Young Center books in Anabaptist & Pietist studies
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (pages 437-455) and index.
Summary
"While most world languages spoken by minority populations are in serious danger of becoming extinct, Pennsylvania Dutch is thriving. In fact, the number of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers is growing exponentially, although it is spoken by less than one-tenth of one percent of the United States population and has remained for the most part an oral vernacular without official recognition or support. A true sociolinguistic wonder, Pennsylvania Dutch has been spoken continuously since the late eighteenth century, even though it has never been "refreshed" by later waves of immigration from abroad.In this probing study, Mark L. Louden, himself a fluent speaker of Pennsylvania Dutch, provides readers with a close look at the place of the language in the life and culture of two major subgroups of speakers: the "Fancy Dutch," whose ancestors were affiliated mainly with Lutheran and German Reformed churches, and conservative Anabaptist sectarians known as the "Plain people"--the Old Order Amish and Mennonites.Drawing on scholarly literature, three decades of fieldwork, and ample historical documents--most of which have never before been made accessible to English-speaking readers--this is the first book to offer a comprehensive look at this unlikely linguistic success story"--
Sections in this article: Insects; Beliefs and superstitions; Religion; Community; Rights of passage: Death and funerals; Food; Amusements; Festival; Concluding remarks; Annotated bibliography of sources.
Summary
"This paper has attempted to handIe two purposes: to analyze the usefulness of autobiographical materials for folklife studies and to present specific examples demonstrating the range of folk-cultural materials found in these books and articles." [from the author]
The author , writing in 1976 , provides Pennsylvania Dutch folklore by way of a review of the folklore book of William Riddle "Cherished Memories of Old Lancaster - Town and Shire " of 1910. The LancasterHistory Research Center has a copy of "Cherished Memories of Old Lancaster - Town and Shire", and its record can be found here: https://lhdo.agverso.com/record?key=8156&agcn=449&cid=lhdo&lid=LHDO
"The following sketch, from a Pennsylvania scrapbook dating from the 1850's, is a good example of the common " Dutchman" joke of the 19th Century, which one finds in newspapers , almanacs and joke books. The Pennsylvania Dutchman with his broken English, his conserva ti ve ways, and his rural stubbornness, was the subject of laughter for his fellow-Americans, along with the other early American stereotypes of the Yankee peddler, the negro, the Irish emigrant." (from the author )
