Pennsylvania Dutch English

Counties in "Pennsylvania Dutch Country", one of several regions in which Pennsylvania German and "Pennsylvania Dutch English" have traditionally been spoken.

Pennsylvania Dutch English is a dialect of English that has been influenced by Pennsylvania German. It is largely spoken in the South Central area of Pennsylvania, both by people who are monolingual (in English) and bilingual (in Pennsylvania German and English). The dialect has been dying out, as non-Amish younger Pennsylvania Germans tend to speak modern General American English (Midwestern Accent). Very few non-Amish members of these people can speak the Pennsylvania Dutch language, although most know some words and phrases. The WWII Generation was the last generation in which Pennsylvania Dutch was widely spoken, outside of the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities.

Features of Pennsylvania German influence

Pennsylvania Dutch English differs from standard American English in various ways. Some of its hallmark features include the following:

• Widespread devoicing of obstruents.
• The use of certain vowel variants in specific phonological contexts.
• The use of Pennsylvania German verb and noun stems in word construction.
• Specific intonation patterns for questions.
• Special placement of prepositional phrases in sentences (so that "Throw some hay over the fence for the horse" might be rendered "Throw the horse over the fence some hay").
• The use of "ain't" and "not" or "say" as question tags.
• The use of "still" as a habitual verbal marker.
• Use of the word "yet" to mean "still," such as "do you work at the store yet?" to mean "do you still work at the store?"
• Use of terms such as "doncha know" and "so I do" or "so he does" at the end of declaratory sentences.
• Use of the word "awhile" at the end of sentences proposing simultaneous actions (e.g. "Go get the tea out of the pantry; I'll start boiling the water awhile.").
• The use of "tree" instead of "three" to describe the number "3".
• Omitting "to be" from the passive construction in an infinitive following "needs" or "wants"( e.g. "the car needs cleaned" instead of "the car needs to be cleaned").

Other calques and idioms include:

Pennsylvania Dutch English	Standard English	Standard German
Make wet?	Is it going to rain?	Wird es regnen?
Outen the lights.	Turn off the lights.	Mach das Licht aus.
The candy is all.	There is no more candy.	Die Süßigkeiten sind alle.
Don't eat yourself full.	Don't fill yourself up.	Iss dich nicht voll.
There's cake back yet.	There is cake to come.	Es gibt da noch Kuchen.
Redd up the room.	Clean the room.	Räum das Zimmer auf.
It wonders me.	It makes me wonder.	Das wundert mich.
Hurrieder	Faster	Schneller
Spritzing	Lightly raining	nieseln
Rutsching	Squirming	auf dem Bauch rutschen
Schusslich	Clumsy with things usually because of hurrying	schusselig
Doplich	Clumsy with self	Tollpatschig sein.
Yah, well.	Whatever, or It makes no difference	Ja, wohl.
Wutz	Pig (when someone eats a lot)	die Wutz
Kutz / kutzing	Vomit / vomiting	die Kotze / kotzen
Wonnernaus	A polite way of saying "None of your business"
Schtriwwelich	Uncombed or stringy	strubbelig
Brutzing, Grexing	Whining/complaining	Jammern, Klagen
Wuntz (Once)	for a second/real quick	Ein Moment / mal
Dippy ecks	over easy, soft-boiled eggs	Spiegeleier
Mox nix	irrelevant	Das macht nichts OR Macht nichts.
Nix nootz/Nix nootzie	Misbehaving (usually referring to a little kid)	Nichtsnutz
Schnickelfritz	troublemaker (usually referring to a little kid)	Störenfried
All	None left/All gone	alle / leer
Right like	exactly the same as	Genau wie

See also

• Central Pennsylvania accent
• Northeast Pennsylvania English
• Philadelphia dialect
• North American English regional phonology#Northeastern dialects
• Regional vocabularies of American English

References

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A730847
• http://www.horseshoe.cc/pennadutch/culture/index.htm#pdeng
• http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/PENNA-DUTCH/1996-11/0847824385

External links

• Pennsylvania German