[stevemister2391]

Anybody here speak any amish? I live amongst the amish and have picked up some from my amish friends. Kinda a useless language unless you live with amish though...

[Reedolo]

Originally Posted by stevemister2391

Anybody here speak any amish? I live amongst the amish and have picked up some from my amish friends. Kinda a useless language unless you live with amish though...

I wasn't aware that there was a language called "Amish". I've always heard it called Pennsylvania German or wrongly called "Pennsylvania Dutch". I agree that it's useless to learn it. It would be much more worth your time to learn German, and then perhaps become familiar with the strange Pennsylvania German dialect that the Amish speak.

[stevemister2391]

Actually, the "Pennsylvania Dutch" speaking Amish can barely understand German. I have gone to an Amish school on several days (a student "exchange" day where they can pick someone to come in their stead. I got asked by an Amish friend of mine. ) and they have to take a German class in school. Granted, some of their words are similar, but they are by no means the same.
And those closely familiar with the Amish langauge (Pennsylvania Dutch) and the Amish people general call the langauge, Amish.

[Small]

Originally Posted by stevemister2391

Actually, the "Pennsylvania Dutch" speaking Amish can barely understand German. I have gone to an Amish school on several days (a student "exchange" day where they can pick someone to come in their stead. I got asked by an Amish friend of mine. ) and they have to take a German class in school. Granted, some of their words are similar, but they are by no means the same.
And those closely familiar with the Amish langauge (Pennsylvania Dutch) and the Amish people general call the langauge, Amish.

No, we don't. In my experience, the Amish and non-Amish speakers refer to it almost exclusively as Pennsylvania Dutch. The inaccurate name comes from the fact that the Pennsylvania German word for the language itself is "deitsch", which is at times pronounced "datch", and the closest English equivalent word is, obviously, "dutch".

Actually, there are at least three fairly fluent speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch on CGR; Sagemenno and Smaller and I all speak the language about as well as any non-Amish.

The language is a rough cobbling of archaic German and English, and is also very similar to Yiddish. In fact, there have been instances of highly fluent speakers of Pennsylvania German and Yiddish being able to converse with one another. As nearly as I can gather, it reflects the dialect of German spoken by many of the Amish and Mennonite immigrants into the United States at the time of their immigration. So over the decades, the language has simply developed apart from the rest of German, and obviously, the co-existence with English leads to a greater degree of similarity between the two languages with each passing generation, at least, in non-Amish circles.

When I was about thirteen or so, I met a young man whose family had recently immigrated from Germany, and he couldn't understand a word I said, but I could understand him fairly well.