Poem – Meine Mutter, die tut grumbeln

This is a very popular Barossa Deutsch ‘broken language’ poem – recited here by Norm Stiller.  The Stiller brothers came to Queensland in 1909 from the Barossa district of South Australia.  This ‘broken’ poem illustrates the mixing of English (Australian farm words) into a basic German poem structure.  A fine example of what linguists term code switching.  This poem was also found in the Mallee districts of South Australia and Victoria – the poem being a part of the ‘cultural baggage’ of the internal migrations of German-Austrlian farming communities.  Its occurrence in Queensland was unique.

[audio:http://germanydownunder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Poem_Meine_Mutte_Die_Tute_Grumbeln.mp3|titles=Poem_Meine_Mutte_Die_Tute_Grumbeln]