In 19th century West Michigan, two recent Dutch immigrant communities grappled with how best to maintain their ethnic identity. Whether to preserve or abandon the Dutch language was central to the debate, and the two communities made very different choices. One (Reformed Church of America or RCA) promoted a rapid assimilation and shift to English; the other (Christian Reformed Church or CRC) promoted a multi-generational maintenance of the Dutch language in a stable Dutch-English bilingual setting, only to consciously and abruptly abandon it in the years during World War I. Earlier Dutch immigrants in 17th-18th century Tarrytown, New York experienced an early language shift by 1700, followed by a pre-revolutionary nostalgic resurgence of Dutch, ending in a final post-revolutionary nationalistic shift to English.
Several researchers have noted the linguistic and ethnic value of gravestone inscriptions as indicators of language prestige, shift, and death. Eckert (1998) observed dialectal change and language shift on Czech gravestones in Praha, Texas. Francis, Kellaher, and Neophytou (2005) argued that ethnic cemeteries become surrogate homelands. This study compares the gravestone inscriptions of the two West Michigan communities alongside the earlier New York community, considering the date of the inscriptions, the decedent’s age decedent, the rise of bilingual inscriptions, as well as the choice of language of inscription within families.
This paper will demonstrate that the New York community used the Dutch language as a relic ethnic marker in the same manner as the Czech settlers of Praha, Texas (Eckert 1998). The West Michigan RCA Dutch based their identity apart from the Dutch language entirely, and from the earliest years of settlement, used English exclusively. In contrast, the West Michigan CRC Dutch used the Dutch language as an ethnic marker when they were viewed positively by their English neighbors, but abandoned it when they no longer were.
About the presenterKara Van Dam
Dr. Van Dam holds a PhD and MA in linguistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the way people use language as a marker of identity, analyzing issues arising in language contact situations, and surveying the effects in diverse settings from immigrant letters to public records to gravestone inscriptions. She is the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at the University of Maryland University College.