Anglosphere

>>>> dominant bloodline, according to the US Census, is German. Now, doesn't i make plain ol' common sense that the country—in GENERAL— would reflect more of a German influence? <<

Then why is English the de facto official language in the US? And why do few Americans feel any more connection to Germany than they would feel towards Italy, or Sweden?<<

Because the initial Thirteen Colonies were established by Great Britain and inherited English as their primary language from it, and further immigrants learned English and lost their original languages since then due to viewing it as the national language of where they settled. Even then, it took time for languages other than English to be lost, with German persisting longer than, say, Spanish seems to be persisting amongst the descendants of recent immigrants to the US.

And as for any connection with Germany, similar sentiments exist in places such as the Upper Midwest, Pennsylvania, and parts of Texas as one often hears with respect to Ireland, Italy, Norway, and like from others, but such is simply not nearly as outwardly vocal in nature, and such was once much stronger historically but was greatly weakened both by both world wars (despite there being significant waves of German-speaking immigrants here after both world wars) and by time (due to the greatest bulk of German-speaking immigrants having arrived earlier than, say, most Italian or Norwegian immigrants).

But if the US is so Germanised, how come you never hear anything about German-Americans? References to Italian/Irish/African/Mexican-Americans are literally everywhere, but German-Americans are less heard of. True, you don't here about British-Americans either... Is it because they are the standard to which the others are compared or something, and there's no need to peg the nationality on the front?

I really think there is some kind of correlation between the general (as opposed to specific) American and the German character - it can show itself in various subtle ways. This is obviously linked to the high concentrations of American people with direct German ancestry, such as in many of the more northern midwestern States, including Iowa where I know for a fact that much of the current population falls into this category. You only have to look at an Iowan telephoine directory to see this by all the German names listed.

It seems that the Americans and the Germans share a similar sense of humour, markedly different from the British for the most part. A Brit relating a joke to the average American and to the average German is highly likely to receive the same reaction from both - most probably a blank stare of either incomprehension or the old eye rolling thing. ;-) Most Brits think that both the Americans and the Germans "lack a sense of humour", but in actual fact it's a wee bit of a fallacy. A more accurate description would be a different perception of what is humour!

During WW2 in Britain, when the threat of spies and invasions in Britain in the summer of 1940 was extremely high, as were tensions among the British population, there was this British belief that one way to tell whether an individual suspected of being a German spy in this country at the time really was a spy or not was to tell him a joke. A deadpan expression in response would have him incarcerated in a detention centre poste haste!

That may well have been legend, as most such spies who managed to infiltrate Britain at that dangerous time gave themselves away in other ways - it really takes a special person with special qualities to be a successful spy in a foreign country especially in such times as those. A mere slip of the tongue and that's it.....the slammer!

One such spy momentarily forgot about the pronunciation of the letter J in England....not the same as in Germany. He asked for directions of a local man in Kent (a very unwise move in Britain in 1940 anyway) - he wanted to know the road to take to Yarvis Cross where he was to meet up with another spy. The quick thinking local man played along with him, showed him the way to Jarvis Cross, and by time the spy got to this place the local British police and military were waiting for him along with his handcuffed colleague. Neither spy saw the Fatherland again....all proven spies were shot in Britain during WW2.

>>But if the US is so Germanised, how come you never hear anything about German-Americans? References to Italian/Irish/African/Mexican-Americans are literally everywhere, but German-Americans are less heard of. True, you don't here about British-Americans either... Is it because they are the standard to which the others are compared or something, and there's no need to peg the nationality on the front?<<

Pretty much. Being German-American is in many ways like being British-American - it is not worthy of note most of the time, and since in many areas they are (often by far) the largest group to begin with, there is nothing "special" about being such. In this way it is only slightly more noticeable compared to being British-American because of the last names being clearly "foreign" in origin.

>>One such spy momentarily forgot about the pronunciation of the letter J in England....not the same as in Germany. He asked for directions of a local man in Kent (a very unwise move in Britain in 1940 anyway) - he wanted to know the road to take to Yarvis Cross where he was to meet up with another spy. The quick thinking local man played along with him, showed him the way to Jarvis Cross, and by time the spy got to this place the local British police and military were waiting for him along with his handcuffed colleague. Neither spy saw the Fatherland again....all proven spies were shot in Britain during WW2.<<

Well, not true - that was the case earlier in the war, but not after too long the British got smart and offered caught spies the choice to act as double agents for the British in return for their lives. Initially the British intended on using this largely for counterintelligence purposes, but later they started using said agents for deception, by giving them false information to feed back to their German handlers - for instance, intentionally giving them inaccurate information on hits from V2 missiles so as to throw off the Germans' targeting or information making it seem as if the Allies were planning to invade at Calais (instead of the actual landing site of Normandy).

Hmm. If the spy could make such a goof with the letter J, his English could not have been all that terrific. How on earth could he pass as a native English-speaker? And if he said he was a foreigner, couldn't the mistake be made just as easily by an immigrant from, Norway, or a half dozen other countries?

>> . In this way it is only slightly more noticeable compared to being British American because of the last names being clearly "foreign" in origin <<

Don't a lot of them Anglicize their names though? For example, Mueller -> Miller.

>> h German persisting longer than, say Spanish seems to be persisting amongst the descendants of recent immigrants to the US <<

Why are people always worried that Spanish will overtake English in the US, when it it restricted to only one region of the country, and has no special status in any other part of the country?

>> But if the US is so Germanised, how come you never hear anything about German-America <<

For the people that use the hyphen system, isn't it more common to find people that claim to be five or six different things. Like "I'm German-American, Italian-American, Chinese-American, Native American, and Irish-American"? Or "Yes, of course I'm Irish: 1/64th Irish-American, and proud of it!"

>>>> . In this way it is only slightly more noticeable compared to being British American because of the last names being clearly "foreign" in origin <<

Don't a lot of them Anglicize their names though? For example, Mueller -> Miller.<<

There is a bit of that in the case of particular names with clear English equivalents like that, but it is not really that common in practice aside from the commonplace loss of the second "n" at the end of a word ending in "nn". Occasionally names will be Anglicized spelling-wise more extensively than that, such as in the case of, say, "Eisenhower" instead of "Eisenhauer". However, certain things such as using "sh" rather than "sch" in name tend to be more, say, Ashkenazi Jewish things than being found in German names in general. (Honestly, most such Anglicizations aside from the "nn" thing just seem odd more than anything else to me, and are by far the exception rather than the rule at least here.)

>>

Anglicized spelling-wise more extensively than that, such as in the case of, say, "Eisenhower" instead of "Eisenhauer" <<

Interesting. I never knew that Eisenhower was a German name.

And notably enough, In the case of at least Herbert Hoover, "Hoover" was Anglicized from "Huber" as well.

Wow, so Hoover vacuums has a German etymology. I always just assumed it was English.

Are people of Germanic ethnicity in New England too?

How about Old England?