Heritage Languages of Texas

The Linguistics Research Center is committed to research on all facets of the many languages spoken as part of the heritage of the present-day territory of Texas. The sheer variety of these languages engenders an appreciation for the storied history of the region and the vast cultural diversity of peoples who have made their lives in this and the surrounding area.

Early inhabitants of present-day Texas spoke a range of Indigenous languages.  The Native American language Caddo seems to have given the region its current name through the word táysha’ /tɑ́iʃɑ̀ʔ/ “friend, ally”.  The Kitsai and Wichita languages, related to Caddo, were spoken in North Texas until their speakers were relocated to Oklahoma.  Speakers of Comanche too once had a notable presence in the state.  Lipan Apache speakers retain a presence near the current border with Mexico, while a few speakers of Koasati live in Polk County.  Cotoname and Coahuilteco were once spoken in the territory.  Speakers of now-lost languages such as Aranama, Atakapa, Karankawa, and Tonkawa seem to have inhabited the region as far back as linguistic investigation can reach, since these languages have no clear relations to other languages outside the area.

After the conquest, Spanish spread widely through the region as a province of Mexico.  And as the population of the British Colonies wandered westward, soo too did English.  But different periods of later immigration brought a number of additional European languages to the region.  Some of the earliest among these new immigrants were Germans.  But they were soon followed by Slavic-speaking communities from Poland, Czech-speaking regions of Europe, and even the Wendish or Lusatian Serbian communities of eastern Germany.  Successive immigration has added to the linguistic quilt of Texas, with current or former communities exhibiting Texas-specific varieties of Swedish, French, and other languages.

The LRC supports the efforts of a wide range of scholars working to compile primary source materials such as electronic corpora for research, teaching, and outreach in the pursuit of preserving the unique contributions of these languages and communities to the rich cultural heritage of Texas. This effort builds on the success of existing research projects at UT Austin, such as the Spanish in Texas Corpus Project, the Texas English Linguistics Lab, the Texas Czech Legacy Project, the Texas Polish Dialect Project, and the Texas German Dialect Project.