Comments on: Language of the Amish – Pennsylvania Dutch language

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:59:02 +0000

1. Dad in PA Dutch = Dawdie however most Amish reserve Dawdie for Grandfather and just say Datt for Dad
2. Children in PA Dutch = Kinnah (a child is a kind)
3. Marriage in PA Dutch = hochtzich
4. Date of Death in PA Dutch = we wouldn’t say this, we would say day in place of date as follows: dawk vunn doht, avvah sei starvah dawk for his death date/day
5. Date of Marriage = here again German would be used for recording this date, however if translating into PA Dutch one may say it as follows: die hochtzich dawk which means the marriage day
6. Parents in PA Dutch = Eldra
7. Grandparents in PA Dutch = Gross Eldra but the Amish use the term Dawdiss for grandparents
8. thank you in PA Dutch depends on the usage of the person, family, region Etc. however most Amish except for the Swiss Amish will say something that sounds like Dengyay (deng-yay)

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:29:22 +0000

The language is known by the Amish & all who speak it on the North American Continent as Dutch. To say that this is incorrect indicates little first hand knowledge or contact with the actual native speakers of the language. The educated technical term is however Pennsylvania Dutch or German depending on who you are speaking to. In Dutch this would be said as: Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch.

You are correct that it is not the same as the Dutch language spoken in the Netherlands “Holland”, the reason for this is that their tongue is from what is considered low German while our Dutch comes from High German.
The web-links page at www.plainnewlife.org has many good links that deal with the languages spoken by the Amish

By: tiffany porter

tiffany porter — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:19:34 +0000

Danki means thank you.

By: Moni Perdue

Moni Perdue — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:52:36 +0000

I would like to learn the Amish language, Do you have any suggestions on this? I have a dear Amish friend but she lives about 5 hours away so that is really not an option. Any other ideas? Thank you so much for any help you can give. Moni

By: david desmond

david desmond — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 17:35:09 +0000

While English and German are both Germanic, about 60 % of English words today are actually French. But not the same with German. And older English is made up of very simple words which German is not. English became a very sophisticated Germanic language with the French influence. Amish don’t use these Latin words as we do in English. Our English language lost a lot of its originality and is not like German much at all today either. German is much more sophisticated than older English.

By: Mark Beckert

Mark Beckert — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:29:15 +0000

There’s nothing thats really “peculiar” about the Amish language, it’s simply an old dialect that was spoken in Germany in the 1800s and was brought with the Amish when they settled here. It’s also interesting to note that even though Dutch settlers were mixed among them (among Swiss and others), the term “Pennsylvania Dutch” over the years became a corruption of the original term which was “Pennsylvania Deutsch”.

By: Alps homework help

Alps homework help — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 05:29:39 +0000

They’re the nicest, period. Softspoken, well mannered and very proud people they are. God bless these ladies.

By: bobmutch

bobmutch — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 06:10:01 +0000

@Soon To Be Amish
>>>PA German – Nouns
PA German – Verbs
PA German – Verbs (with conjugations)

I see this set of cards that you did up. Is there any way to get audio with them?

iflipr.com/deck/menu/206236
iflipr.com/deck/menu/206237

Is there are way to have them sound the words.

By: MGC51

MGC51 — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:09:49 +0000

I am so sorry, just found your blog/forum last week. So I am sorry for the late response to this issue.
As I am originally german, I read about the Pennsylvennia people or Amish-People. What I could find out is, the german part of their language sounds like that slang which is spoken in an area called “Phälzer Wald”. Here is the wikipedia explication about this very beautiful area:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatinate_Forest
If you hobby is wandering in lots of woods with lonesome little sources (hand in hand with a lovely girl) or if you want to see some relicts from the WWII deep in the woods, this is your place. It is situated in the South-West of Germany, the french border is next to it and bigger cities are Ludwigshafen.
I think, I would understand the Amish without any problem. But if you learned german in the school, you might have a problem to talk to them if they don’t talk in english. Like I said, they are using a slang, not the proper German we do speak.
I don’t agree so much with the Amish’s way of life, which seems to be very traditional and sticking on a level we lived in the 19th century. But ok, everyone should become happy with its own cup of tea…

By: Mark Biernat

Mark Biernat — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 13:55:04 +0000

It is really a spoken language more than a written language and that is the problem with learning the Amish language. That is the bad news, the good news is it is no harder than German. It has nice grammatical structure and logic. It is similar to English in that both English and Amish are Germanic languages so it will not be hard to learn. Maybe a year or two in the community.