# Leben wir in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958 "2008-07-28T18:30:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/41 "2008-07-29T23:45:47Z")
I love a good Jägerschnitzel, some sauerbraten, other good German food. It has some overlap with good Polish food but it’s its own cuisine. In NYC you can find dang near _any_ kind of restaurant. There’s probably one somewhere offering native Eskimo fare. A bit thin on African restaurants but Moroccan and Ethiopian at least. With so many German folk (recently enough to know it, unlike us Southern redneck Scots folks who call ourselves “American”) you’d think there’d be a plentitude of German restaurants, but they’re about as plentiful as Ethiopian dives. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/42 "2008-07-29T23:59:09Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] It’s interesting to compare German polka music to the traditional music played in northern Mexico. [/QUOTE] 🙂 I believe you’re referring to [Tejano](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tejano_music) music, born in Alice, Texas: > [@](#): > > Central to the evolution of early Tejano music was the blend of traditional forms such as the Corrido and Mariachi, and Continental European styles, such as Polka,[1] introduced by German and Czech settlers in the late 19th century. In particular, the accordion was adopted by Tejano folk musicians at the turn of the 20th century, and it became a popular instrument for amateur musicians in Texas and Northern Mexico. Small bands known as orquestas, featuring amateur musicians, became a staple at community dances. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/43 "2008-07-30T00:43:34Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] To the best of my knowledge an umlauted u doesn’t sound so much like “ee” as the deumlauted “ue”. I’m not a German scholar though so I could be incorrect in that. [/QUOTE] “Ü” and “ue” are two different spellings for exactly the same sound (with a few exceptions). When umlauts are not available, it is customary to render “ä,” “ö,” and “ü” as “ae,” “oe,” and “ue,” respectively. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/44 "2008-07-30T00:48:17Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] “Ü” and “ue” are two different spellings for exactly the same sound (with a few exceptions). When umlauts are not available, it is customary to render “ä,” “ö,” and “ü” as “ae,” “oe,” and “ue,” respectively. [/QUOTE] I am aware of that though maybe I didn’t make that clear, my point was that ue or ü doesn’t have the “ee” sound that **Bytegeist** attributed to it. 'Tis similar to ß (scharfes s) being rendered as ss on modern signage. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/45 "2008-07-30T00:52:07Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] I am aware of that though maybe I didn’t make that clear, my point was that ue or ü doesn’t have the “ee” sound that **Bytegeist** attributed to it. 'Tis similar to ß (scharfes s) being rendered as ss on modern signage. [/QUOTE] Ah. I thought you were saying that “ue” sounds more like “ee” than “ü” does. I still can’t parse your original sentence, but I understand your explanation here. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/46 "2008-07-30T00:56:51Z")
I’m mostly German too, but at least 6 generations removed from the last one that spoke the language. Emigration from Mitteleuropa and its constant wars was so massive, and German assimilation into the Anglo-based culture was so complete, for my ancestors that there was a saying: “The German people make fine Americans but bad Germans”. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/47 "2008-07-30T02:13:04Z")
Interesting to think that, far from being an anomaly, California’s German speaking Governator represents the culmination of a long tradition in this country. Also, a popular T-shirt in Central Texas: “You can always tell a German, but you can’t tell him much.” ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/48 "2008-08-01T12:51:02Z")
There are towns that trade on their German/Austrian/Swiss heritage. There’s obviously the Amish areas but also the Amana Colonies in Iowa, Frankenmuth in Michigan, and a few towns in Southern Ohio, including Sugarcreek. I can’t think of the names of the other towns. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/49 "2008-08-01T13:30:04Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] Yeah, this whole ethnicity thing in the US is, in large part, BS. How many of us trace all our ancestry back to one country? I trace mine back to at least 6 different European countries, and those are only the ones I know of. [/QUOTE] I’m not even American and both myself and my mother trace it to four different countries! That’s with the last four generations of my ancestors being born in Spain. It can get pretty silly, really. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958/50 "2008-08-11T23:41:42Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] Ah, but where did they all come from before Germany? The poundages I listed for myself, for instance, are correct back to the point where my various ancestors came to America (except for the Shawnee great[sup]4[/sup] grandmother, of course), but there’s still some doubt before that. The possible French is a branch from one of those border regions that France and Germany traded back and forth repeatedly through history, and the possible Hungarian comes from the fact that there’s a very similar surname to my own in Hungary, that’s a lot more common than the German equivalent, so my paternal-line ancestors might have been from somewhere in Hungary before they settled in Öberreddenbach. [/QUOTE] And I bet they make great popcorn there. [d&r] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leben-wir-in-den-vereinigten-staaten-von-amerika/457958.md?page=2)