Scandinavian languages

[Sheila Watts]

Rick McAllister wrote:

>	I lived in New Wilmington PA for 3 years, which is about half
>Amish. The language the Amish used there was essentially English with
>German dialect vocabulary. They spoke this with Amish who visited from
>other areas, including Lancaster Co PA. My colleague in German, who was
>German, as well as the German tutors from Germany all stated that a German
>who did not know English would not be able to understand them because they
>used English syntax and English idioms in their language. The Amish
>themselves agreed with this assessment and said that was why they taught
>High German in their schools. They said that they did not write in their
>spoken language but rather in High German. It's possible that their High
>German may be strongly influenced by the spoken language.
>	This at least is the situation now. In the past, it was certainly
>different.

It's always nice to meet native speakers and get their view of their
language - but they aren't always right, and what they describe for
themselves doesn't necessarily apply to their whole speech community. There
are speakers of Pennsilfaanisch who write in dialect, and I have texts
written in dialect by such native speakers. I know, Rick, you were there
and all that, but that doesn't make other people's experiences or knowledge
invalid. I used to subscribe to a paper called 'The Budget' which had a
weekly dialect column which was written by DIFFERENT native speakers, not
the ones you met. Yes, they did write in dialect, not in High German, and
yes, it did have High German-like syntax and morphology. (I do actually
know what I'm talking about, and, having taught both NHG and German
dialects for over 10 years, I can tell the difference). And I subscribed in
the late 1980s. At that time a paper called the 'Allentown Morning Call'
also had a dialect column. Whether either paper still does, I don't know.
But I'm not talking about the distant past.

'Germans from Germany' aren't the most wonderful authority either, since
comprehension of regional German dialects by people from other regions is
not great. Lots of Germans from Germany don't understand Swiss, or Low
German, or Bavarian, or....

However, there really isn't any need for anyone to insist on the exclusive
right to be right. I imagine we both are: Amish schoolkids probably do use
a very anglicised form of the dialect, and don't write it down. At the same
time, I imagine that older rural speakers use something closer to the
original dialect, and some enthusiasts do write it down, probably in a
slightly archaising form, as this is the tradition in dialect writing.
By the way - and I have no way of testing this - the former president of
the Pennsylvania German Society, the Reverend Druckenbrod, once wrote to me
that he was tired of people saying that the Amish spoke the best
Pennsylvania German, since in his view, this was far from being the case
(he was, I think, a Baptist, which of course, _may_ have influenced his
views). At least he was living proof that some non-Amish speak
Pennsilfaanisch too.

best wishes,
Sheila Watts
_______________________________________________________
Dr Sheila Watts
Newnham College
Cambridge CB3 9DF
United Kingdom

phone +44 1223 335816