The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-05-18
PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH.
A Southern German Dialect Still
Prevalent in Certain Counties.

tDr De Long in Old PENN
In the year 1863 a small party of
Mennonites came across the water and
settled in what was soon after, and is
still, called Germantown. Persecution
at home and the prospect of an undis-
turbed right to worship God according
to the dictates of their own consciences
turned the faces of thousands and tens
of thousands of these Germans to
America and nerved them for the aw-
ful horrors of the long voyage in
loathsome and often disease infected
ships. Gradually the country beyond
Germantown was settled by them. The
name Dutch, in the true meaning of
the word, is a misnOmertas applied TO
these pioneer settlers or their descend
ants, since they came from southern
Germany along the Rhine, and not
from Holland. Their vernacular is a
dialect very similar to that of the
lower Rhine, with the addition of more
and more English words from year TO
year, until at the present day those
who speak the dialect employ a great
many English words. even pTefxing the
German augment to verbs in the pre-
perfect and past tense, as gewalked,
gepreached, gelectured, etc. / believe
that the same race characteristics the
same full measure of patriotic devotion.
the same spirit of fOTbearance, the
same sterling virtues of thrift, honesty
and sobriety, the same love of personal
political and religious liberty, the same
respect for the domestic virtues the
same simplicity Of character that were
observed in the early pioneers are
present in their descendants today.
While all this is true and something
TO be proud Of. but little can be said
I'm favor of the perpetuation of the
Pennsylvania German dialect. Not
Withstanding the extraordinary vitality
of the Vernacular. which has survived
the wreck of centuries. il is gradually
but surely disappearing, even from the
rustic communities. Neither is this to
be regretted.
Several factors are cOnributary to
the persistence of this dialect. They are
people quiet and simple i'm their
taste, as a rule absorbed in the peace
full avocations of life, diffident and
more or less clannish; they have not
travelled much. and have therefore not
come much in contact with their neigh
bors of other languages. The early set
tiers brought with them the school
master. and only the German language
was taught until a comparatively short
time ago.
Many of the older people. although
they understand English and are able
to speak il I'm a way, read only German
books and newspapers today. Letter
writing and the keeping of books and
records are done in English. Today.
however. no German is taught except
in the higher grades, although the
Pennsylvania Dutch dialect holds sway
i'm the ordinary talk in the school yard,
the street or wherever men gather. The
legal business was always transacted
i'm the English language. though many
men were unable to read the deeds TO
their own properties. Even now Occa-
sionally an interpreter is required 10
translate the testimony of a witness in
our courts However, in a generation
or two. I venture to predict, very little
of this dialect will be heard. How long
il will take until the characteristic ac-
cent is lost may be hard to say. In the
country districts the religious services
are almost invariably in the German
| language, while in the towns and viii
! lagos where they have evening services
| the latter are conducted in the Eng
| lish language. as are all Sunday
schools, literary and political meetings
/