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In this month鈥檚 edition of Texan Translation, we鈥檙e looking at the unconventional Texas accent of retired professional basketball player Dirk Nowitzki. Nowitzki immigrated to Dallas from Germany in 1998 to play for the Mavericks. He retired last season.
鈥淚 left Germany over 20 years ago and I became a Texan, so thank you guys for having me in. I鈥檒l see you soon,鈥� Nowitzki said in his farewell speech to fans in April.
, director of the at the University of Texas at Austin, and also originally from Germany, says Nowitzki sounds much more comfortable speaking English now than when he first arrived.
In an early quote of Nowitzki鈥檚, Hinrichs says he was 鈥渟till searching for the appropriate words.鈥�
鈥淗e says, 鈥楾his is so great; I didn鈥檛 realize it so far.鈥� What he means to say is, 鈥業 can鈥檛 even believe it yet,鈥欌�� Hinrichs says.
He says Nowitzki鈥檚 accent had hints of Austrian 鈥� similar to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now his accent is less obvious, but Hinrichs can still hear some of Nowitzki's German idiosyncrasies.
鈥淚 could still pick out a number of features of learners of English, [but] he [also] says American things like 鈥業 wanna,鈥欌�� Hinrichs says.
He says because Nowitzki has lived in Dallas he didn鈥檛 develop much of a Texas accent like he would have had he lived in a smaller city or rural area. Nowitzki also learned "Texan" English later in life.
鈥淚f we had dropped him in Lufkin 20 years ago, in East Texas, where there is a strong Texas accent, then you would probably hear some of that in his speech now,鈥� Hinrichs says.
Written by Libby Cohen.
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