Browns, Sugar Creek and Riggs, Waterford Township, Clinton County, Iowa
Compiled by Lorraine Houghton and Marilu Thurman, updated August 2006.
Thank you so much to Lorraine and Marilu for sending this information to
us.
Understanding the Language in Browns
It is interesting to hear people talk about the old days, when they had such
language barriers. People came from different areas of Austria, Germany, Ireland,
Poland, and Prussia. Many younger children were hired by families who spoke
a different language, or the same language with a different dialect so they
could not converse with each other very well. Once the children reached the
age of approximately 14, they were old enough to "work out". There
were so many dialects, even within the German language, and even within people
who originally came from Gottschee. The people whose families had lived near
the mountains spoke a different dialect from families that came from the lowlands.
The people from the cities spoke a different dialect than the farmers. Thus,
the high, middle and low German and many variations thereof. Some families mentioned
that they did not visit some of the other Austrian families as they were "higher
up" than their family was. That did not mean a social class distinction,
but it meant the elevation of where their ancestors had lived. Also, as the
families settled in the area and the children started learning English in school,
many of the children could not understand their uncles and aunts, and other
elder family members. Footnote from Marilu: The people from Gottschee spoke
their own dialect of German called Gottscheabarish.
The People
The History The
Places
The Records
The Resources