Scandinavian languages

[Sheila Watts]

Rick McAllister wrote:

>	Pennsylvania Dutch, spoken by the Amish and other similar groups,
>is more or less a "relic language" in that the vocabulary and not much else
>are from the original language [mainly a mix of German dialects of the
>Upper Rhine valley such as Swiss German, Swabian and Alsatian]. The syntax
>and the morphology are principally from American English.

'Principally' is one of those words that can mean whatever you like, BUT
written PennDu, at least, has 3 genders, 3 cases, personal rendings on
verbs in the present tense separable verbs and rules for verb second and
verb last which look pretty like those of standard German - to mention just
a selection of features not terribly like US English. I'm willing to admit
to not haveing met any real live speakers myself, but I'd be surprised if
my large selection of textbooks on the subject is entirely misleading.

Sheila Watts
_______________________________________________________
Dr Sheila Watts
Newnham College
Cambridge CB3 9DF
United Kingdom
phone +44 1223 335816