenced the language. Most of the Germans settled in Central Texas, a region called the German Hills. Place names like New Braunfels or Fredericksburg are remnents of the  German immigration history. Today, about 20.000 Texans still speak German.

According to the 2011 United States Census, the population of Texas consists of:


 * White persons	80.9%
 * Black persons 12.2%
 * American Indian and Alaska Native 1.0%
 * Asian persons	4.0%
 * Native Hawaiian 0.1%
 * Persons of Hispanic or Latino Origin	38.1%
 * White persons, not Hispanic 44.8%

Pronunciation
Linguists often detected different vocabulary when doing research on the Texan dialect: Words like mosquito hawk for dragonfly or snap bean for green bean derive from times when the state was mainly rural. Due to rapid urbanization and industrialization those words have mostly been eliminated in today's Texan speech. The features that most notably distinguish the language from General American today are pronunciation and grammar. Generally, Texan speech appears slower compared to other dialects. This is, among other things, the result of less variety in intonation, extension of vowels and a generally higher nasality in speech. Being a subdialect of Southern American English, Texan English includes many of the lexical, grammatical, and phonological features of Southern American English.

Pronunciation features that separate Texan English from General American include:


 * /cot/-/caught/ merger : mixing of ɔ and ɑ sound so that words like /caught/ and /cot/ sound equally
 * monophthongization of /ai/ diphtong: makes words like /night/ sound like /not/
 * /pen/-/pin/ merger: mixing of ɛ and ɪ sound so that words like /pin/ and /pen/ sound equally
 * southern drawl: extension of the short front vowels which glide up from their original starting position to [j] and,    some cases, back down to schwa. A typical feature for all Southern American Dialects:


 * /æ/ → [æj(ə)]
 * /ɛ/ → [ɛj(ə)]
 * /ɪ/ → [ɪj(ə)]


 * intrusive /r/: insertion of the ʀ sound in a word in which r does not naturally occur like in /wash/ = /wɔɚʃ/
 * loss of /h/ before /j/ so that /hue/ is pronounced like /jʉ/

Grammar
Grammatical features that separate Texan English from General American include:


 * prefix-a: a + verb + ing like in he left a-running
 * plural verbal-s: folks sits there
 * multiple modals like we might can make it
 * might could for maybe
 * y'all short for You-all as second-person plural personal pronoun
 * fixin’ to for about to, or getting ready to: I'm fixin' to go to the store
 * gonna for going to

Regional Expressions and Vocabulary
Some examples of regional expressions and vocabulary that are common in Texas are:


 * all git out = to a great degree, exceedingly, or as much as possible
 * show 'nuff = sure enough as an intensifier
 * sumpin = something
 * howdy = general greeting, short for how do you do?
 * yonder = any direction or any location other than the location of the speaker, typically following a modifier, as in "up yonder", "down yonder", "out yonder", "in yonder", "over yonder"
 * howdy = general greeting, short for how do you do?
 * yonder = any direction or any location other than the location of the speaker, typically following a modifier, as in "up yonder", "down yonder", "out yonder", "in yonder", "over yonder"
 * yonder = any direction or any location other than the location of the speaker, typically following a modifier, as in "up yonder", "down yonder", "out yonder", "in yonder", "over yonder"
 * yonder = any direction or any location other than the location of the speaker, typically following a modifier, as in "up yonder", "down yonder", "out yonder", "in yonder", "over yonder"

Words deriving from northeastern states (New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania-North) Words deriving from the easter-midland states (Southern-Pennsylvania, Northern and Western Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina)
 * pail
 * hadn’t ought
 * stoop
 * clapboards
 * angleworm
 * swill
 * teeter totter
 * whiffletree
 * eaves troughs
 * fried cake
 * sook! (to cows)
 * (quarter) till
 * wait on
 * piece (distance)
 * want off
 * blinds
 * you-uns

Words deriving from southern-east states (Delaware, Southern Maryland, East of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina)
 * chittlins
 * snap beans
 * tote
 * carry (take)
 * low (verb)
 * croker-sack

As mentioned before, Texas speech includes many Spanish words like Rodeo, Bronco, Stampede, Fajita, Nacho, Lasso, Pinto, Vamos Bronco, Caballerango, Chaparral, Corral, Frijoles, Hacienda, Mata, Maverick, Mesa, ,Remuda, Resaca, Vaquero that are frequently used there. Typically, Texans try to avoid swearing due to their strong religious beliefs. As a consequence, they use expressions like dag blame it or dag bum it to in order to avoid phrases like goddamn' it. Texan English is famous for being expressive, metaphoric, and sometimes even exaggerative. Texans commonly invent their own metaphors or similes like well butter my butt and call me a biscuit to just mean alright or I don't want to die and go to heaven ‘cause it couldn't be better than this' to express joy. <ref name="dysa"

Although many words from Texas' rural past may have disappeared from the lexicon, other dialectical aspects, particularly the grammtical features, are very common among today's population. A recent study on dialect change in Texas has shown that young people use forms like fixin' to or might could more frequently than the older population. This indicates that the unique Texan dialect is by no means declining, but still expanding. Texans avoid joining a movement of language towards a national norm and rather use their language consciously as one way of identification.