Utah’s Roots Are Colored With This Language
While English is the norm when it comes to speaking in Utah, did you know another language actually has a strong presence in the Beehive State?
The German language has a strong history in Utah.
According to the Utah History Encyclopedia, "While conversion to the Mormon faith was the primary impetus for most German immigrants to come to Utah, others came as miners or as merchants. The latter were almost exclusively German-born Jews who established businesses in Salt Lake, Ogden, and some of the mining communities."
We all know that the year was 1847 ("This is the right place.") when the first permanent settlers came to Utah with Brigham Young and the Mormon contingent. Among the original 143 Mormon pioneers to enter the Salt Lake Valley that fateful July 24, 1847, was Konrad Kleinman, a native of Germany.
Once the Mormons had established themselves as permanent residents, the Church began sending missionaries out to Germany and Switzerland, and many of the new converts longed to migrate to "Zion" and the newfound sanctuary of Utah.
With the influx of Germans and Swiss (the numbers grew to more than 7,500 by 1910), the German language thrived in the Beehive State.
That number stayed static until after World War II, but postwar immigration brought thousands more Germans to Utah.
Many of the new Utahns sought to purge themselves of all links to Germany and the horrors of WWII, quickly assimilating to life in Utah by dropping their language and Germanic customs.
Others felt it was important to keep their German customs alive, teaching their youth about their homeland.
Nowadays, Germans come to Utah in greater numbers than ever before, but now they come as tourists rather than as immigrants.
However, it is estimated that 10 percent of Utah's population is of Germanic descent, with a large number of those having come to the state from Germany in the last 100 years.
German is the third most common language in Utah behind English and Spanish.
So, "guten tag" Utah!
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Gallery Credit: Stacker