17 Weird Places They Speak German

🇩🇪 Think German-speakers are just in Europe? Think again! Try 5 continents and at least 17 weird places!
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⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:12 - Europe
0:13 - Germany
3:00 - Africa
3:01 - Namibia
3:49 - South Africa
6:11 - South America
6:12 - Argentina
7:12 - Brazil
9:51 - Venezuela
10:19 - North America
10:20 - Canada
10:50 - United States
13:33 - Mexico
14:30 - Australia
📜 SOURCES & ATTRIBUTIONS:
🎬 Video Clips:
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🖼 Images:
“Walsergemeinschaft Oberlystal AO.jpg” by Tenam2 is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“NamibiaDeutscheSprache.jpg” by Blue Mars is licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
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[@guidodebacker4205]

I'm Belgian but I live in Brazil’s most southern state: Rio Grande do Sul, our village Sinimbu was founded around 1850 by German colonists, and German is still used on a daily basis in the village and in our region. My wife learned Portuguese only when she went to school. German was repressed during WW2 and lost popularity at the end of last century as it was considered 'the language of poor farmers on the countryside' but in recent years there is a revival. It's teached again on schools and people realise now that it offers possibilities to study or work abroad. It’s estimated 200.000 brazilians still spreak german. Here in my region (around Santa Cruz do Sul) Oktoberfest is bigger than samba ! My brother in law plays in a band named ‘Munich’

[@cocoaorange1]

Mexico has many citizens of German descent.

[@omarkharnivall2439]

Ahhh tell me about the beautiful women that spring out from those southernern States. When I was young I used to watch a TV show about farmers and farming techniques (Globo Rural) and was amazed at how many beautiful girls wasted their beauty toiling the soil

[@neville132bbk]

Ola da Nova Zelânda....For many years now I have had a friend who grew up in RG do Sul....her family name is Cerbaro...from her Italian forebears.. The brilliant Portuguese language site I visit is run by Virginia Langhamer...whose husband is from Sta Catarina state.

[@Ricardo-cp2lu]

Guido, just a correction: there are much more than 200.000 brazilians who speak German. According to estimatives, there are 4 or 5 million of german speakers here, divided in many dialects. More or less 3 million speak Riograndenser Hunsrückisch and 1.5 million speak other varieties.

[@guidodebacker4205]

@@Ricardo-cp2lu Hi, Can't it be that there are 4 to 5 milion descendants of german origin, from whom 200.000 still speak german (on a regular basis) ? Found this 200.000 somewhere but can't remember the source

[@chileball7775]

Chile is missing, which is the 3rd Latin American country with the most German descendants.

[@traveladvisorde2697]

Argentina is more european!

[@nicholasthorn1539]

Chile is indeed missing. My wife is Chilean and one of her uncles married a woman whose family emigrated from Germany in the late 19th century (I think), and who grew up speaking both German and Spanish. In turn her daughters grew up bilingual and to this day still speak German. On my first visit to Chile back in the 1980s my wife and I spent time with her uncle and aunt. I couldn't speak much Spanish at the time but didn't want to speak English if I could use another language, so I conversed happily with her aunt in German which remains better than my Spanish

[@augustofigueroa1062]

Did you mean more German? Is that the topic, or is there an undertone to the whole thing?

[@familyandfriends3519]

Go back to Germany Nazis

[@resiliencia.307]

Oh que pasa acá, hay comoetencia de cuál es más europeo? O sea superior?

[@Robob0027]

About 25 years ago I visited Brazil to see the falls at Iguassu. I stayed on the Brazilian side but nobody in my hotel spoke English but the front desk clerk spoke Spanish so I was able to get by. One day I asked about restaurants nearby and he suggested I used the hotel's restaurant which I had never seen with the lights on so assumed it was closed. He said that the only problem was that the waitress did not speak Spanish, only Portuguese and German. I speak some German and so decided to give it a try. Sitting in the restaurant with my English only speaking friend it occurred to me that here we were, two native English speaking people, sitting in an hotel in a Portuguese speaking country, speaking German, having been told in Spanish, where to eat.

[@quickgirl80]

Oh wow, what an interesting experience.

[@Petra44YT]

That's pretty nifty. ... I managed to use my foreign language knowledge in a very unexpected place, too. I was part of an English-speaking tour to Pyongyang, North Korea. Now, the official guides you get speak the tour language, in our case English, very well. The guides that work for the museums do not. We first thought they only speak Korean, but not so. Several spoke very good French, at a near-native speaker level! I mean, I'm a translator, and French is my second language, still, that lady spoke French much better than me. ... It was quite unexpected to be able to chat with this North Korean museum guide in French. 😄

[@douglascostaarquiteto145]

Welcome to Brazil

[@Mateus-ir3vv]

I am Brazilian and I live in south region here. I would say at least 20% of the population have some German ancestry (in some places is more than 60%!) 🤔😯🤪

[@12388696]

Escaped from Germany after WWII

[@brubsbruberry]

True

[@CavHDeu]

Kannst du denn Deutsch verstehen?

[@canchero724]

One of them is Giselle Bündchen 😍

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

@@canchero724 So many German Brazilians from Southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana) became fashion models during the late 90s and 2000s. Gisele Bündchen, Raquel Zimmermann, Shirley Mallmann, Ana Hickmann, Leticia Birkheuer, Cintia Dicker, Aline Weber, and Caroline Trentini (even though her surname is Italian, she got German ancestry from the Saarland). The fashion industry legit picked the most European looking girls from Brazil, with the lighest hair color and eyes, and claimed it as the new "Latin" invasion, as if they were an exotic bunch that looked so different from previous Eurocentric looking fashion models. I think the ones with more Southern European ancestry like Alessandra Ambrosio, Ana Beatriz Barros, Izabel Goulart, and Adriana Lima (even though she is very mixed) had more success in the commercial sector. Of course, there were exceptions like Isabeli Fontana, Jeisa Chiminazzo, Michele Alves, Fernanda Tavares, Flavia de Oliveira, and Caroline Ribeiro, the latter who was more mixed with Portuguese, Amazonian Amerindian, and Black. They all had more success in the high fashion industry. But I was shocked how few of the Afro-Brazilian models even found success in the fashion industry, when they make up a significant percent of the population. The representation was so disproportionate and skewed. It wasn't until the 2010s, we see more obvious Afro-Brazilian models like Lais Ribeiro, Emanuela de Paula, and Maria Borges.

[@rahimxsh]

Nach 4 Jahren Deutschlernen muss ich sagen ,dass die deutsche Sprache trotz der Schwierigkeiten eine wunderschöne Sprache ist.

[@TrangDB9]

Versuche mal die Birkenbiehl Methode um Sprachen zu lernen.

[@user-dl3ux8cx4s]

Welche Muttersprache hast du?

[@DanieleDeVecchi.]

Und es lohnt sich, Deutsch zu lernen

[@lovepalmgren4816]

@@TrangDB9 Was ist das?

[@TrangDB9]

@@lovepalmgren4816 gibt mal ein auf KZbin.

[@quatsch344]

I am a German who lived in Namabia for some time and coming fom a country in which most people speak 2 or maybe 3 languages the language proficiency of the average Namibian was a bit mind boggling. Many people could speak 3-5 languages often very fluently. I met a guy who' first language was Oshivambo, but his German was so incredibly good that I thought he was a fellow tourist from Germany when first meeting him, it was astonishing to learn that his only structured German classes had been in High-School.

[@globomanni8407]

Das ist schön zu hören bzw. zu lesen !

[@Chapps1941]

The Namibian Cricket team are the greatest German cricketers

[@Ch-xk5tv]

Das liegt vielleicht daran, dass in Namibia (neben afrikanischen Sprachen) auch Afrikaans und Englisch eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Also wenn jemand in Namibia Deutsch lernt, ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit hoch, dass diese Person schon vorher 2 germanische Sprachen kann

[@BrandonLeeBrown]

Swakopmund has three schools, an Afrikaans school, an English school and a German school. Many people in Swakopmund speak all three languages.

[@kellymcbright5456]

@@BrandonLeeBrownimpressive and ashaming as well...

[@tamyresmartines8061]

My father in law and his siblings only learned portuguese in school, cause at home they only spoke german. The city that they are from in south of Brazil is literally called " New Hamburg". The migration to Brazil happened mostly to rural areas and before 1930, so the communities were very isolated, favoring the preservation of culture and language.

[@pedrocavalcante5822]

The small town of Venâncio Aires also has a huge germanic influence.

[@carlosacta8726]

Muito interessante! Ha muito tempo encontrei parentes brasileiros de familiares aqui nos USA que chegaram ao Brasil por volta de 1830!

[@eggescobar]

In another brazilian town called Nova Petrópolis (close to "New Hamburg"), young children learn to read and write in german and portuguese when they go to school.

[@enge]

My wife is also from Novo Hamburgo / New Hamburg and literally everybody in her family speak German at home. In many of the small towns nearby people speak German on the streets, stores etc. I find it interesting to read people suggesting that the millions of German descendants living in Brazil are “nazi escaped from WWII”. It is not only totally false but also completely dumb.

[@desilvakym1544]

Can i ask do you speak german too?

[@alfonsmelenhorst9672]

Don't forget the Netherlands. Many Dutch dialects spoken in de east of this country can be considered as dialects of German, closer to standard German as Switzer-Deutsch. Or the dialects in the western part of Germany are dialects of Dutch. There is a dialect-continuum.

[@storylearning]

Great point!

[@dutchreagan3676]

'T Limburgs kumptj aaf van 't Neder-frankisch, neet van 't Hollands. D'r zeen beuk euver te vinje en laeze. Begin mer mit Pierre Bakkes oet Moofert woo auch Max Verstappe ziene pap vanaaf kumptj. En ziene Opa natuurlik (Frans) dae helaas euverleje is mer dae dao 'n gelato-salon hej; Dao biej de Rotonde. Ich vraog mich aaf waem dit kintj laeze? PS: Kirchroaj's is Ripurarisch; weer get anges.

[@bakerzermatt]

In a way, the whole area from Friesland/Schleswig-Holstein down to Wallis/Süd Tirol can be seen as a dialect continuum. If you drew a line from North to South, everyone could speak their local dialect and be understood by the surrounding villages, yet be unable to understand dialects from significantly further along that same line. I'm from the the Wallis on the far southern end (in the mountains on the Italian border). People 50km away have a different accent and some different words, but can understand me just fine. People 200km away (Zurich for example) understand most of what I say, but must concentrate and will occasionally not understand at all. In southern Germany, the dialects are still mutually intelligible, but only just. Northern German dialects or Dutch are mostly incomprehensible, but we might get the gist of what we're saying to each other. Swiss German is really as different to German as Dutch is to German. However, despite all three being on the same dialect continuum, two of them are considered languages, and the other is considered 'just a dialect'. The question of dialect vs. language is offen a political question as much as a linguistic one.

[@uwebohnet5708]

@@bakerzermatt I rather think that the distinction between dialect and language is a matter of written language which is the same in Germany, Switzerland and Austria as opposed to the Netherlands. Furthermore Swiss German is a high German dialect as opposed to Dutch as a low German dialect. Therefore it is quite obvious why Swiss write standard German which is also based on high German dialects. Interestingly, Switzerland and the Netherlands became formally independent from the Holy Empire at the same time in 1648 with the Westphalian Treaty. Yet Switzerland never wanted to be cut off the important area of German culture, which gives access to a much greater world. I was born a hundred meters away from the Swiss border in Germany and when I speak my dialect Swiss cannot hear that I am a German. In fact the Swiss dialect is spoken in a greater area than just Switzerland.

[@dutchreagan3676]

@@bakerzermatt If I go to Kerkrade (40K away), I have a very hard time understanding people. Having said that, people in Eindhoven (50K away) can't understand me. I was wondering if you can read the above. Thx

[@jbwhetstone]

I was afraid you were going to skip the German population in Texas that immigrated in the mid-1800s. Thanks for including that. They settled not only Fredericksburg, but the towns of New Braunfels, Boerne, Schulenberg, Niederwald, Pflugerville, Brenham, and others.

[@ridwandwiatmadja3309]

Old Shatterhans is German too

[@bobmarobs8376]

I live nearby the original Braunfels and it would be cool to visit new Braunfels some day

[@crismartinez1642]

My middle school took us on a field trip to New Braunfels, it was cool I was so confused on how there could be an entire town in the middle of Texas with German people in it but after the guide explained how it happened it all made sense.

[@Danilo111]

There’s German descendants in Texas, but they got nothing on other countries where they actually preserved the culture and language

[@janel.8921]

In James Michener’s Texas, a young Texas Ranger and a German immigrant girl are attracted to each other. The girl’s father wants to know the Ranger’s family. He is delighted that the Ranger’s mother was German. The two young people get permission to get married.

[@Neversa]

I'm from north Kazakhstan and we had German neighbors. They spoke German at home and Kazakh with others.

[@nichderjeniche]

Yes you had them because Stalin "relocated" them among others. 😅

[@familyandfriends3519]

They should go back to Germany

[@nichderjeniche]

@@familyandfriends3519 they did already, hope you are relieved now?! PS: greet Putin from me

[@leaspauli7807]

@@familyandfriends3519 Talking like a true fascist!

[@julieenglert3371]

I grew up in the Barossa Valley in South Australia, the area known for it’s German speaking settlers. Hahndorf is a little further south of the Barossa, but still settled by the same Germans in the 1800s. Unfortunately there are no longer people who can speak that original dialect. WW2 put an end to that. My mother’s generation who were born before WW2, were the last to speak that as a mother tongue.

[@skkreativ]

I also was going to mention the Barossadeutsch, it’s a neat piece of history.

[@edmondpiffard2771]

Sadly most of these dialects are dying if not dead already as you mentioned.

[@neumanmachine3781]

In South East Queensland the reaction against German during was even stronger as there were about twice as many Germans in Queensland as there were in South Australia. There were so many German speakers that there were petitions to make it the co-official language when Queensland separated from New South Wales and during word war one there was even speculation about the loyalty of the state to the British Empire. They were all forced to use English and many German place names were Anglicised such as Englesburg, where my Great Grandfather was mayor- the town became Kalbar and Hermann became Harry. My mother, now in her 70’s can remember her grandparents speaking German at home but she was strongly discouraged from learning the language.

[@jeannettehope670]

The name Barossa is neither German or English, nor from an indigenous Australian language. It is named for the Battle of Barrosa, in Spain, where the English fought the French in 1811 during the Peninsula War.

[@MR-fx7sf]

Very sad. But when you speak German teach your Kids so our language doesn't die.

[@bhami]

Along the west coast of Ireland, my favorite traffic sign reads "Links Fahren!", reminding the German tourists to drive on the left. 😀

[@andrewjgrimm]

The same happens in Australia, either official or unofficial.

[@Ragnar8504]

I seem to remember that sign in four languages all over Ireland (English, Irish, German and French).

[@Robob0027]

This was a common sign around the British channel ferry ports. The signs were also in French but not in Dutch as they always speak good English, often better than us natives.

[@lspthrattan]

Glad to see you didn't overlook the German speaking communities of Texas. Interesting to hear about the others; thanks for another entertaining, interesting video.

[@mynamename5172]

I've seen the video of that Texasdeutsch lady before - it is amazing how strong her southern American English accent is on her German, apparently naturally and natively. The English R and those twangy vowels are very strong. I have always wondered if all Texasdeutsch speakers sound like that and if so how long it took to happen naturally - it sort of sounds like an American from Texas who is learning German.

[@texasgirl9604]

Yes! That’s how Texas German speakers “sound”. A native German Texan here; my forefathers settled in the New Braunfels & Fredericksburg areas, before Texas became a state.

[@henningkoehler9966]

I lived 14 years in Chile and you forgot to mention "Frutillar" in Patagonia (Chile) as well as the "Dreizehnlinden" the only Vorarlberg Dialekt(from Austria) still totally day to day language there in Brazil (about 346km west of Pomerode, which has a Hundsrueckdeutsch language) I moved from Santiago de Chile to the USA last year by the way.

[@rosengeorgiev1464]

Und warum nicht nach Deutschland oder Österreich?

[@xlqrenz2344]

I think Dreizehnlinden is actually tyrolean Dialect.

[@ChRW123]

Not only Frutillar but in the whole Southern part of Chile you may hear German speakers. They were one of the main colonizing groups during th 19th century in that region. They were invited by the Chilean government in order to "tame" the "undevelopped" lands they conquered from the Mapuche.

[@spage80]

I am an American and grew up near the Amish areas. My wife is German and when we visited my parents she was able to understand them no problem as she is also from Hessen. We went to Fredericksburg and eating our lunch in a dinner two cowboys came in and were speaking German to each other. By this time I could also speak German and could follow their conversation.

[@abu9822]

Awesome! Which area or City she was from in Hessen?

[@spage80]

@@abu9822 Frankfurt

[@abu9822]

@@spage80 Nice. I was asking because I also live in Hessen, about 40 min. away from Frankfurt.

[@DieAlteistwiederda]

I must say I understand Texas German a whole lot better than most dialects of Pennsylvania Dutch but in the end if I concentrate on it I can understand both. I'm from the east of Germany so Pennsylvania Dutch is not a dialect from my region but Texas German still sounds a lot like current day standard High German just with a lot of Texan influence. Sounds like if a German would put on a very exaggerated cowboy Texas accent from a movie.

[@wetguavass]

The real Americans are the brown people of Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, etc.

[@brizejellicle]

There are actually 2 different German dialects in Pennsylvania. The PA Dutch spoken by the Amish and Mennonites and a different Pennsylvania German spoken by descendants of German Lutherans and Moravians. The second one is spoken mostly by older generations but there is a renewed interest in reviving it in the younger generations. There are some interesting videos here on KZbin about the history of Pennsylvania German done by a professor who was researching/studying it.

[@ricktaylor5397]

There is apparently a sizable German speaking community around the Fort Myers FL area. The area is very popular with German tourists and visitors, so I suspect many of them have moved to the area. I was really surprised to see highway billboards and traffic signs in English and German, instead of the more typical English/Spanish seen in the rest of the southern U.S.

[@sbclaridge]

I've been reading up a lot on Fort Myers in recent months, and I never knew that about the area! (fun fact: my favorite clothing brand is based there) Hopefully Hurricane Ian didn't do too much to disrupt this. I know parts of the area, especially near the coast, have dealt with a long recovery process; many people come for the beaches and ocean.

[@gedeuchnixan3830]

Your suspicion is correct, KZbinr Jamey Bray whos from Florida and makes a lot of content about Germany said in a video it´s not just extremly popular among german tourist but popular enough many have moved there and yes, he also mentioned the engl/ germ street signs. Was quite blown by that.

[@cocoaorange1]

Never knew that.

[@michaeldelisieux5252]

There are direct flights from Germany to Fort Myers’s International Airport.

[@ygspacemusic6251]

I live close to the Fort Myers area, and this is true! At my old high school, they apperently taught German due to the high population of Germans living there. They stopped teaching it by the time I entered high school (2017), but I wonder if they still do in schools closer to/in Fort Myers.

[@creeperboy6453]

Thanks for mentioning Colonia Tovar, greetings from Venezuela 🇻🇪

[@estovia4414]

Hay

[@Simon-tc1mc]

I'm from Michigan. My grandpa was the last in my family to speak German, and he seldom did. The world wars smothered German American culture.

[@Cfbln]

I'm Brazilian and it's pretty common to find people with German last names, I live in a city where almost 100% of the population are descendents of Italians but I've visited cities where lots of old people still speak German and keep the culture and the food alive.

[@ThomasTuttle]

My friend from Minnesota grew up on a farm with his family speaking German at home, at school, at church and in the local community. He first learned English in the first grade, despite him being born in Minnesota, a US state. Everyone in his town spoke German, unless forced to speak English with an outsider/visitor. My friend went on to study French, Latin, Greek and Spanish in addition to his native German and English.

[@edmondpiffard2771]

Another fantastic video Olly! My Oma was born just outside Berlin Canada before WW1, during which it was renamed Kitchener. She grew up speaking Plattdeutsch and Hochdeutsch at home and English in school. She married my Opa who was from Schleswig Holstein and also spoke Plattdeutsch. This fall I went to the town he was born and took some videos of farmers speaking Platt with me. It’s a threatened dialect as is Texas German sadly.

[@GingerAutie]

In a German speaker and I live in southern Denmark 🇩🇰 I moved there though, but here are many many German speakers

[@polyglotsjourney]

I have never heard for Walser German before!😁 Great story Olly, keep making them please. This is one of the most amazing channels on YT 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@MarkPierro]

Thanks Ollie fantastic video really interesting. Keep up the good work.

[@rodmckendrick8140]

Until about the late 70s 86th Street in Manhattan was very much a German community known as Yorkville with its own German language newspaper, shops and restaurants. There are still two German language churches in Manhattan.

[@billsager5634]

Funny you briefly mentioned Blumenau (Brazil), but there are numerous other towns founded by Germans. I knew a girl from Joinville, who joked about her father - and Afro-Brazilian, who spoke Portuguese with a German accent, because he was born and raised in Joinville.

[@Julia-ux5tb]

That happens a lot in there. I'm from Joinville as well, my ancestors from my mother's side immigrated to Blumenau at the end of the 19th century and then moved to Joinville. My father is from a city more to the South, founded by Italians, but grew up in Joinville, and although he has no German origins at all he also speaks Portuguese with a German accent.

[@martinkasper197]

For example Pomerode was founded by germans -which reminds to Pommern (in former eastern prussia)

[@vitoriamanzini3574]

I'm from Joinville too haha! And a lot of schools teach portuguese and German, it's very common. I had I lot of friends descendents of Germans and they speak with their parents and grandparents in German as well. I'm a Italian/portuguese descendent with some indian blood. I just love brazilian people, we are sooo mixed, it's beautiful.

[@oscarmedina9669]

Great content as always, Olly! But you forgot Launa-Deutsch from Southern Chile 🇨🇱 heavily influenced by Spanish and Mapuche. Actually, German is the third most spoken language in Chile after Spanish and Mapuche.

[@DanJM13]

I live near an Amish community in Maryland. I encounter them every so often. We sometimes go to their market. It is a very interesting culture I highly encourage learning more about. Most of my ancestors came from the region the Amish immigrated from and I descend from one of the first Amish families that came to the USA

[@CouchPolyglot]

that was super interesting, I knew about Namibia but it was still cool to see some images and some people speaking German. Ein sehr gutes Video ;)

[@meredithgreenslade1965]

Great video. I come from South Australia and have German ancestry. Great to see Hahndorf mentioned. We have other foods with German names that we are fond of, too. Thank you.

[@joshurrr]

I live in Adelaide South Australia and I have descended from German immigrants that came here on the ship Caterina in 1838, Hahndorf is a beautiful town and I have visited the Herbie family tree in Springton many times, it was cool seeing it in your video

[@danbennett4192]

Cool video! I noticed you somewhat rapidly dismissed Kazakhstan as part of Europe (which it isn't!); but actually, there's a reason there are (or were) German speakers in the Central Asian states which were part of the Soviet Union. When Germany became an enemy to Russia during World War II, Stalin had many Russian Germans (descendents of those Germans Catherine the Great invited to Russia) deported to the Central Asian republics, presumably to keep them from sympathizing with Germany and attacking Russia from within. Case in point: my wife and I made a trip to Samarkand in Uzbekistan in 1988, when it was still in the USSR. We visited a small Baptist house church and were greeted by an old man who spoke to us in German. I know some German, so we were able to converse, but it was something I wasn't expecting!

[@jean-emmanuelrotzetter6030]

Stalin deported many groups during his dictatorship. Sowjet Union hat till 1941 a " Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic", mainly descendants from immigrants invited by Catherine II (born Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst) mid 18th century who had not left after the privileges granted to the immigrants had been lifted. In addition to the Tatars from Crimea, Stalin also deported (and expelled) the members of immigrant groups from Germany and Switzerland established in Crimea. Also during WW2, when annexing Bessarabia and part of Bukowina, Stalin expelled the community of former German immigrants - they were invited by Alexander I early 19th century. Ukraine still has some small groups of german speakers, in fact Austrian dialects in Zakarpattia - surviving from the time the region did belong to the Austro-Hungarian empire - I wanted to tour the region, but then came SARS-CoV-2 with all its restrictions, now the Russian military aggressions.

[@OldLordSpeedy]

This not true and it is. Some settlers from first time (as the first colonies e.g. Leipzig) was full of people or later around first Russian restrictions around 1860 in Besserabia more into the east (more east mean less Moscow's invade in life mostly) and so do you can found German-anchory at some places. The most of them was farmers and search for new land after every family have 5 or more kids. One can only use the farm of father and so some goes away from home place. In WW II some settlers have not the "coming home money" and so some sure goes east too. Typical Stalin Gulag was more in Siberia for many non-russian settlers from Russian land. Many countries change place (e.g. Poland) and all-German settlers should go back into Deutsche Reich (secret contract between Hr. Hitler and Hr. Stalin) but what no German or German government known. So all "Back into Reich" cots pays the settlers self - what scare some poor German settler. Many German soldiers was young these days and flee from the front line or was later send to Siberia into Gulag. After "Russian" mean in the UdSSR "Moscow government like" and so many more eastern communities helping fleeing peoples from treks to east. They talk her/his home language only at home and outside the language at this place. So Russian folks from government/tax/schools thinks they are local settlers. Some flee from Gulag too into near 250 km far communities. In many KZbin videos they talks better German as many "Russian-Germans" how settled in FRG after 1970.

[@user-lj8kg4jd1l]

In Siberia and Altai in Russia the local Russian Germans speak their own German, which is in fact a kind of 19th century dialect.

[@trexbambi4230]

My mother is from kyrgyzstan and during her childhood there were german russians living in her village

[@mehornyasfk]

You should've also mentioned the Alsatian German. Just 40 years ago, 80% of the population in Alsace-Lorraine could speak German. Now, it's less than 30%, most of whom are old people concentrated in the countryside, with the big cities like Strassburg, Hagenau, and Mülhausen almost completely gallicised. It's a shame how France has made little to no effort in preserving the dialect.

[@tumlili7129]

YOU are right! Ich bin aus Basel, früher war es kein Problem im Elsass alemannisch zu sprechen. Jetzt ist es schwierig geworden.

[@koalakoala2344]

As a German, I'm all in favor of the German-French relationship, but I've been to France twice and they really are stuck-up about their own language. Which is disappointing. You know, there are some people who claim that we Germans were afraid or ashamed to show some patriotism because of WW2, but I don't think that's really true. Virtually everyone loves Germany, great country, but most people don't see the point in going crazy about your own identity. And that's how I see the French when they do something like this in Alsace. In Germany it's also more like regional pride that's important to most of us. Depending on where in Germany you are, you'll have a very different culture, dialect, history, cuisine, rituals, upbringing and so on and so forth. We have certain cities that hate each other, every region has its own problems and benefits. Every country has something like this, but it's more common that a Bavarian or a Saxon for example would see themselves as part of Bavaria or Saxony than actual Germany. At the same time, that doesn't mean that we can't be proud of being German and it doesn't mean that we need German flags everywhere 24/7 and it also doesn't mean that we can't be proud of having non-German communities all throughout Germany and that includes immigration from Turkey or Eastern Europe or wherever as well as protecting minority languages like Danish or Sorbian (Czech border) and so on and so forth. To make it short, just wanted to say why we're better than the French :P

[@lisanarramore222]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/paaYgaaLlJKMrMk (Another of Olly's German videos)

[@jantschierschky3461]

One of the main reasons is TV, before multible channels etc TV programs were limited, so many in Alsace watched French and German TV. Only few do it today.

[@carlosacta8726]

@@koalakoala2344 LOL!!!!!!!!!

[@bomaite1]

My grandparents were from Dubuque, Iowa. They had a thriving German community there until the Germans went to war with America twice last century. It became very unfashionable to speak German right about that time. But they published a German language newspaper, and my great grandmother refused to ever speak English, even though she understood it perfectly well. My grandfather was the first one to receive communion in English, which caused quite an uproar in the church. Even though most Americans spoke English, everybody knows that God speaks German. In WWII, some of the locals threw bricks through the windows of my grandfather's bakery several times, so the German stuff all disappeared for good then. Too bad.

[@BasementEngineer]

You are wrong. The USA declared war on Germany twice.

[@bomaite1]

@@BasementEngineer I don't understand. What are you saying I am wrong about? I am unsuccessfully searching for the spot where I contradicted your statement. Please elaborate.

[@rosengeorgiev1464]

Right after the american bankers gave loans to Hitler, knowing what comes next. Just like as it is now - where it hardly the americans firing the next war up, but it is the Russians who are the bad guys. Too bad, really. Daher wäre es mir lieber Deine Sprache des neuen Amerikanischen Reichs zu vergessen, oder als zweite Sprache zu bewähren, es ist Schade die Sprache der wirklichen Kriegsentzünder zu sprechen....

[@BasementEngineer]

@@bomaite1 You wrote: "Until the Germans went to war with America twice in the last Century". It was the USA that went to war with Germany for no reason at all. Except for the bankers in New York and London wanted their profits that could be made in a war. Read The Pity of War, and Churchill and Hitler, the Unnecessary War.

[@jackwayne3333]

@@BasementEngineer nope we declared on them in the First World War and they declared on us in the second basic history

[@dalubwikaan161]

This so far is your most interesting video this year from you, sir. ❤️

[@deutschmitpurple2918]

This is really great video. Your explanation is perfect. Thank you for sharing this fantastic video ❤️🤗❤️🤗

[@storylearning]

So glad you liked it!

[@ChasedByPenguins]

Id love to see a version of this about Polish next! There’s loads of communities in Chicago, Curitiba in Brazil, loads of places in Europe, Siberia, Iran, Togo and Haiti would be very unusual yet possible to hear Polish spoken by the local communities of settlers. Where else did we go? Venezuela? Funny enough where there’s Germans, or the French, Poles are usually right next door. Hello neighbours!

[@maryocecilyo3372]

Interessante

[@familyandfriends3519]

But we like you we hate Germans

[@josebartoli9921]

Argentina also .......

[@simon8377]

Super interessantes Video! Thanks so much🙌

[@wetspinachtv]

Clicked on this video because I am learning German at the moment 😂 my grandfather was from New Berlin, now called Kitchener. We have family reunions there, lots of family members speaking German

[@I_hate_Vegemite]

As an English migrant now living within a few kilometres of Hahndorf (not Hanhdorf), now a somewhat tacky tourist town, a Schnitter or Schnitta is definitely an Australianised Schnitzel (usually chicken) with Sanger being slang for sandwich. South Australia is very proud of it German heritage and we all enjoy Oktoberfest. Always happy to have a Jagerbraten and a pint of Hofbrau Original at the German Arms Hotel.

[@LarsKielhorn]

A couple of years ago, I've been to Valdivia (Chile) and stumbled right into an Oktoberfest. Or was it called Volksfest or even Schützenfest? I don't remember. Still, a pretty large community of former german immigrants there. Nice people! And the beer...it was called Kunstmann if I remember correctly. Very good, too! Would have made for a good chapter in your video. In fact, there are a lot of german influences in Chile all the way down from Valdivia to Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt. Frutillar was mentioned in another comment. Lies directly in the middle of that region.

[@JoachimKessel]

Brilliant video, Olly. I actually visited Handorf in the Barossa-Valley in the 80's. It's also a well known region for their good wines.

[@jechuber]

Hello Olly, I think you forgot to mention that in Peru, in the mountainous jungle, there is the province of Oxapampa (and the district of Pozuzo), where more than 150 years ago German and Austrian immigrants arrived; German customs and the German language persist there

[@anavieira982]

I'm from Espírito Santo and I've been in Domingos Martin, it's so beautiful how they're connected to their German heritage. They're really proud of their culture. Espírito Santo is very proud of it too. Even being someone who didn't grow up with the culture I know somethings about it and always watch TV showing the kids learning Pomeranian at the schools, the partys and the dances, which I think are pretty cool. Edit: Sorry for the grammatical errors. 🙃

[@64mustangfan]

Thanks so much for your enjoyable video. Wartburg in South Africa was my home town, and where I spent most of my school years 😊 The church and school are closely connected, named Kirchdorf. Your photo is of the church where I was confirmed, and in that bell tower I rang the bell for services and funerals ( I have to wonder how I have any hearing left!), pumped the organ bellows on Sundays when there was no electricity, and kissed a girl for the first time. Ringing the bell for a funeral was a very solemn affair. The pastor would contact the school principal, who would then call me to his office, tell me I was not in trouble, and should go down to the church to toll the bell - I was excused for 2 classes, mixed feelings of course. The funeral tolling of a bell is the technique of sounding a single bell very slowly, with a significant gap between strikes, difficult to master, and could of course not be practiced. It was easier to stand directly below the stationary bell, then with a rope tied to the clapper, give it a good swing, count about 5 seconds and repeat many times until my head was spinning... I live abroad now but remember the Wartburg community as warm hearted, humorous, caring and disciplined, while knowing a lot about being festive. The local dialect there is Plat Deutsch (flat German) as apposed to Hoch Deutsch (high German) taught at school. I later discovered that Plat Deutsch had words similar in Danish. When visiting Germany I was told I speak Alt Deutsch (old German). Gruß

[@p__jay]

i would never want to learn German because its just too difficult, but i'm so happy and glad to have learned it as my first language, growing up in South West Germany - so i can understand most accents and variations...many dont agree, but imo it's a very beautiful language!

[@gerhardstrydom5249]

Great vid! About 100km from South Africa's capital, Pretoria, there is a German community in a town named Kroondal.

[@geoguru32]

Australian here! I am a German speaker in Queensland!

[@kathydurow6814]

Oh, wow, my family history links to so many of these places. On my mother's side, her ancestors emigrated from Germany to Missouri USA in the 1840s. Part of the family wandered off to Texas for a bit but returned when that didn't pan out. On my father's side, his great-grandfather emigrated to western New York in the 1880s or 90s from villages near the current Polish border. Some family had already emigrated from the same area in the 1840s, to South Africa and the USA (they moved westward to Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa & Kansas). While his grandfather stayed in New York, a grand-uncle moved to Texas (near Giddings) as a pastor and served German speaking communities there. Another moved to Fort Myers Florida. My father & family moved to Australia to serve those descendants of German immigrants in the Lutheran Church in Australia as a teacher. He also spent a few years in Papua New Guinea as principal of a school for both English & German speaking missionaries kids. As the northern part of that country was once a German colony, there are some traces of German-based words in the county's Tok Pisin (Pidgin), e.g.,"raus" or "rausim" means to remove or throw out in Pidgin & "raus" is the German word (verb?) for "out"; "maski" means never mind, or it doesn't matter, or forget about it & is probably derived from "machts nichts". No South American connections that I've found.....yet.

[@johntatum-rn1pt]

Augusta, Georgia has a huge vibrant German community as well. I grew up going to a German Lutheran church and going to cultural festivals there. Some of the sweetest people in the world.

[@jpcgordon]

There's quite a large chunk of South Tyrol in Northern Italy where German is even the first language, before Italian. In other areas of South Tyrol it's very mixed.

[@TrangDB9]

I wasn't sure if he mentioned, but yeah, my thought.

[@skofler89]

Yeah german is our first language in Southtyrol (North Italy) for the most of the population (62,3% about 330.000). Every village then has its own dialect.

[@jpcgordon]

@@skofler89 I spend a fair amount of time in Bozen/Bolzano and yeah, the dialect changes so much from place to place. :)

[@thepretorian5292]

The Italian tennis player jannik sinner is of german descent tyrolian

[@AnneDowson-vp8lg]

I'm English, and I had a lovely holiday in Sud Tyrol, in a beautiful Alpine valley called Ahrental, I think. The village was St. Johann. Our hotel was owned by Trudi, who spoke German, and her husband spoke Italian. It was a beautiful valley and well-placed for visiting Innsbruck in one direction and Venice in the other.

[@heronimousbrapson863]

In the Canadian province of Alberta, there are Hutterite communities that also speak a German dialect.

[@jantschierschky3461]

One of the most interesting experiences I had was in a Windhoek supermarket. The cashier a young African lady, when she rung up my groceries and I thanked her in English she responded in perfect German.

[@manuelceja4689]

Very interesting the German immigration to Mexico. Besides the Mennonites, the Germans were instrumental in starting Mexico's beer industry (think Corona, Modelo, Dos XX). In the northern part of Mexico, there are hundreds of Mexicans of German descent and it's not uncommon to hear surnames such as Coppel, Seldner, Becker, Kohlmann, Schwartzkoff. Think singer Linda Ronstadt, who's ancestors came from Sonora, Mexico who's great Grandfather was Frederick Ronstadt a German Immigrant. Thanks for the interesting video.

[@AnneDowson-vp8lg]

I'm glad you mentioned the singer Linda Ronstadt, who's beautiful voice has sadly being silenced by Parkinson's disease. She once gave a very interesting interview on BBC Radio about her ancestors.

[@bakerzermatt]

About Walser German: These people are originally from the Swiss canton of Wallis (where I'm from), and they left around the middle ages. Walliser German is already an isolated Dialekt separated from other German speakers by high mountains, and otherwise surrounded by French and Italian speakers. There are various Walser 'colonies' in the neighbouring Italian valleys, but also in the cantons of Tessin and Graubünden. These colonies preserved their language to a remarkable degree! I once listened to a radio programme about the Walser colony of Bosco Gurin, and I was surprised at how 'normal' they sounded, except for the odd word I couldn't understand at all. But otherwise, grammar, melody and prononciation were almost indistinguishable from Walliser in Wallis.

[@nirfz]

There is also an area in western austria called "Kleinwalsertal" which like the name suggests also was a place where people from the Allis migrated to. (an no, as far as i am aware, not only the short people from Wallis ;-) )

[@phil3351]

The Walser also emigrated to Austria, Kleinwalsertal, Großwalsertal, but I think meanwhile they speak normal low alemannic language as other people there. Is Walser german identical or similar to Bernerdeutsch? As a swabian speaker in germany I unterstand the swiss very well (heard them in swiss TV as a child and understood everything, swabian and swiss is similar), but Bern dütsch needed some time to understand it, some minutes or hours.

[@bakerzermatt]

@@phil3351 it's very different to Berngerman. Basically, it's as different to Berngerman as Berngerman is to Schwäbisch. Walliserdeutsch has its own grammar that is a bit different, the sounds are different, and the melody is quite different. When I'm in Bern, people often have a bit of trouble understanding me. To hear some examples search for 'Walliserdeutsch', or look at the channel 'Zeidgenosse' where he presents every canton and also gives an example of the dialect (great channel). Ernst Huter also has a great channel that explains some of the grammar.

[@herbertgonswa3503]

I missed Tsintau in China and the Bismarck Archipelago in Papua Neuguinea, both former colonies. Thank you for the interesting content.

[@lyrebird9749]

Also in Australia: Germans set up missions, which Indigenous people were forced onto, in many parts of the country btw the 1850's and WW2. Many of the more remote missions still exist as communities, such as Ntaria (Hermannsburg) not far from Alice Springs, where some Aboriginal elders can still speak German.

[@peace-now]

Interesting.

[@falka7639]

I'm from Germany , and this surprises me. So many places in the world with german . For me, as a native speaker from the north of Germany, it is difficult to understand the accents how partly Schweitzer german now I change mine and here are so many difficult dialects to understand them.

[@jensk5978]

Nice Video. Even as a German i didn´t know about the communities all over the world. Thanks.

[@StampinDivaUK]

Oh wow! It was a surprise to see Wartburg, in South Africa, mentioned. I went to boarding school in Wartburg for 3.5 years, matriculating in 1994. There's an extremely strong German community in that whole region, including the towns of Kirchdorf and Heidelberg. Wartburg-Kirchdorf Hochshule is technically an English medium school, however, since 99% of the day scholars speak German as a first language, us boarder scholars had to learn pretty quick. Consequently, even after 25+ years of not speaking German, I can still understand it quite well and make myself understood reasonably well.

[@robinhood6143]

great video i will start learning german as 4th language after french, english and im at intermediate in spanish. as soon as my spanish is beyond b2 i will start with german. meanwhile im also learning japanese hiragana and katakana.

[@Hans-ChristianSchwartz]

Dude, respect. There is an english youtube channel called "AbroadInJapan". In his earliest videos there is a lot of stuff about how he learned japanese (he HAD to ^^). Really fascinating insights. He's a brit, politically completely incorrect and so you have been warned :D

[@garretrobbins7145]

My home, Paraguay has entire German speaking communities as well.

[@chrisdieter9594]

Als Deutscher habe ich eine Menge dazugelernt. Alles unglaublich interessant. Danke Olly Richards! 👍

[@wuetend9]

Olly es ist doch faszinierend, wo über all in der Welt deutsch gesprochen wird. Ich selber habe Verwandte, die in Melbourne Australien leben. Leider habe ich, es bei meinem letzten Versuch nicht geschafft Handorf zu besuchen. Auch wenn es ziemlich nahe an Melbourne liegt. Viele Grüße aus Hannover 😊

[@kathydurow6814]

Guten tag auf Sydney. Actually Hahndorf is near Adelaide. Melbourne is at least a 7 hour drive away (110 k speed limits, though).

[@youknowme1475]

i like that some dialects of german keeps their voiced alveolar thrill

[@weirdlanguageguy]

In Iowa, there's a group of small towns called the Amana colony that was settled by a group of communitarian Lutherans from Germany. I dont think there are too many german speakers left there now, but the whole area has a very distinct German aesthetic. The local bank is even called "das Bankhaus"!

[@herbertvonsauerkrautunterh2513]

I used to speak wurster platt and grew up north of Brisbane. It turned out that earlier family emigrated to this area in the late 1800s.. Other ancestors went to the Odessa area as well..

[@lifeisgood3087]

I had the opportunity to visit Colonia Tovar in Venezuela. I was impressed at the resemblance of this town with southern Germany (Rothemburg). They speak a German dialect and all restaurants sell authentic German Bavarian food and German style locally brewed beer.

[@p__jay]

how long ago was that? it has changed today i would guess...

[@lifeisgood3087]

@@p__jay Not only it is the same, but it has actually grown significantly since its foundation. By city ordinance, all new homes must follow the Bavaria style. Design of all stores and restaurants look very Rothemburg (Bavaria). Waitresses and waiters wear Bavarian style clothing. They have a good number of videos on KZbin, TikTok, Instagram, etc. They call it the Germany of the Caribbean. However, Germans and Venezuelans mixed and they now have a mixed ethnicity with some exceptions. They still keep their German dialect.

[@michaelreid8857]

I’ve actually been there myself about 25 years ago. Honestly, it was the only place in Venezuela that I found enjoyable! Lived in Colombia for four years and loved it. It’s amazing, how different the two Spanish speaking neighbours are!

[@lifeisgood3087]

@@michaelreid8857 Obviously you did not visit Angel Falls, inspiration for Disney's UP, Aracnophobia, Avatar, etc. You did not visit Roraima, inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Lost World. Obviously you did not visit The Catatumbo Lightning, biggest regenerator of the ozone layer (ask NASA what they said about this). You did not visit Los Roques archipelago, otherwise you would have not said what you said. You did not visit Mérida with the stunning Sierra Nevada backdrop in the Andes and longest and highest cable car in the world. You did not visit Médanos de Coro, the only Caribbean facing desert. And you did not visit Parque Nacional Canaima, or Parque Nacional Morrocoy, or Parque Nacional Mochima. I bet you a million dollars you did not see any of that.

[@michaelreid8857]

@@lifeisgood3087 your correct. Unfortunately I did not.

[@csmall816]

There was a point in time when ~10% of the population of South Australia (the state Hahndorf is located in) could speak German. There used to be a number of towns which had German names but they changed their names due to WW2 etc There is also a suburb in Sydney/NSW called Seven Hills that had a reasonably sized German population that was established after WW2. So much so there was even a German school (now since closed down).

[@albertogarromorey6214]

In Peru, South America, there is a small German speaking comunity in Pozuzo. They arrived in the late 19th century. They are mostly farmers.

[@MichaEl-rh1kv]

2:35 Very interesting. I grew up not far from the moving gsi-gwä border in Upper Swabia: My grandma still used the regular past participle of "sein" (to be) in Alemannic ('sy'- 'gsi' or 'gsin'), while nowadays Swabian has arrived in the region, which uses a form of the irregular past participle from Standard German ("sein" - "gewesen", Swabian: "gwä" or "gwese").

[@phil3351]

There are not only 2 regions gwä / gsi, but the third expression is "gsei", here in south germany not far away from switzerland, where I live. All this means "has been" . Located in Sigmaringen and 30km around...

[@st_mardi]

Nicht viele wissen über Namibia Bescheid. Great video!🙏🏿

[@poorwotan]

One of my grandmothers was born during colonial times in (now) Namibia where my great-grandfather worked in the courts. They got stuck in Germany during WW1 and then emigrated to Argentina. On my father's side, my grandfather emigrated to Chile (Santiago), then moved to Brazil (Sao Paulo), and then Argentina (Buenos Aires). I had an aunt in Chile and another Brazil with her family. I was born in Peru. We still speak Hochdeutsch among us and people comment how good my German is; they are floored when I tell them I am actually 3rd generation in Latin America.

[@OldLordSpeedy]

Wow - das ist eine großartige Familiengeschichte von Ihnen. The most colonies settlers are "Fremde" (foreigner) in Orgin German places after they talk old or unknown language. We never published that "my family" are Besserabia roots in school times. Now, in social media times, we build bigger groups as "Heimatvereine" yesterday's.

[@poorwotan]

@@OldLordSpeedy Das bloede ist dass ich keine direkte Verbindungen mehr mit Deutschland habe. So kann ich nicht die Beibehaltigung erwerben wenn ich Ami werden sollte auss Lebengruenden. Es ist verrueckt das jemand noch Deutscher bleiben WILL (nur den Pass haben will) und anderen die nichts Deutsches haben bekommen alles von der Regierung. Zu Schade. Das Gefuehl "was ist ein Deutscher" wird oft mehr im Aussland gepflegt und nicht nur die Sprache, sondern Sitten und Gebraeuche.

[@davidjones3712]

My wife grew up in Wartburg, KwaZulu-Natal South Africa. Their is also a town called New Hanover. The hotel was called The Hof. Many German names still abound in the area. In Johannesburg there is a Deutsche Schule, which caters for the expat community as well.

[@philipharms2972]

Hi David. Ask your wife a bit more. There are many more German speakers in South Africa than the 12000 he mentions. There are 4 German High Schools - Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, and Hermannsburg (where I went), which was the rival school to Wartburg. There are at least a dozen German primary schools scattered around the country. I only learnt English at school, before that only German and Zulu

[@mariekatherine5238]

Within Penna Dutch, you have the second wave of immigration from Switzerland in the early 1800’s. These are the Amish of Indiana, Illinois, some Ohio. There is a definite difference between Penna Dutch and Swiss Dutch. They can understand one another quite well, but both are distinct not only in accent but in words and phrases.

[@cyberherbalist]

I spoke with the owner of a cantina in Heerlen, in the Netherlands, and she could speak Dutch, German, and English. Not only that, she spoke the local Low Dutch dialect. She told me that when she visited the farmers market in Aachen (in Germany) just 12 miles away to buy produce for her menu, she would converse with many of the farmers using Low Dutch, and it was quite close enough to the local Low German dialect. They were pretty much mutually intelligible.

[@carlosacta8726]

The Dutch are some of the most talented polyglots in the whole world!

[@et76039]

Sounds like they were using Low Saxon, which seems to straddle the border.

[@cyberherbalist]

@@et76039 Could be! Not being a linguist, I can't judge, but she seemed to feel that her local dialect was a dialect of Netherlands. We don't always recognize what is most familiar to us for what it really is. For example, to me, I have no accent in English. Yet those amongst whom I'm now living recognize me instantly as American!

[@et76039]

@@cyberherbalist. In Europe, it is said to be common for people to more easily understand those across the border, than their own countrymen.. Catalan is shown to go slightly across the border into France. The Yorkish dialect of English uses a consonant not found in standard English, but which is used in Lowland Scots. Allegedly, Scandinavians can understand each other easier than Italians can. Dialect continuums are well known.

[@lukeg.a5047]

@@et76039 Yorkshire and lowland Scot’s has hundreds of miles and different counties between them though

[@DanieleDeVecchi.]

I'm an Italian native speaker and I've been learning German for more than two years now. When they spoke those German dialects from south America my brain couldn't figure out which language it was, because it seemed Spanish to me (as an Italian, I can recognize and understand Spanish) but then there were German words that confused me even more. Same happened with Texas and Pennsylvania German, a mix of English and German. Languages are so beautiful and you discover new stuff every day...

[@maxkilluminati8278]

Ich lerne spanisch und norwegisch. Norwegisch klingt für mich komisch aber vom Satzbau verständlich. Spanisch (und wahrscheinlich auch italienisch) hingegen ist vom System her einfach aber von der Art zu sprechen und zu denken komplett anders.

[@DieAlteistwiederda]

I have the same issue as a native German speaker that is fully fluent in English and is decent at Spanish. It felt like my brain was stuttering but the words still made sense. Really weird sensation and fascinating how good our brains are at pattern recognition and just filling in any gaps. I once had a full conversation with someone who mostly spoke Dutch & a bit of English and I mixed German & English and we understand each other just fine. My English was a fair bit better than theirs but it really wasn't a struggle we just both spoke slowly.

[@MaoRatto]

Funny thing as someone studying the romance languages, I recognized vocabulary from both varieties, but the other one in Italian clearly is easier despite not really studying German fully.

[@brianbarker1675]

Sitting at my computer only 20 km from Hahndorf so thrilled that it scored a mention. Cool to hear similar stories from around the world. Interestingly most of the towns within the Adelaide Hills used to have German names from the 1840s immigrants, but after the first world war, many were changed to more English/Allied ones. Some managed to get their names back- Lobethal, Klemzig- and others were sadly changed forever. German is still a commonly taught language in Adelaide schools (my wife is a German teacher), despite German speakers almost invariably speaking English better than Australians speak German, and we still have lots of adopted German words- Mettwurst, O-Bahn, Fritz, Schnitzel- and have our own little German festival, the Schutzenfest

[@Lcngopher]

My home state has a city whose oktoberfest was the first one outside of munich to operate with the blessing of the original oktoberfest. The event started in 1990 but was given the blessing in 1996.

[@rosshart9514]

Not mentioned (or did I miss?): Transylvanian Saxons (Siebenbürger Sachsen) in Romania: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvanian_Saxons Banat Swabians (Banater Schwaben) in Serbia/Romania/Hungaria: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banat_Swabians

[@pegaseg70]

There are several different Swiss German depending on the city you live in and they sometimes, often even don't understand each other ^^ it's always funny when they have to switch to English or German x) The hardest to understand apparently is the one from Wallis

[@storylearning]

Thanks for the comment!

[@Hans-ChristianSchwartz]

yup, had a friend way back who spoke some swiss dialect I had previously never heard... and I could not understand a single sentence, often not a single word. He could switch to what he called "high german", but which to me sounded like a weird bavarian dialect, but at least I could understand ^^. We talked a lot of english ^^ .. it was just easier. Weird isnt it ?

[@hughmungus1767]

I had an interesting encounter with Swiss German in 1991. I was looking at an exhibit about Swiss history with explanatory text in German, French and (most conveniently) English. As I was reading the text, a young local girl approached me and spoke a very long sentence in something that sounded Germanic but I did not recognize a single word, even though I have some German. At the end, I said "Was?" (German for "What?") She repeated this very long sentence in its entirety. I still had no glimmer of what she was saying so I said to her in Hochdeutsch that I was terribly sorry but I didn't speak the Swiss dialect and could she possibly say what she'd said in Hochdeutsch. She started again, clearly struggling, but delivered another very long sentence in what was presumably be her best Hochdeutsch. This time, I understood maybe one word in four but it was enough to get her meaning. She explained that she was there working on a school assignment and she really needed to see the text beside the exhibits but I was blocking her view so could I please step aside. Naturally, I did what she asked and she was able to proceed. I can't help but point out that if I had been in her position, I probably would have resorted to a simple hand gesture instead of all that dialogue ;-) In any case, I realized that spoken Hochdeutsch wasn't much use in Switzerland although I found I could get the gist of newspapers just fine. Is written Swiss German closer to Hochdeutsch than the spoke version?

[@gabrielpr03]

@@hughmungus1767 I am from Switzerland and Swiss German is only used colloquially, although the younger generation tends to use it more in writing because of the internet. It (still) hasn‘t a written language, mainly due to the fact that there are many varieties of Swiss German. Everyone writes this dialect the way they like. If you know High German fluently, I would say "Written" Swiss German would be quite comprehensible.

[@juliane__]

Alike, when you travel aorund germany, the farther you get from the center the less you can understand, even as a native speaker. Really hard to understand is rural Bavaria. Just too many differences to think about when listening. And a completely different mentality too to the rest of germany. I consider Swiss German closer, because they peserved a calmer and on the point style of speaking as in the north where i come from.

[@JulianKirk87]

wow...at 13:40min its a mix of all german dialects as once 🙃 i live near Hannover (so its the only region where we use nearly no dialect,some call it Oxford-german) and this whole Video is a pleasure to see (and hear) most of the german language spoken in other countries use the vocabulary from 100 years ago,its nice to hear. for me from lower Saxony, especially the "low german" or also some of the old Pfälzisch,the "Palatinate language"

[@sphtpfhorbrains3592]

Interessantes Video. Top-Leistung!

[@theoldone3485]

Lawrence Welk, a famous American band leader (spoofed on SNL by Fred Armisen) was born in Strasbourg, North Dakota. He didn’t learn English until age 21 and never felt comfortable speaking it in public. Very interesting to me.

[@deanzimm2688]

I went to collage with many of LawrenGerman

[@Nicolas-zw2hv]

although it’s not a dialect, there is a german creole language in papua new ginea as one part of the country was a german colony. the creole is now almost died out but it was documented and it’s super interesting!

[@Tiqerboy]

Easily one of the more fascinating videos you've done. I've found all this very fascinating - much that I did not know. You didn't mention the German language in Translyvania which has been there for centuries, pretty much unchanged from the dialect that came from Sachsen, Germany at the time. And so it diverged a lot from standard German. That is where my Dad's side of the family came from. Today there are very few left in what is now Romania but there's got to be a few left. My grandparents went back to the old country in 1973 but that was the last time and none of their children ever travelled back. My grandparents insisted on ensuring all their kids speak English so my Dad understands but doesn't really speak the dialect. Of course I well remember the times when it was only grandma and grandpa in the house they spoke that dialect of German to each other. Otherwise they spoke English. My other comment to add, the dialect most Amish speak in America is derived from Swiss German because that is where most of them came from in the 1700s and early 1800s. I have been told it's more or less mutually intelligible with today's Swiss German.

[@GoWestYoungMan]

Thought for sure they'd discuss the Hutterite communities on the Canadian prairie. Kitchener may be home to that big Oktoberfest but it's Hutterites that live and work in German every day.

[@trichsert206]

Im german from the Dutch/Belgian border region. My grandmother still speaks low German and says that this way she easily understands low Dutch/ normal Dutch since low German is basically a form of modern Dutch

[@mightymet7062]

It’s the opposite. Dutch is standardized Low German. Dutch means Deutsch.

[@jonasschmitz506]

I’m one of the ones descendants of German in Santa Catarina Brazil, but I actually descended of Italian too, and unfortunately I just know a few words in German and Italian 😢

[@Chuck_G_Campbell]

Germans in Argentina have been migrating since 1870!!!!, Brazil since 1824!!!, Paraguay 1888, Mexico since late 19th century!!! , Chile 1850+....

[@commenter5901]

My parents are from a Mennonite colony in Paraguay that spoke Plautdietsch that sounds very similar to the one the Mexican girl was speaking (I could understand everything she said even though some words weren't quite the same). They also had Catholic German schooling so they grew up speaking both. They moved to Canada when I was born and raised me speaking standard German but they always spoke Plautdietsch to each other (and still do). When I started going to school, I stopped speaking German and switched over to English while they continued speaking Plautdietsch. I can understand every word they speak, but I can't speak it. It's really strange. On the other hand, I can barely understand standard German, but I can speak it about as well as a small child. I really wish I could learn to actually speak Plautdietsch because I really do like the sound of it and it gives me warm fuzzy feelings, like a cozy home, but my brain just can't think of the words to bring them to my lips. It's like it's always on the tip of my tongue. I'm often the translator at family gatherings that have half English and half Plautdietsch speakers. The Plautdietsch speakers generally know English but just can't think of the right words and the English speakers just speak English.

[@ToniTortelini]

You forgot to mention Slesia in Poland, there is a German minority. And of course south Tyrol in Italy. Many of the Wolga Germans was relocated by Stalin to Syberia, Kasachstan or somewhere else in the Soviet Union.

[@greenbelly2008]

I´m from the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina. My parents spoke German at home. There are villages that were founded by Volga Germans here.

[@reilarus]

de qué aldea sos? yo soy de Paraná, los padres de mi abuela eran de baviera

[@greenbelly2008]

@@reilarus Conozco Bavaria. Tengo amigos allí.

[@shannimonet]

@@greenbelly2008 No tengo amigos que hablen español. Puedo ayudarme? Estoy aprendiendo 😩. Soy Shan y de Jamaica.

[@tnb3466]

Yo haciendo mí árbol llegue a una tatara de entre Ríos, tb alemana del Volga, Haberkorn de apellido.

[@briangrogan2553]

You mean founded by Nazis.

[@MausTheGerman]

12:51 I met this lady in the gift shop of the Heritage Village in New Braunfels / TX ❤ she sold me a fridge magnet 😆

[@GunnarWieking]

Ancestry connects. One need to understand where he or she comes from to find his or hers way into the future. This goes especially for languages. Understanding and speaking a language opens a window into the mind of the speaker or writer. By keeping or learning the language of your ancestors it keeps you connected to their thoughts and experiences and gives the opportunity to dive into the nowadays reality of their native origin.

[@robertonasi7544]

South Tirol in Italy. Here German is official language along with Italian

[@mariebcfhs9491]

I know German communities in Africa thanks to the song Südwesterlied. It's a very cheerful song about people loving the beautiful nature of that region despite the hefty price they have to pay living there.

[@OldLordSpeedy]

But do you should know that this song is racist too. It is glorious the German white settlers in opposite to the poor African black settlers (how lives over 10000 years longer at this place). The white European settlers think GOLD what most and black African settlers never use after stone, metal, food is better.

[@mariebcfhs9491]

@@OldLordSpeedy oh crap

[@23mystiq]

When I was travelling in Peru, sailing on the Amazon river, on the ship there was this super unusual bunch of folks with us, looked like Amish but spoke German. Never metting neither Amish nor Mennonites (which these guys were part of), it really bewildered me, I felt like I am in a historical movie.