Is English a bastardised German?

Guest   Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:57 pm GMT
<<Most Americans are not English. The two most common ancestries in the U.S. are German and Irish with 13%. English happens to be the de facto language due to British Imperialism, that is all. >>

I believe only 8.7% of Americans have English ancestry. Americans are a really mixed bunch.
heurísko   Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:49 am GMT
"Most of Americans have German ancestry, not English. So yes, Americans are bastardised Germans."

"Most Americans are not English. The two most common ancestries in the U.S. are German and Irish with 13%. English happens to be the de facto language due to British Imperialism, that is all."

That is a load of BS. The American Sensus does cite German Ancestry as the most common in the USA, but this is easily refuted by any American phone book. If you pick up ANY American phone book (even one from Pennsylvania, or from Iowa) the majority of the surnames will be English, not German. Why is this? It probably is a reflection of the psyche of "white" americans: they obsessed with race, and they consider Germans to be more worthy than Englishmen. In other words: they are a bunch of "German wannabees".
Guest   Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:59 am GMT
Why is it that Americans are so obsessed with their racial heritage? For example I never laughed so hard as when I saw a movie of Americans saying "I'm Irish/German/Italian". You're what??!!! You're American!
Skippy   Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:30 am GMT
I think Americans in general have an obsession with finding out about their families, where they came from, etc. Ever seen Everything is Illuminated?
heurísko   Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:38 am GMT
I'd say the typical "white" American is a mixture of English, Irish, Dutch, Welsh, French, German with a touch of Indian blood. A whole lot of "white" Americans have traces of native american ancestry, but it does not show in their phenotype. Look at Kim Basinger, or Richard Dean Anderson (Macgyver). Both have Indian ancestry, but you wouldn't tell by looking at them!
Skippy   Fri Jul 04, 2008 4:29 am GMT
I'd agree with that... My grandmother is part Native American... she has no idea what tribe or how far back though, so it doesn't do me much good when applying to schools or jobs ;-)
Amabo   Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:03 am GMT
"Everything is Illuminated?"

That is a premium film!
Guest   Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:40 am GMT
Why would Americans be German wannabees? There are just a lot of people who descended from German immigrants here. People definitely hide from their English ancestry, though, and replace it with Scottish or Irish despite obviously being English... apparently there was some kind-of war in the past, if I remember correctly, so that might influence that behavior.

To our dear foreigners out there, there is no such thing as American culture like there is French culture. That's why people are obsessed with their ancestry ... that's basically all there is. Culture in the US differs from region to region based on ancestry. The Midwest is heavily German, the NYC metro area (which is like a region within itself) is mostly Catholic and Jewish with probably more Hindus than Protestants, etc. I'm from the Northeast and I lived with a friend from Texas ... the cultural signifiers we both grew up with were nearly unintelligible to each other, I learned so much about Southern culture from him that a huge chunk of American culture finally made sense to me. Like anyone who's traveled the US can attest, the US is actually made up of a bunch of different countries which kind-of all hate each other (not person-to-person, more like ideologically).

I'm of Dutch ancestry, and there's basically nobody who's Dutch outside the NY, NJ area. I mean, those guys stopped coming here in what, 1660? Yet the culture they left makes the NYC metro area unique to other parts of the US, etc. etc. etc.
heurísko   Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:39 pm GMT
Apparently there was also some other kind-of war in the past, against a guy with a moustache, remember that one? But it surely doesn't stop americans from claiming to be "German"!

Why is it that English surnames appear in the majority in the phone books (even in the Midwest)? I spent some time in an university in the Midwest and only met 1 individual who claimed German ancestry (and actually had a German surname), amongst several people who had English names.
Guest   Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:22 pm GMT
What? I was making a cute reference to the Revolutionary War, which was slightly more important to the United States than World War II... because, you know, the whole forming of the nation thing.

Anyway, the surnames look English because almost everyone's name was Anglicized (since English was the dominant language in the country) ... if your name was Jan Millbruckmeier or some crap, they'd change your name to John Miller at Ellis Island. Also people changed it of their own will to fit in. According to the Census Bureau, German is the most common ancestry in the United States, so the information is there. German immigrants absolutely flooded the United States throughout the centuries, so it's not really that surprising. Therein lies what you probably perceive as American affection for Germany.
Amabo   Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:08 pm GMT
"To our dear foreigners out there, there is no such thing as American culture like there is French culture."

Ha, ha, you are so funny. No, seriously, you crack me up.

Tell us another one!
heurísko   Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:51 pm GMT
"Anyway, the surnames look English because almost everyone's name was Anglicized (since English was the dominant language in the country) ... if your name was Jan Millbruckmeier or some crap, they'd change your name to John Miller at Ellis Island. Also people changed it of their own will to fit in."

This may account for a small part of it. But still, the overwhelming majority of the surnames are not "Anglicizations" at all, they are really English, Scottish, Welsh names... Again, just look at phone books.

"According to the Census Bureau, German is the most common ancestry in the United States, so the information is there."

Yes, this is what I referred to earlier. But this information is simply what Americans CLAIM they are, there isn't any actual checking, it's just "self-identification" as the Census puts it.

"Therein lies what you probably perceive as American affection for Germany."

This goes beyond "affection". Seems more like mass-deception, mass-delusion to some extent Millions of Americans are "German-wannabees".
Guest   Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:19 pm GMT
Why are you fighting about the fact that Germany was one of the main immigrant nations in the US? They were, and there's a Mauer and a Braun on every block here, even in the Northeast. My local deli guy, his name was Helmut and was born outside of Munich. Let me guess, he was just pretending to be German? What? And most names were turned into English versions at Ellis Island ... it's a joke over here how all of our names got mangled there. I wouldn't expect you to know that, though.

You're really starting to sound a little crazy here. What is it about Antimoon and these lunatics?
heurísko   Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:39 pm GMT
I am not "fighting about the fact that Germany was one of the main immigrant nations in the US"... it is. There certainly are many German descendents in the US. BUT I don't think they are the majoritarian ethnicity in the USA, and this is supported by phone book names, as I said. I am merely pointing out the fact that many Americans are race-obsessed and this fact is, in all likelihood, reflected in the US Census. Many Americans who are of multiple European (and maybe non-European) backgrounds probably ignored part of their heritage when they answered the Census' questions, and choose to mention only their "German" background.

If you have any links or references about *mass* "anglicization" of German names, I would like to hear about them.
Guest   Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:13 pm GMT
haha, you're basing your entire argument on a phone book that serves a small community, and saying that represents the entire United States? That's such an incredible fallacy of logic that you have to be 13 years old.

You don't have any idea about the United States, do you. Immigrants from different nations formed communities on their own. There's a big chunk of the Midwest that's Swedish and Norwegian. Another chunk that's English. Another that's Irish, Polish, etc. How many Norwegian names did you see in that phone book? Or Swedish? There are tons of Swedish descendants out in the Midwest, so many that Ingmar Bergman made a film about Swedish immigrants out there. and no, those people aren't pretending to be of Swedish descent.

People really don't care about Germany all that much. The only reason they care about it is because "my grandparents spoke German, so I think it's interesting". Growing up in New Jersey, I had 3 friends whose grandparents were off the boat from Germany, and the deli guy I was talking about was born in Germany, too. There are plenty of Germans here straight from Deutschland, plus their descendants. Brauers, Mauers, Schultzes, Meiers, Schwartzwelders and kopfs, they're everywhere.

Any aspect of German culture here that exists exists without people knowing it came from Germany, like ... Kindergartens and such.