My Heritage Languages

Which Languages Are They?

My heritage languages are the languages my ancestors spoke. The ones they spoke unambiguously when they emigrated are these:

A few other languages may have been spoken by immigrant ancestors. It is pretty certain that French was spoken by my ancestors, but they were Huguenots who fled to Germany before coming to America. There is good evidence that some (the Le Fevres) were still French speaking at the time of immigration, but it is difficult to establish a genealogical link to them. Other Huguenots seem to be more germanized in that they adopted German names and thus may not have known French at immigration. But it is easier to establish a link as ancestors to them through documentation.

One great-great-great-grandmother (Sarah Ann Mattix/Worline) was probably not the daughter of Benjamin Mattix. She was raised by him, however. With a Worline (Werlein) as a possible father for Sarah Ann, I have no clearly Welsh ancestry. Ironically, even Benjamin Mattix was possibly more German than Welsh.

Criteria for Inclusion

Generally, the reason for inclusion on the "official list" above is for learning the languages of my ancestors but this number had to be brought down to a manageable number. This was done by using these reasons:

The language must be spoken by an ancestor as a mother tongue. This is the reason for all of them or else it's not a heritage language. My ancestors did not speak Swahili, Ancient Greek, or Chinese.
The language must have been spoken as a mother tongue by an ancestor when they came to America . This brings the number down quite a bit. But there are problems: Much information about immigrant ancestors is uneven and often unknown. French may not qualify here, and even Sorbian may qualify here. German dialects are here. Pennsylvania German does not really fit of course, although ancestors spoke it. "Old Languages," that is, older versions of languages (like Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Gaulish) do not fit. The "immigration test" tends to be my most important reason for including anything on the official list.
The language must have speakers today. It would be nice to actually talk to distant relatives—living ones. The Old Languages again do not qualify.
It's the standard language that must be learned. This basically knocks out the dialects. I don't really like doing this, but there are simply too many of them.
On the other hand,
- the dialects my German ancestors spoke don't vary very much from one another in any case. Pennsylvania German descends more less from West Pfälzisch, for example. And West Pfälzisch is essentially the same dialect my ancestors spoke in northern Alsace. The Manx ancestors probably spoke a form of Northern Manx—they were from Andreas Parish—but this dialect varies little from the southern variety. Little is known about which dialects the French and Welsh ancestors would have spoken in any case.
- little in the way of textbooks, tapes, and CDs can be found in these dialects, regardless of language. They are not used in broadcasting or in books, generally. Alsatian and Pennsylvania German are exceptions.
- trying to speak to someone in dialect is a little silly and a lot prententious.

What Is Known About What My Ancestors Spoke

In most cases, the language an ancestor spoke is known simply from the country they were from. German speakers came from Germany, Alsace, or Switzerland.

The Manx speakers are not known to be Manx speakers directly, but in-laws from the same parish wrote letters back to the Isle of Man in English and Manx. Some of these letters were later reprinted in Manx newspapers. My Manx ancestors were born at the latest in the 1810s. Those born on the Isle of Man in the 1850s were generally the last people to know Manx as their first language.

Ugh, Languages from Before Emgiration

Then there are the languages that my ancestors spoke even before the ones they spoke when they emigrated. Many have developed into another language or are extinct. These are heritage languages for me but learning all of these gets to be a problem. These are the "semi-official" languages:

Upper Sorbian—sometimes gets into the "official" category. Ancestors could conceivably have been Lower Sorbian, Czech, Polish, Polabian, or even Yiddish speakers. My guess, and it's only that, is that they spoke a Slavic language (at the latest) into the early 17th century. According to the criteria above, it can't be readily dismissed from inclusion into the "official" list.
Old West Norse—Speakers' descendants became Manx speakers, but linguistic descendants include Icelandic, Faroese, Norn, and western dialects of Norwegian. Old West Norse isn't spoken now of course, but Icelandic is very close linguistically. That is, it fits No. 1 and, in a sense, No. 3. above. Faroese and the extinct Norn probably were closer to what would have been spoken on the Isle of Man. But trying to find information on them is a challenge.
Polabian—one surname is Brandenburg (can be from branibor).
Flemish—very poor documentation of these ancestors
Walloon—very poor documentation of these ancestors
Anglo-Saxon, Old High German, Latin, etc...

These ancestors have surnames or histories which seem to indicate they came from other ethnic groups, but little more can be said. They present the biggest headache.

So What in the Hell Is the Reason For All of This?

The reason for all of this is that I've always liked learning languages but I could never decide on which languages to concentrate on. One criterion that I thought might be useful is to learn the languages of my ancestors. BUT, after all of this, when a person looks closer at what they spoke, well, it comes down to this: My German ancestors spoke all sorts of German (Pennsylvania German, Alsatian, Württemberger, Swiss, etc...). Some of the Manx ancestors have Norse ancestors. They would have spoken Old West Norse. The Sorbians were almost certainly German speaking when they came here. But little is known of this family. A century or two before they came here they might have spoken some form of Sorbian.

And if one studies these languages, would one study the eighteenth century version of it? That's about the time a lot of them came to America. And Old West Norse became Icelandic, Faroese, and (Nynorsk) Norwegian. Or one could even throw in the "Old Languages" like Anglo-Saxon, Old French, Latin, or even Gaulish, I suppose. How 'bout Proto-Indo-European? So, consider all the variations and time periods. Learning all of these sounds needlessly difficult and more than a little silly. We have entered the realm of the absurd.

We have also returned to the realm of too many languages and dialects. Why, I just went into a circle!

So all the above paragraphs mean is that I will limit myself to learning the languages at the top of this page. Except, unfortunately, I probably won't. Here are some other languages that hold an interest for me. I don't know why some get included on the list and some 6,000 other languages in the world don't, except that they tend to be languages not particularly closely related to anything else and/or they seem exotic in some way to me and/or they have few speakers and/or it's a challenge to find anything in or about them (though once I find something, the interest kind of wanes):

Most European languages, especially:
- Autochthonous minority languages (like Frisian, Breton, Basque)
- Balkan languages, especially Albanian, but also Macedonian and Bulgarian
- Armenian, Georgian, and Greek
Native American languages, especially ones that have been spoken in Ohio
Polynesian languages and Malagasy
Punjabi

Oddly enough, languages from Africa (with the exception of Swahili, Nyanja, or other Bantu languages) generally don't interest me. And I can't seem to really get into Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and so on. Like I said, I have no idea why.

Numbers

English German Manx French Welsh Upper
Sorbian Lower
Sorbian Polabian

one eins nane un un jedyn jaden jadån

two zwei jees deux dau dwaj dwa dåwo

three drei tree trois tri tři tśi tåri

four vier kiare quatre pedwar štyri styri citer

five fünf queig cinq pump pjeć pěś pąt

six sechs shey six chwe(ch) šěsć šesć sist

seven sieben shiaght sept saith sydom sedym sidem

eight acht hoght huit wyth wósom wosym wisem

nine neun nuy neuf naw dźewjeć źeẃeś diwąt

ten zehn jeih dix deg dźesać źaseś disąt

English	German	Manx	French	Welsh	Upper Sorbian	Lower Sorbian	Polabian
one	eins	nane	un	un	jedyn	jaden	jadån
two	zwei	jees	deux	dau	dwaj	dwa	dåwo
three	drei	tree	trois	tri	tři	tśi	tåri
four	vier	kiare	quatre	pedwar	štyri	styri	citer
five	fünf	queig	cinq	pump	pjeć	pěś	pąt
six	sechs	shey	six	chwe(ch)	šěsć	šesć	sist
seven	sieben	shiaght	sept	saith	sydom	sedym	sidem
eight	acht	hoght	huit	wyth	wósom	wosym	wisem
nine	neun	nuy	neuf	naw	dźewjeć	źeẃeś	diwąt
ten	zehn	jeih	dix	deg	dźesać	źaseś	disąt

Notes:

English	Uses singular after one and plural after two or more.
German	Eins is used for counting. Ein is used before sing. masc. and neut. nouns. Eine is used before fem. sing. nouns. The plural is used after all other numbers.
Manx	Jees is used for counting. 'Two' is usually daa.
French	Un is used for masc. sing. nouns, and une is used for fem. sing. Plural nouns are used after other numbers.
Welsh
Upper Sorbian	The numbers 5-100 take the genitive plural.