Thinking about all the ex-Amish that often get left out of cult survivor discussions.
Ex mormons, ex JWs, and exvangelicals get a lot of space to talk and share, and I just want to let all former amish folks know that you belong here too 💜
I am so completely obsessed with this dialect of German. it has been spoken for over THREE HUNDRED YEARS, shows no signs of dying out, and has >250,000 native fluent speakers. this kind of thing absolutely shows that there is no such thing as “not speaking correctly”, because languages are alive and still evolving.
I will try to paste some examples, but I don’t speak any kind of German, so I can’t verify accuracy at all. Google Translate obviously completely chokes on any text in this dialect, since it is far removed from European German at this point that ‘detect language’ doesn’t work.
Example 1:
Gude Owed liewe Leit. Ich will aafange mit en Gross Dank an die Barricks Kaunty Versommling Raad fer die Gelegeheit denowed zu schwetze. Ich bin der Douglas J. Madenford un ich waar in em Reading Grankehaus gebore un bin uffgewaxne uff en gleene Bauerei in Centre Taunschip, un ich bin en Pennsylvaanisch Deitscher.
Example 2:
Heut is 's xäctly zwanzig Johr
Dass ich bin owwe naus;
Nau bin ich widder lewig z'rück
Und steh am Schulhaus an d'r Krick
Juscht nächst ans Daddy's Haus.
With provided “free translation”:
Today it's exactly twenty years
Since I went up and away;
Now I am back again, alive,
And stand at the schoolhouse by the creek
Just next to Grandpa's house.
Prince with Sheila Escovedo and Cat Glover touring Lovesexy in Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1988, my edit of original via esquire. This one’s big, so click to zoom, if for no other reason than to fully appreciate Prince’s Amish pirate halter top.