VERTICALIZATION, WARTIME AMERICANIZATION EFFORTS, AND THE GERMAN-TO-ENGLISH SHIFT AMONG THE MENNONITE BRETHREN OF HILLSBORO, KANSAS

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  • March 19, 2019
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  • Vix, Kayla
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Linguistics
Abstract
  • In the early to mid-twentieth century, the Mennonite Brethren (MB) community of Hillsboro, Kansas, underwent a systematic language shift from German to English. Many attribute this shift to the anti-German sentiment and resulting discriminatory governmental measures caused by the World Wars. However, like many American communities in the early twentieth century, the MB in Hillsboro also underwent a process of community change called verticalization. Verticalization refers to the process by which a community's connections become less internally and locally bound (horizontal) and more externally and hierarchically bound (vertical). In recent scholarship (Salmons 2002; Lucht, Frey, & Salmons 2011), verticalization--and not the World Wars or other factors like urban-rural asymmetry--has been seen to have the strongest correlation with language shift. Using US census data, information about the community's German-language press, and meeting minutes from two area churches, this project traces the shift from German to English in this community as well as its verticalization. Additionally, it explores the effects of the World Wars on this community's language shift. The findings do not show a correlation between language shift and the World Wars, but they do show a strong consistency between verticalization and language shift. Crucially, this provides support for the theory of verticalization as a facilitator of language change.
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  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • O'Neill, Patrick
  • Mora-Marín, David
  • Frey, Benjamin
Degree
  • Master of Arts
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Graduation year
  • 2014
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  • Chapel Hill, NC
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  • There are no restrictions to this item.
Date uploaded
  • April 23, 2015

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