I now consider myself fluent in "Pennsylvania Dutch"

[Quiet Storm]

Of course I knew that there's a English/17th century German hybrid language in Pennsylvania, commonly referred to as "Pennsylvania Dutch". What I didn't know is that it is based on Pfälzisch, the dialect spoken in the Palatinate, a German region in whose southeasternmost part I live.

Now what you need to know is that German dialects differ from one another far more greatly than English accents do. A Texan and someone born and raised in India are able to communicate with much less effort than someone from northern Germany and a Pfälzer (= a person from the Palatinate) or Bavarian speaking their respective dialects, for example. Of course, the vast majority of Germans also speak High German, so it's not a real language barrier.

However, Pennsylvania Dutch consists to about 70% of a very thick Palatinate dialect, with American English words (the pronunciation of which is adjusted accordingly) making up the rest.

That means that you must speak Pfälzisch - or "Pelzisch", as those who speak the dialect call it - fluently and (preferrably American) English to understand it well.
Many of the roughly four million people who speak that German dialect are older people who never really learned much English. Younger people who still speak it exclusively learned British English at school and have a hard time understanding Americans.

I've always been pretty good at picking up different dialects, and I was born and raised here, so while I normally don't speak Pfälzisch - or rather Kurpfälzisch, a slightly different local variety - and nobody really taught me that dialect, I speak it very well.

That means that I now consider myself one of maybe 200,000 or 300,000 people outside of Pennsylvania who are fluent in Pennsylvania Dutch.

 

[tarsier]

Hummmm...very interesting stuff.

I learned a little German in high school, and we have some Amish and Mennonite people around where I live, although not as many as further south and east. When I hear them speak, it sounds less harsh and precise than the German I learned in school, more rounded or slurred. Now that makes sense.

Here is a Wikipedia article that explains the connection to the Amish and Mennonites.

 

[Quiet Storm]

When I hear them speak, it sounds less harsh and precise than the German I learned in school, more rounded or slurred.

Very true. All accents from Germany's south sound much softer than High (standard) German - hey, it's the same way in the US, ain't it?

 

[Jeff Clark]

My old college roomate was an Air Force brat and was located on a USAF base in Germany during his high school days. He learned German from an American teacher from Mississippi. He spoke German with a heavy southern drawl. It was a hoot to listen to him use his Dixie German.

 

[Quiet Storm]

"Ich liebe y'all"?

 

[Quiet Storm]

tarsier,
here's an example for the significantly softer southern German pronunciation:

"Hast du ein Auto?" ("Do you have a car?")
High German pronunciation: "Hust do ine ow-toh"
Pfälzisch pronunciation: "Hush do en owdoe"

 

[tarsier]

I see what you mean, that helps explain it.

I hear the language occasionally when Amish people come into town. Also, when I was in college, I rode a bus home on holidays. When we went through Wisconsin, there were often Amish people on the bus. I could recognize a few words of their conversation, but with my limited German vocabulary and their accent, I would not have been able to speak it. They all spoke excellent English though. And they also call us - all of us - the English. I don't know what they call the true English people...

There are some forum members from parts of Indiana and Ohio who likely know much more about this than I do.

 

[Rugger]

Heijo Tim!
Wie gehssh dir denn Kumpel?
Kommsch du mal ruwwer?
Hascht du mal Hunger? Ish machsch gleisch 'ne scheene Zwiwwelkuch...

 

[Quiet Storm]

Ha! Another one of the "200,000 or 300,000 people outside of Pennsylvania who are fluent in Pennsylvania Dutch"!

Ich wollt' eigendlich im Summer 'rüwwerkumme, nooch Vermont, awwer leider macht des mein Geldbeidel net mid.
Abber wenn's neggschtes Joahr klabbt, schau' ich gern emol bei dir vorbei, wenn'd mich zum Zwiwwelkuche eilädsch!

 

[uncle Alan]

Very true. All accents from Germany's south sound much softer than High (standard) German - hey, it's the same way in the US, ain't it?

Does the word palantine have reference to religion? My family tree traces to your area in the late 1600's. My understanding is that a religious movement displaced many families including mine .They went into France,were robbed by them & sent on to England. Not wanting a bunch of refugees,the English sent us to the Colonies.
Some landed in Philadelphia,some in Norfolk,V.A. & some [ possibly my bunch] at New Bern N.C. [ After the Swiss city ]

Our name was Baum[e],Boehm & later Baugham. I understand it is a Jewish name & therefore could have caused the exodus.
Any light you could shed on this is most welcome.

I want to visit but refuse to fly non-smoking & wife won't go by ship. I enjoy sea travel,even by troopships. Either we wait for a bridge or travel seperately & meet in Munchen.

Rergards,
Uncle Alan

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Uncle Alan, the name Baum is German for tree. It is a common name among Jews and Christians.

Europe regularly sent waves of religious, economic, and ethnic refugees to the New World. These categories often overlapped.

You can read about the area commonly referred to as The Palatinate in the Wikipedia article at the link.

This excerpt will give you an idea of the turmoil in the area at the time your family left:

Due to the practice of division of territories among different branches of the family, by the early 16th century junior lines of the Palatine Wittelsbachs came to rule in Simmern, Kaiserslautern, and Zweibrücken in the Lower Palatinate, and in Neuburg and Sulzbach in the Upper Palatinate. The Elector Palatine, now based in Heidelberg, converted to Lutheranism in the 1530s.

When the senior branch of the family died out in 1559, the Electorate passed to Frederick III of Simmern, a staunch Calvinist, and the Palatinate became one of the major centers of Calvinism in Europe, supporting Calvinist rebellions in both the Netherlands and France. Frederick III's grandson, Frederick IV, and his adviser, Christian of Anhalt, founded the Evangelical Union of Protestant states in 1608.

In 1619 Elector Frederick V (the "Winter King") (the son-in-law of King James I of England) accepted the throne of Bohemia from the Bohmian estates. He was soon defeated by the forces of Emperor Ferdinand II at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, and Spanish and Bavarian troops soon occupied the Palatinate itself. In 1623, Frederick was put under the ban of the Empire, and his territories and Electoral dignity granted to the Duke (now Elector) of Bavaria, Maximilian I.

"When elephants fight, the grass suffers."​

 

[uncle Alan]

Uncle Alan, the name Baum is German for tree. It is a common name among Jews and Christians.

Europe regularly sent waves of religious, economic, and ethnic refugees to the New World. These categories often overlapped.

You can read about the area commonly referred to as The Palatinate in the Wikipedia article at the link.

This excerpt will give you an idea of the turmoil in the area at the time your family left:




This pretty well proves our family tree was covered in "The Currituck Legacy",researched from family Bibles,gravestones ,diaries & tax records. It was written by 2 cousins,teachers in the Virginia school system & my uncle who wrote for N.C. Wildlife & did a column on genology in a small newspaper.
It is a history of North Carolina Outer Banks & my family's influence. Everything written was proven with only one "begat " a bit questionable.




Thank you for a broader picture.

Uncle Alan " Where Bambi goes,nothing grows !"