This is an absolutely fascinating piece from my friend, Walking Raven (in her Cognitive Surplus guise). The video portion is well worth your time. These towns should advertise in Deutschland sofort. Germans love the American Southwest and they would be delighted to visit these towns. Such an influx could reinvigorate the local usage, though that too might mean the end of Texas German. Note in this pidgin the same forces one sees at work in Spanglish. Ausgezeichnet!

BBC News – German dialect in Texas is one of a kind, and dying out

Still the biggest ancestry group in the US, according to Census data, a large majority of German-Americans never learned the language of their ancestors.

Hans Boas, a linguistic and German professor at the University of Texas, has made it his mission to record as many speakers of German in the Lone Star State as he can before the last generation of Texas Germans passes away.

Mr Boas has recorded 800 hours of interviews with over 400 German descendants in Texas and archived them at the Texas German Dialect Project. He says the dialect, created from various regional German origins and a mix of English, is one of a kind.

BBC News – German dialect in Texas is one of a kind, and dying out