Pennsylvania Dutch: A Dialect of South German With an Infusion of EnglishHaldeman, Samuel Stehman
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Pennsylvania Dutch: A Dialect of South German With an Infusion of English
Haldeman, Samuel Stehman
Pennsylvania German dialect
=Uumǝt=, =oomǝt=, Austr. omad, Swiss amet, G. das grummet
(aftermath). Suab. ämt, emt, ömd, aumad; Bavar. âmad.
=Arik=, =arrig= (much, very), Swiss arig, G. arg (bad, cunning).
PG. Ich hab net gwist [Suab. gwest] dass es so arrik reeghǝrt.
_I did not suppose it to be raining so hard._
=Artlich= (tolerably) is the Swiss _artlich_ and _artig_.
=Ewwǝ=, G. adv. ēben (really, even, just), but it is PG. 'eewǝ'
when it is the adj. _even_.
Ich hab ewwǝ net gwist for sure eb ær ǝ fraa hǝt ǝdǝr
net. (_Rauch._) _I did not even know_ 'for sure' _if he has a wife
or not_.
=ámanat=, _adv._ metathesised and adapted from G. _an einem Orte_ (at
a place), a dative for an accusative _an einen Ort_ (in a place) as
used here. In the example, 'anǝ' is G. _an_ inflected, and
_zŭ_ of _zu schícken_ is omitted, as sometimes done in PG.
... wan als ǝ briif kummt f'r ámanat anǝ schikǝ ...
(_Rauch._) _When ever a letter comes for to send on_--to be sent
on.
=Henkweidǝ= (weeping willow). G. Hängebirke, is hanging birch.
=Tappǝr= (quickly), as in Schpring tappǝr _run quick_! _be in a
hurry_--thus used in Westerwald, and as _very_ in Silesia. G. tapfer
(brave, bravely), E. dapper.
=Meenǝr= (more), =Meenscht= (most), for G. _mehr_, _meist_, are
réferable to _mancher_ and a hypothetic _mannigste_. 'Mee' and
'mee˛' (more), Swiss--"Was wett i meh?" _What would I more._
"Nimme meh," _never more_. PG. 'Was wet ich mee? Nimmi mee.'
(See _Ellis_, Early English Pronunciation, p. 663, note 39.)
=Schtrublich=, =schtruwlich=. G. _struppig_ (bristly, rough), Swiss
_strublig_, PG. 'schtruwlich' (disordered, uncombed, as hair).
English of the locality _stroobly_.
=Neewich=; SG. _nebensich_, Wetterau (upper Hessia) _nêbig_, G.
_neben_ (beside).
"Naevvich der mommy ruht er now [Eng. _now_]
In sellem Gottes-acker[19] dort,
Shraegs[20] fun der Kreutz Creek Kerrich nuf, [hinauf.]
Uft denk ich doch an seller ort!"--_Rachel Bahn._
=Hensching=, G. _handschue_ (gloves, Sw. händschen) becomes a new
word with 'hen' for _hände_ (hands), the ä umlaut being used to
pluralise, but the word is singular also, and, to particularise,
a glove proper is 'fing-er hensching' and a mitten
'fauscht-hensching.' This termination is given to 'pærsching' a
peach.
=Sidder= (since), Swiss _sider_, _sitter_; Suabian and Silesian
_sider_; Scotch, etc., _sithens_.
=Schpel= (a pin), SG. _die spelle_ (a better word than G. stecknadel);
Dutch _speld_ (with _d_ educed from _l_); Lat. SPIcuLa.
=Botsǝr= (masc. a tail-less hen), Holstein, _buttars_. Provincial G.
_butzig_ (stumpy).
=Mallikǝp= (i.e. thick-headed, a tadpole). Swiss _mollig_, _molli_
(stout, blunt); Suabian _mollig_ (fleshy). Alsatian muurkrǝntl
(tadpole) from muur, G. moder, Eng. _mud_. The PG. of western New
York has taken the New England word _polliwog_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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