Preserving Endangered Species of the German Language

Finding German dialects in eastern Europe is getting increasingly difficult as they no longer serve as a means of communication. That's why they've become a sought-after research objects for linguists such as Hermann Scheuriger and Alfred Wildfeuer.

The two men said that traveling to Ukraine feels like traveling back in time. About 3,000 to 5,000 people in the western part of the country, in Transcarpatia, still speak old German dialects today. Franconian and Bohemian German can be found here as well as a dialect from Austria's Salzkammergut region.

Not that Germans in Transcarpatia would be aware of these differences.

"They didn't know that they were speaking a Bavarian or a Frankonian dialect," Scheuriger said. "They call their language 'Swobisch,' even though it has nothing to do with Swabian."

Vanishing "language islands"

Linguists today conserve surviving German dialects in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia on tape. There's not much time left, though.

German "language islands," meaning that the language was spoken in several nearby villages, "are no longer there," said Nina Berend, a linguists who grew up in Siberia and now lives in Germany. Berend added that most people left after the fall of communism.

"They have emigrated to Germany," she said.

As a result, German dialects are rapidly disappearing. Linguist Alfred Wildfeuer said that some dialects won't be spoken in Ukraine any more in the near future.

"The youngest speaker of Bohemian German that we encountered was 45," he said. "It seems like that there are almost no children, who grow up with this dialect."

Presenting a modern view of Germany

Germany's cultural institute, the Goethe Institute, is trying to preserve the dialects. It offers language courses for those that no longer speak German as well as cultural events that are meant to offer a current view of Germany to people.

But ethnic Germans in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine not only speak old dialects -- they are also attached to an antiquated view of Germany.

"They are mainly interested in folklore, national costumes and flags," said Werner Jost, who works for the Goethe Institute. "They care about dances, songs and similar things that help them find their identity. We don't think that's enough. We think that identity that has a future is something else and try to guide them there."

Learning to profit from bilingual skills

Living between two cultures and languages is almost always very difficult for people. Eleonara Hummel, a writer, spent her youth in Kazakhstan and later moved to Dresden with her parents. Her work is now influenced by the experience of growing up in two different worlds.

"I've learned to appreciate the fact that I can draw from a fund that not everyone has," she said. "It took a while to get to this point. Only in the last couple of years, I've stopped thinking: 'Why could I not have been someone else?' I've accepted it and am content."

Only few people manage to see their ability to speak German as a chance while living in Russia, Ukraine or Kazakhstan. But some are now profiting from their bilingual skills.

"An Austrian ski producer has a factory in Ukraine," Wildfeuer said. "It was clearly an advantage for some to speak German already."