German Reacts to Pennsylvania Dutch | Feli from Germany

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Over 300,000 people in the world speak Pennsylvania Dutch. But wait... does this mean they speak Dutch? Or German? And can a native German speaker understand this language at all? Let's find out! 😊
Also check out:
What’s it like growing up PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH? w/ Doug Madenford ▸ • What’s it like growing...
German Reacts to Texas German ▸ • German Reacts to Texas...
German Reacts to Yiddish ▸ • German Reacts to Yiddi...
Videos I reacted to:
WIKITONGUES: Dale speaking Pennsylvania German and English▸ • WIKITONGUES: Dale spea...
Patrick Donmoyer - Pennsylvania Dutch Phrases (The Philadelphia Inquirer)▸ • Patrick Donmoyer - Pen...
Germans Can’t Speak Pennsylvania Dutch on "Kelly does her thing"▸ • Germans Can’t Speak Pe...
Es Hinkelhaus - Douglas Madenford▸ • Es Hinkelhaus
Hiwwe wie Driwwe - Pennsylvanisch-Deitsch im Yahr 2015▸ • Hiwwe wie Driwwe: Penn...
Why do we say DEUTSCHLAND instead of GERMANY? ▸ • Why do we say DEUTSCHL...
German Reacts to Texas German ▸ • German Reacts to Texas...
Get your Bavarian beer mug or Servus t-shirt ▸felifromgerman...
Check out my PODCAST (with Josh)▸ / understandingtrainstation or linktr.ee/Unde...
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook▸ / felifromgermany (Feli from Germany) Support me on Patreon▸ / felifromgermany Instagram▸@felifromgermany▸ / felifromgermany Buy me a coffee▸www.buymeacoff...
▸Mailing address:
PO Box 19521
Cincinnati, OH 45219
USA
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0:00 Intro
0:34 What is Pennsylvania Dutch?
5:07 Dale - Wikitongues
10:24 Patrick Donmeyer - The Philadelphia Inquirer
13:21 Get 15% off Raycon!
15:46 Kelly does her thing
19:59 Douglas Madenford
22:52 Hiwwe wie Driwwe
32:35 How much did I understand?
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ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 28, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other topics I come across in my everyday life in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
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[@FelifromGermany]

++Update: You guys requested it, so here is: German Reacts to Texas German ▸kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIDdh4qVoM-Iqs0++ Did you guys understand anything? 😅

[@IvanPlayyz]

Hallo

[@BirdnBone]

Only some xD also Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater is a little tale we learned as children xD um I cannot tell you what it truly means. It's just like something children recited xD I will have to ask my mom what it is to mean. Also you were thinking of Outhouse for the outside toilet xD

[@toddmccreary4579]

I think he's reading Peter Peter pumpkin eater had a wife but couldn't keep her put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well But he read it a little different and I had only heard that first part not the other wife part

[@HH-hd7nd]

3:45 But they did differentiate between countries within the Holy Roman Empire (the German parts and Austria) and countries outside the Holy Roman Empire (like the Netherlands). The Ständeversammlung for example had representatives from all the different countries within the Empire - and also the danish king because while the kingdom of Denmark was not part of the Empire he was also duke of Schleswig and Holstein, and in that functionality the danish king was also a member of the Ständeversammlung of the Holy Roman Empire. It is true that no unified Germany existed, however the people inhabiting the various principalities of the Holy Roman Empire did think of themselves as members of not only their actual home principality but also the empire as a whole. 6:35 The reason for that might be that Pennsylvania Dutch is actually more closely related to Low German and not High German. As a Bavarian I think you're not familiar with Low German (correct me if I'm wrong). During the 16th-18th century most parts of the Empire and what is now Germany still spoke Low German. High German was mostly limited to what is now Switzerland (even though the modern swiss dialect is almost incomprehensible to Germans), Baden-Wurtemberg, Bavaria and Austria (yes I know it's an irony that the areas where High German originates are nowadays the areas that speak the least "pure" high German). Old English is actually the same language as Old Low German. It's the same language which means that English is closely related to Low German, Frisian, Dutch and the Jutic Dialects. If you read Low German texts it becomes even more obvious because many words are literally spelled the same and only the pronounciation differs (Water for example which is literally the same word in Low German and English). 11:40 Not in that context - but in a different context it would make sense - if the question would have been how good you are at doing something. 12:31 Some Low German dialects use the word dag (Tag); others say dach instead. What he said here is basically a specific pronounciation of dag (I would pronounce it differently, however I speak Schleswiger Platt while hat he said sounds more like a dialect from the west which can be very different). I have to say though that even though I do speak both High German (obviously) and Low German (in the Schleswiger dialect) It is hard to understand some of the words and phrases because what they say is different from both High and Low German.

[@gen1c8rs88]

Cript not crib

[@mooveeluver]

This is probably the original version of a nursery rhyme we learned as children. "Peter Peter pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn't keep her. Put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well."

[@nicholaskarako5701]

What was weird I was able to figure out what nursery rhythm this was even without understanding the German/ Dutch language. Something about the rhythm of it.

[@steveg8102]

Yep, Peter Peter pumpkin eater. Pumpkin has to be weird word because there wouldn't be a german equivalent.

[@MsFitz134]

Yes i heard something like "Peter Peter Karrotts Fresser" which would be a very Denglisch way of saying Peter Peter Carrot Eater, implying that Peter is an animal.

[@steveg8102]

@@MsFitz134 could it be cat? I think it slang word they used instead of pumpkin.

[@afcgeo882]

That’s a hell of a concept to a child.

[@jeandanielodonnncada]

As a Québécois, I am thrilled by how respectful you are to the Pennsylvania Dutch community. I have seen too many KZbinrs from Europe listening to Canadian and Louisiana French as if it's just hilarious and as if modern European French is "better," rather than respecting communities who have defended our French for centuries.

There is probably a difference in culture since there is standard german, but a huge diversity of local accents and idioms, basically evey valley or region can have its accepted variant. In France the approach has been very different, attempting to eliminate everything but Parisian (I think?) French. They are also much harsher in excluding English vocabulary than the Germans are, and not especially friendly towards local languages such as Occitan (which used to be much more prominent in the south). I think Feli reflects this more language diversity accepting approach very well.

[@debrawhited3035]

@ - I found the phrase you used, "Parisian French" to be interesting. When I lived in Louisiana 30 years ago, the french speakers would always speak of their dialect being different from "Parisian" French. I found that phrase curious, and wondered why it was so specific, and they did not just differentiate theirs from the French of France as a whole. I don't know what it is like now, but there was a surprising amount of the French language in common, everyday usage by everyone back then.

@@debrawhited3035 probably you find this wikipedia article interesting. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langues_d%27o%C3%AFl Personally I disliked dialects when I grew up in Austria. But the historical roots made me change my mind, i.e. dialects are usually not just slur/imprecise degradation of a language, but reflect migrations, pre-existing substrates, geography of vowel shifts, etc. They really tell a lot of history, and as I have been told good knowledge of regional dialects can greatly benefit the reading of old/medieval documents because of vocabulary not used in standardized language anymore. Provided a very different view on language and cultural diversity, for me.

[@shooter5503]

@@debrawhited3035 The French Revolution basically tried to reset France to a standard universal values that weren't related to the old regime. Replacing Catholic cathedrals with temples of reason, replacing the calendar with a new 10 month calendar, and destroying every dialect that's not Parisien.

[@abooogeek]

Me quite the opposite, I find it original and gives some spices to the pretty monotonous Metropolitan French. And it is also a great way for me to learn about our distant cousins from Quebec and Cajun.

[@therealhawkeyeii7888]

My father was raised in a Sicilian speaking household in New York. As an adult, he visited Sicily, and wanted to know where the bathroom was, so he asked someone where the bacchouza was, thinking that was Sicilian dialect for bathroom, since that's how his parents said it when he was little. The person he asked happened to know English, so told him that this was not a Sicilian or Italian word, but was an English word, spoken with an Italian accent. The word he was using was simply back-house, i.e., outhouse.

[@laurakazimir1712]

Neat! You never know where certain words you’ve heard might have come from. I love how it pinpoints the time in history when his father‘s parents would’ve been saying that.

[@yolo_burrito]

My grandparents are Sicilian but called it Gabinetti it’s all over the place even in modern Italy between bagno and gabinetto. I’m assuming the latter is gabinetto di l’aquila

[@jakeg9821]

The arrogance. It's not an English word either but a Sicilian American word

[@therealhawkeyeii7888]

@@yolo_burrito Yep. Water closet.

[@VeritasIncrebresco]

Hah my father was from Sicily, also said bacchouza 😂

[@BarelloSmith]

"ich bin ziemlich" does actually make sense in German, but it is a very old fashioned way to say "I'm fine". The antonym "unziemlich" is actually more common. It means "unseemly" in English and you can see there that "ziemlich" and "seemly" have a common origin.

[@Rick-dzm]

All of the German and Dutch in the US retains old traits, very little change for a few hundred years since people first came over

[@Hainrich]

Nein, ziemlich sagt nicht gut. Es sagt: einigermaßen gut. Es könnte also besser sein.

[@BarelloSmith]

@@Hainrich Wenn "ziemlich" als Adjektivierung von "ziemen" verwendet wird - was das Wort auch ursprünglich war - dann bedeutet es so viel wie "passend", "angemessen" oder "in Ordnung".

[@Hainrich]

@@BarelloSmith Ich bin kein Sprachwissenschaftler. Ich kenne das Wort ziemen nur unter " das ziemt sich nicht". Das ist nicht in Ordnung. Sowas macht man nicht. Also eine Belehrung.

[@BarelloSmith]

@@Hainrich Ich auch nicht, aber wir mussten in der Schule viel alte deutsche Literatur lesen, von daher ist mir das Wort "ziemlich" in diesem Kontext schon geläufig. Im modernen Sprachgebrauch hätte ich es so aber auch noch nie gehört.

[@jnothstine]

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina we had Mennonite and Amish teams from Lancaster PA helping with recovery in Pass Christian, Ms. They based themselves out of our church which almost survived the hurricane. I was working at a table in our social hall and the Amish women and girls were talking in their dialect about dinner preparations for about 25 of their crew. Someone asked what time the teams would be back to eat, none of them knew, but I did. Since I worked for about 6 months in Oberbayern I understood them. When I answered in Bayerisches Deutsch they were flabbergasted. They thought I had no clue, I even knew what was going to be served for dinner.

[@doc0815martens]

Great. 😆

[@lynda2450]

That’s heartwarming to hear about those groups coming to help during that horrific hurricane.

[@m.scottnewman994]

Great story.

[@stingray4540]

Haha, I bet they were. Amish regularly talk behind your back right in front of you because they assume you don’t know the language. So it really throws them for a loop when a non Amish understands Pennsylvania Dutch.

[@deutschmitpurple2918]

Thanks for sharing

[@scottstahlman2385]

My mother was one of the last children taught old German during the late 30's early 40's in Germany. She could talk perfectly with the omish. Old German or sometime called low Deutch. She translated many sayings on old glass steins at the c Corning glass museum.

[@mikehawk8984]

That's awesome! Linguistic preservation is paramount for understanding, and better relating to, those that came before us.

[@Farmer_brown134]

Deutsch* but close enough

[@tylerhall8919]

You can find a old German dialect in rural East Texas

[@peterhomann2140]

Many years ago I got lost on a bike ride in Lancaster County, PA. This is the time before bike computers with GPS (yeah, really that long), an Amish woman was tending to her garden near her house. I asked her in English if she could direct me to the nearest bigger town or road; she looked a bit uncomfortable and consequently I asked in German. She immediately answered and asked me to go to the barn where her husband was working; he would be able to tell me. So I did, he gave me directions and I was invited to have something to drink. The three of us sat on a bench in front of the house and I sometimes had to ask particular words they used in the dialect but communication was no problem. Needless to say it was a great experience in good humor. They told me that they usually try not to interact with "the English" because too many tourists overrun their communities looking for Amish food, crafts and (yes) farmland to build developments, are oftentimes disrespectful to their culture and customs. Especially how some tourists dress was offensive to this family and it is fair to assume to most Amish. Many "Pennsylvania Dutch" apparently were leaving for the Wooster, OH area where these pressures (at least in those days) were less. So my suggestion is to respect their lifestyle when visiting. The Amish (or Mennonites) are not zoo animals.

[@DomR1997]

We're all animals, and society is the zoo!!! *rattles bars and froths at mouth*

[@Ash-kp8rt]

As a person with Mennonite family who live in that area, thank you.

[@Tugela60]

Asking for directions is not being offensive.

[@austinox734]

In some cultures it is inappropriate to address a married woman, especially if her husband is there and can be addressed ​@Tugela60

[@Tugela60]

@@austinox734 That is not the case in my culture. Respect goes both ways, these Amish should respect my culture as well. That means they should be civil and helpful when asked a simple question, rather than creating confrontation.

[@millibarman]

Funny because I (guessing many Americans) immediately recognized what the elderly gentleman in the first video was saying because of the the rhythm and rhyme of the poem that we all heard as children.

[@allisonhamilton1245]

Yes

[@carnivoreisvegan]

Yes. Peter Peter pumpkin eater.

[@Cngngal]

I immediately thought of the nursery rhyme, “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater” for the reasons you mentioned.

[@cringocringo]

Ye I thought that was obvious at first but then became confused lol.

[@tavish4699]

as a southern german i understand every word since they 100 percent speak my local dialect with no difference at all

[@daftfreak13]

so interesting. thanks for sharing that.

[@theol1044]

That strongly depends on where in Southern Germany you are from. I'm from Eastern Wuerttemberg, and I understand them better than Feli does, but not by much. However, I assume that the closer you are to Rheinland-Pfalz, the better you'll understand them. Most of it sounds pretty much like Pfälzisch to me.

[@tavish4699]

@@theol1044i think if you are generally fro maround here you can interpret most of it even if you dont know wach word

[@dewwel1183]

@@tavish4699 ajo, des is vorderpälzisch un a e bissje westpälzisch. ich sah mo grob Ecke Landau middeme radius von 50km...

[@tavish4699]

@@WeaponX2007A immerhin mehr als die meisten deutschen :D

[@defitsch]

Super fascinating, nearly understood 100%. Being from a small town between Karlsruhe and Mannheim, everybody here would understand "Do hiwwe ischs Hinkelhaus und do driwwe isch d'Scheier for de Duwak". Crazy how these dialect words survived for such a long time.

[@robertcrouthamel9140]

Really great vid. My family came from the Palentine in 1755, and settled in Bucks County. The were Old Order Mennonite until the late 18th century. I am proud of my German heritage, and both of my daughters graduated from Milwaukee's German Immersion School.

[@kennethcrenwelge4971]

I found the video quite by accident. I am 78 years old and the third generation from immigrants who came to Texas between 1845 and 1855. I am the last generation to speak the language fluently. My father in law was third generation Ostfriesen and his dialect was very similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch so I understood them better than younger people from Germany would. I was born and live in Fredericksburg, Texas which was named for Frederick the Great. I attended Lutheran church German until 1957 with my oma who was born in 1878 and never learned English. German services were discontinued shortly after she died. We spoke nothing but German at home. I learned English in School. Each small community around Fredericksburg had their own dialect which came from their region of Germany. My generation went to school together and learned each other's dialect words. I started visiting Germany once or twice a year 30 years and have added a lot of new words to my vocabulary. Our Texas dialect sort of Germanized nouns that did not exist when our ancestors settled here 170 years ago. When I speak German, I think in German and can spend hours speaking to people in Germany without having to stress my brain. I speak to a lot of older German people in Germany and they are astounded to hear me use that their oma used. But our language is dying. My daughter was too stubborn to learn our language because it was too old fashioned. She then learned German in high school and college. She was an exchange student in Germany in 1992, fell in love with a Swiss guy and married. After living in Germany and Switzerland for 15 years they are back in Texas. Her profession is translating for Swiss and German banks and lawyers. She speaks perfect high German, but she has trouble understanding our Fredericksburg dialect.

[@hollerinwoman]

Well, howdy, Kenneth! My grandfather's family from New Braunfels was the last of my ancestors to speak German, but it was a Texas German dialect that they spoke. Family reunions were a mishmash of a German that hadn't added new words since the boat left Bremerhaven for Galveston in 1860. I've since learned some modern German, but wish I could go back in time and hear him talk again! This was a great video, enjoyed watching!

[@kennethcrenwelge4971]

@@hollerinwoman 3/4 of my wife's ancestors settled in New Braunfels. All of her mothers ancestor's were from New Braunfels. Her paternal grandmother also was from New Braunfels. Her father's people settled in Quihi which is near Hondo, TX. Her mother and her grandmother both spoke New Braunfels German which rather pure high German with very little dialect. Her father spoke Ostfriesen which is very close to Dutch. He was an airplane mechanic at the Hondo air base during WWII and he was criticized for being German. He did not want his kids to have a German accent so they spoke English at home. I was born in 1943 in Fredericksburg and have the newspaper clipping of my birth in the old German print. We spoke German and both of my parents spoke Yiddish at home. I did not learn English until I entered public school in 1950. No one has ever accused me of having a German accent and most people are astounded to hear me speak German. We visited Germany last month and we have tickets to go again next month. I enjoy visiting with people over there, But I avoid politics.

[@kanstrand]

Wow! This is so fascinating! My great grandmother’s father (so great-great grandfather) emigrated to America from Germany and settled in Texas, I just didn’t realize it sounds like large migrations of Germans to Texas, I’m going to have to research this more… I’ve traced her back to her ancestors in German using the Ancestry website, he was Dietrich Bultmeyer born in Oldenbrok, Niedersachsen in 1843, died in Dallas Texas in 1892, interestingly… my great grandmother Johanna’s ancestors all converted to Mormonism (LDS) so I have a lot of distant cousins who are Mormon I think… I don’t really know any of them, LOL

[@hanselvogis5142]

@@kennethcrenwelge4971 It's really not "old fashioned". It's your culture and heritage. You should keep your dialect

[@happeninginhouston4706]

Howdy, I married into a Wendish family from Serbin, TX (outside Giddings). Most of the services at St. Paul's Lutheran during the holidays were in German. Both of my wife's parents spoke German, but none of the kids did.

[@TheQuickSilver101]

As someone who was born and raised in Lancaster County this really hit home. My grandfather spoke Pennsylvania Dutch pretty frequently in his house and when he met other Deitsch speakers. This was a welcome reminder of a man who had a great influence in my life. Thank you!

[@LostBeagle]

Me too. My grandparents lived in Trevorton. My dad grew up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch, as that's primarily what they spoke at home. He left home at 15 to join the Navy at the start of WW II. Afterwards, he stopped speaking Pennsylvania Dutch and lost it unless he was cursing. That was ALWAYS in Pennsylvania Dutch. My understanding is that this dialect is not written; it's entirely spoken

[@ahashdahnagila6884]

@@LostBeagle But, when the Amish sing (in church), don't they have hymnals (hymn books) to sing out of?

[@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410]

@@ahashdahnagila6884 in Standard German they might, but typically written Pa Dutch was the domain of say letters or other colloquial forms rather than books or newspapers. Pa Dutch wasn't written until recently and even then it's nonstandardised

[@fredgilbert2032]

I am from York County and this brought back so many memories of my grandma. You can really tell a lot of the folks in the video were not 'native' speakers. The hinklehaus guy was probably to closest to what I remember.

[@carlaferry312]

I loved this video!! I am a German teacher in Pennsylvania. My grandmother's first language was Pennsylvani Deitsch. When I began studying German in school we had a wonderful time trying to talk to one another! My mother had never learned the language, as the older people didn't always teach the kids so that they could talk about things without them understanding. My grandmother and I were very close. This was so much fun to listen to! I was able to understand a lot of it. And from what I know, this was definitely a dialect of German not Dutch. The English people here mispronounced "Deutsch." Thank you for making this video!!

[@masterbratac]

I grew up in a small village in Palatinate about 10km from Ramstein Airbase. My Grandmother and even my parents spoke this dialect and I like it to this day. I can nearly understand everything they say, thats very interesting. For example "Nummidaa" or "Nummidaag" for "Nachmittag" (afternoon) is very common here. Also "Scheier" for "Scheune" (Barn). "Hinkel" (Chicken) or "springe" for "laufen" (to run) is used here. I find it realy funny how they mixed US English with my home dialect.

[@user-gj3kh4bh3k]

Very interesting video Feli. I'm from Switzerland, and was able to understand almost everything. The most intresting thing for me was, that quite many words and phrases, that you thought maybe came from the English language and adapted, were very similar to Swissgerman. For example "springt" in Pens. Dutch means running just as in Switzerland where we say "springe". The word "chumpe" that probably comes from the word to jump in English, could just as well be an adaptation of the Swissgerman word "gumpe" which means to jump. Or the word "scheier" for Scheune, here we say "Schüür". "Eppis" translates right to "öppis" in Switzerland. Thank you very much for this great video, it was very cool to see the dialects of german in Dutch, and ask myself if it was an adaptation from English or just the original words from Schwäbisch and Swissgerman. Wish you a great summer from the Swiss Alps🤗

[@polyanthajones8168]

It's "springen" (or even sauen) in Swabia too! I guess it's the Alemannic language that applies to both our areas :) Also the soft consonants, the dark vowels and the "sch" in "Wie isch du?" sound super-alemannic :D We also call a shed a "Scheuer".

[@Ikataja]

Ich bin ebenfalls Schweizerin und hatte die gleichen Gedanken während dem Video :) zur Ergänzung, "eppis" / "öppis" bedeutet "etwas"

[@richardreed3016]

Hi I always wanted to come to Switzerland I'm a wood Carver and an artist I also make walking canes and puppets on a string and dummys do they make chocolate out there I ate chocolate from Switzerland I had it when I was a teenager. Very good chocolate. We have a place called Hershey chocolate they order cocoa beans from over seas and make it here in United states. I seen a movie called the sounds of music from over there.will nice talking to you and God bless all of yous over there by

[@bobsblues9944]

The Amish originally came from Switzerland before moving to the Rhine areas of the Palatinate and tghen on to the USA . So it makes sense that you can understand them . Ask any Amish person and they will tell their Swiss . She is wrong concerning the Mennonites , they originally came from the Frisia area of North Germany near the Holland border. From there they moved to Poland near Danzig / Gdansk because of religion , and then moved on to Russia, many of them on the Volga River .

[@kfl611]

KS your English is excellent. I live in America, and on occasion in with my job had to talk with people from the Netherlands, they always had the best diction. I always felt that their English was better then most American's English. And they hardly had any accent.

[@jimjordan2209]

This is a variation of a English nursery rhym. The way that I learned it was, "Perer Peter pumpkin eater had a wife and couldn't keep her, put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well". I find this interesting. I spent two years in Germany fifty years ago. I used to understand the German dialect which was spoken around Bitburg. I have forgotten most of it. I can understand some of what they are saying, but it is not easy for me.

[@timothylockard3846]

Interesting. I was stationed in Bitburg about 33 years ago. My landlord was Indian, and his German wife & children enjoyed practicing their English with me, so I never picked up very much German, despite having taken about 1.5 years of it in H.S. The main thing I remember learning that I'd never heard in school was "Tschüß", or today, apparently...it's "Tschüss".

[@Randy7th]

The same with me, I left Germany almost 40 years ago. I picked out the rhyme right away but could only pick out a few words having forgotten so much. I was laughing because she was baffled lol I learned Schwabish so it made listening even harder...

[@jimjordan2209]

@@Randy7th I was able to pick out enough to know what it was. I spent 2 years in Germany and worked with a man who spoke German to me most of the time. He spoke German to me and I spoke English to him. We only changed that when one of us didn't understand something. We also read each other's newspapers and magazines. I worked with him for almost a year. It was a long time ago though. I left Germany near the end of June of 1974.

[@Randy7th]

@jimjordan2209 it's been awhile for me also, I left Germany after 2 1/2 years of being stationed near Stuttgart. I only spoke German in my off hours as I pretty much only went to places that other Americans didn't so I had to learn to speak and understand it. But alas, after so many years of no usage I realize how much I have forgotten...not to say I couldn't pick it back up again but not many speak any German in the middle of Missouri lol

[@victorialopez9717]

Before I even heard the English (and I don't speak any German) I knew what rhyme it was.

[@user-gx1rk8yw6l]

Yes. Being fluent in German helps a LOT in understanding Pennsylvania Deutsch. US-English helps somewhat regarding the PD-speakers living there. NL-Dutch helps very little. Any Scandinavian language also helps. Thank you for making the start of my day awesome!

[@hisxxx2]

I agree, as a native Dutch speaker with a Western-Frys dialect and fluent in German and English. A lot of words i picked up are still common in the Swabian dialect spoken in southwest Germany.

[@pyruvicac.id_]

I found this to be somewhat untrue, as in whenever the Germans have no clue it is modern Dutch like “sterk” pronounced similarly as “ster-rick” meaning strong. “Vreter” is also a very common expression here, so I understood that part of the poem. “Zwetsen” also means a type of talking in Dutch... And “gebied” (“gebot” in Pennsylvanian Dutch it would appear or at least I would guess) means area or region.... The part around 23:20 that she didn’t catch.. I would assume it means that it snows in the whole (alle) area (gebot). And I think the man then explains it was the first house being built with stone (steen in Dutch), since most of the houses in those areas were made of wood I assume, which is still most common in that region from what I have seen. Something she also seemed to have missed?

[@pyruvicac.id_]

​@@hisxxx2 Ik kom ook uit West-Friesland, maar mijn West-Fries is vrij beperkt helaas. Wel eens een poging gedaan het te leren, maar dat is me nooit helemaal gelukt.

[@user-gx1rk8yw6l]

@@pyruvicac.id_ My *personal* experience has mostly been that languages that are very-similar to each other are more-difficult for me to learn/distinguish when compared to the (relative) ease with which I can understand highly *different* languages. I can understand Belgian-Dutch more-easily than some Netherlands-Dutch dialects... German is for *me* too-close to Dutch to learn easily, whereas the Latinate languages are a relative breeze. Anyway, I was surprised at being able to "decode" (part of the) Pennsylvania Dutch more-easily than I thought I would, given its high resemblance to both Dutch & English.

[@user-gx1rk8yw6l]

@@pyruvicac.id_ Dus je zult minder moeite hebben gehad dan de gemiddelde NLer... En *zeker* minder moeite dan de gemiddelde Duitser...

[@lukaoceaneyes]

Funny - the guy that does all those interviews - I don’t think he’s speaking Pennsylvania Dutch - he’s just speaking Pfälzisch. He’s likely from the Pfalz in Germany and checking out the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect and showing it to his viewers in the Pfalz.

[@marcustulliuscicero5443]

Yeah, Hiwwe wie Driwwe's full title is "Hiwwe wie Driwwe - Pfälzisch in Amerika" (Hiwwe we Driwwe - The Palatinatian dialect in America)

[@happyasahippo8597]

Hey. I am living in Baden-Württemberg in Germany near Karlsruhe and Heidelberg. The most Pennsylvania Dutch words you seemed to struggle with are actually VERY close to the old dialect which was spoken here and also towards the Black Forest region. For example 'Hinkel' was the usual word my grandma used for 'chicken' and even today most people talking in dialect around here refer to a barn as 'Scheier' or 'Scheuer' instead of 'Scheune'. The same is true for the word 'springen' - older folks use it still in the meaning of 'running' = 'rennen' here in my region. That fits together very well with your explanation from where the Amish and Mennonite emigrated to America - because that is actually exactly the region I am living in.

[@undergrounduwe2671]

Same here 😃🤙🏼

[@Jeni-ow1kl]

@HappyAsAHippo! That is where my ancestors lived!! Close to the REAL ‘Brother’s Grimm’ Black Forest!

[@sven1975]

In Hesse near Pfalz we say hinkel and scheuer too.

[@KJTV67]

@@sven1975 I was told the Hinkler meant "lives in the chicken house" or "son of Henry" depending on which syllable gets the accent

[@haroldthegw]

That's really interesting, because in Swedish, "springa" means "run" as well.

[@trishoconnor2169]

I thought it was hilarious that there's a Pennsylvania Dutch version of "Peter, Peter Pumkin Eater," which is actually a very common nursery rhyme, in English! "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife but couldn't keep her. Put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well. Had another but didn't love her. Peter learned to read and spell, and then he loved her very well." The fact that it's about infidelity goes right over little kids' heads, but at least when I was growing up over half a century ago, most children in America did learn it.

[@dennis-qu7bs]

Oh God that's so twisted!

[@raakone]

@@dennis-qu7bs a lot of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and the like for children were darker, the idea of having to "protect" children is a relatively recent concept. Especially with the lower classes, who tended to live in more cramped places, children quickly learned about the likes of death and sexual shenanigans. The original version of Snow White had attempted cannibalism (the queen eating the heart that was supposedly from Snow White, except that it was a boar's heart substituted by the huntsman), the original version of Sleeping Beauty had the princess (originally named Talia, "Aurora" was invented by Disney) sexually assaulted while she was asleep, and she gave birth to two children who were named Sun and Moon and raised by faeries (because she still hadn't woken up). Some versions of Cinderella entailed the stepsisters mutilating their feet to make them fit.

[@MarisaClardy]

It's not very common now-a-days. I heard it from my grandmother, but never anywhere else. My grandma is the only reason I recognized the poem. 😅

[@carolthedabbler2105]

I thought it sounded like "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" right off the bat, because of the name Peter (repeated), and the rhythm, and then caught the word "fresser," which I'm pretty sure means "eater" in Yiddish, which pretty well confirmed it. But I don't actually speak German, so other than that, I didn't understand a bit of it!

[@doggod07]

I am Anglo Australian 61 years and I recognised Peter Pumkin from the melody.

[@Slowbuck1]

I understood almost everything. But😅 I’m American, from Cincinnati Ohio, and I’ve been living in Germany for 40 years😂

[@RealAntiguaDreams]

I am a 50 year old PA German from Allentown, PA. We have had our own subset of PA Dutch in our town, that is in itself a separate subset of PA German Culture. I did not grow up speaking PA German, but now as I am starting to see all the great culture fading from my community, I want to keep it strong. I grew up with Pot Pie(called Bot Boi in Pa Dutch Culture) and is the farthest thing from a baked pie filled with meat. :P We also incorporated a lot of other cultures, such as adopting Haluski and Halupkies. We have Apie cake and Shoe Fly Pie, have our own version of Shepard's pie (hard beef crust pie filled with mashed potatoes, topped with cheese.). the ground meat is shaped, not kept shredded, no veggies, just meat and potatoes. A lot of Allentown culture going from the 50's on, my Dad was born in 31 and mom in 33, they fell into all the american trends, such as peanutbutter and mayo sandwiches, american cheese on home made pizza, but they still kept it all mixed with tradition. I need to keep it alive. :)

[@elborko6821]

My wife is swiss and from what I understand the Amish speak an old Bern dialect. We were at a Amish bakery and she asked to speak to the girls and they were floored The girls asked how do you know penn-dutch in which she told them you are speaking old swiss

[@andreasferenczi7613]

Generally there is a very distinct subset of German dialects called Alemannic. It is spoken in Switzerland, Alsace/Elsass (France), Baden-Württemberg and in the western part of Bavaria (Schwaben). Since the Pennsylvania Dutch came from that region, but Feli is from Bavaria proper, she's going to have much more trouble understanding them than a Swiss. For example "tschumpe" that Feli falsely identifies as English influence would be "gumpe" in Alemannic, while "springe" means running in Alemannic.

[@Funsht]

As an examish person that's interesting i didn't know that thanks for the education

[@kennethflores93]

@@andreasferenczi7613 learned Alsace French which has more German influence than French. Found this out in a class and was told that it was not proper French

[@podpolia]

The Amish in some areas are more heavily Swiss than German - I know that there's at least one community in northeast Indiana that emigrated from Switzerland in the early- to mid-1800s that speaks more Swiss, and it sounds rather different than the Pennsylvania Dutch spoken in Lancaster County.

[@andreasferenczi7613]

@@kennethflores93 "Alsace French" is not really a thing. They speak German...

[@sludly88]

oh god I've been working with the Amish guys to long... I don't speak German or Dutch or Pennsylvania Dutch and was never taught but still understood everything he said. I also live in Ohio and work with them up by Kenton or the community just north of Marysville Ohio. I've helped build barns and plant fields. They also help me build stuff from time to time. We almost never take money from each other its more like a favor for a favor kinda deal.

[@meomy29]

Gotta love farmers and other rural people. We let our neighbor run cattle on our land. It helps him keep his feed cost/cash rent costs down and helps us keep down the weeds. He mows and takes our hay and gives us back when we need them during the winter. He also keeps us in hamburger. More people need to live like country folk.

[@whitedeion598]

As someone from lancaster county, it always makes me happy to hear people pronounce my hometown correctly

[@eyesonyou99]

I am forever amazed and blessed to hear a foreign born person speak my native tongue better than I do!! This I truly believe is the gift of tongues as explained in the Bible. Keep learning languages!!! You were born for this!!

[@MA-ti2km]

Your American accent when speaking English is one of the best that I have ever heard from a native German speaker. Interesting video too.

[@gardy4390]

Yes I agree with you, the younger you are when you start with another language, less accent. I wish I would meet sometime Americans who claim to have lived in Germany for years can't even put a centence together & yet they have the nerve to tell others to speak English actually go overthere and say to service personnel " speak English "

[@kevinprzy4539]

Yeah, I can definitely hear an accent in there but it’s easily the best one I’ve come across on youtube and irl.

[@davidhouser4422]

When I was stationed in Germany with the Army, I learned if a German learned English in America they would say vacation. If they learned English, English a "holiday" was when you took off work for a few days

[@Kim-J312]

Feli speaking English with an American accent shows ft no trace ( to my American ears) that German is her 1st language. I met a few new medical residents and gave them our tour of the ICUs units at my hospital in Chicago. I had no idea they where German is their primary language. It's is really amazing how German people can speak American English flawlessly 👍😊 . It is a shame that American kids , don't speak or learn a 2nd language, while Germans learn English starting in grammar school. I grew up in Czech 🇨🇿 speaking household most of my life . US kids were forbidden 🚫 to learn Czech 🇨🇿 language. We were told that we are Americans , and my Czech 🇨🇿 immigrants grandparents and great grandparents where looked frowned upon , as most the same for Italian immigrants, polish and the Irish. I took 6 yrsa in French in high school and college, 30yrs ago , forgot most of it 💔. However when I Mexicans in USA speak Spanish, my old French language Brain 🧠, flips the Spanish words and simple conversations back into French and then scrambles back into English ! I find it very crazy my brain 🧠 does this . I love the French language and have brought some French language books to relearn French again . And with past few Czech words being buried in my brain 🧠 , I can understand some Ukrainian s , the Slavic languages are so similar!!!

[@marocat4749]

I mean pretty much a lot people get used to english earlier so, yeah would make accent less noticable if you put effort in. She has still an accent , but , yeah a biz accent is charming thats no offense, i just notice what , english and german have different pronounciouns on syllanles and that amore sound thou , if not putting focus, who hasnt a dialect.

[@abooogeek]

It would be interesting to have a video about the (dying) German dialect from Texas, as Texas was a stronghold for German emigration, especially down in San Antonio area. I read an NPR article few years ago, and talked to colleagues from German descendants that lived in Texas, and hear how German was part of their daily lives was heartwarming.

[@BossNerd]

I stopped at a cafe once in the Texas hill country and was amazed that everyone was speaking German. This was 30+ years ago - I took German in high school and understood just enough to recognize it as German. I think "Texas German" is closer to that spoken in Germany since the settlers came to American in the early 1800s. My mother's side of the family is descendant from these people but no one has spoken German in our family for several generations.

[@abooogeek]

@@BossNerd I think this is the right area (counties stretching from Austin to San Antonio). This German dialect is on my ears very easy to understand (much much better than the Dutch of the video). For those interested (and since I cannot share URL) the NPR article is "Remembering The Long Lost Germans Of Texas", published 8 years ago.

[@et76039]

I would also like to see Feli visit the German region of Texas. Mennonites from the Pennsylvania Dutch have been buying farrmland in Hill County, and their German is definitely different from Texas German. One Mennonite family owns the Olde Country Store in Itasca, which is meant to bring their culture to the Hill county locals. Many of these Mennonites are totally unaware of the Texas German dialect or region.

[@abooogeek]

@@et76039 Yeah! Me I have to visit Castroville, because of my Alsatian heritage. Story goes this was a village founded by Alsatian in the 19th century. Problem is a good 8 hours drive down to San Antonio. With the current gas price? Fetomi! it gonna cost me an arm and a leg to drive there this summer.

[@et76039]

@@abooogeek, that's also my understanding of Castroville's origin. BTW, it was my great grandmother's family that still owns the place that has the historical marker for the German-Comanche Treaty. But since we were neither German nor Comanche, it didn't apply to us, so we had a trading relationship with the Comanche.

[@uwejohn6626]

Ich bin Deutscher aus Hessen, der seit 17 Jahren in der Schweiz lebt und verstehe sehr viel. Manche Worte in Pennsylvania- Dutch gibt es noch heute in süddeutschen Dialekten. Hühner heissen z. B. in manchen Regionen Hessens "Hinkel". "Springen" heisst in Schweizerdeutsch "gumpe". Das gleiche Wort wie das englische "jump". "springen" für "rennen" wird im Schweizerdeutsch benutzt. "Schwätzen" für reden ist in den südwestdeutschen Dialekten ein normales Wort für "reden". Wenn man einen gewissen Zugang zu den alemannischen Dialekten hat ist Pennsylvania- Dutch gut zu verstehen. Schwierig wird es für mich, wenn die Sprecher einen starken amerikanischen Akzent haben. Lustig ist der Mix zwischen englischer Grammatik und Ausdruck und deutschem Dialekt Danke für den interessanten Beitrag.

[@annor5725]

At one point I heard a word that sounded like „Grundsautag“ to me, a compound consisting of three words: „Grund“, „Sau“, „Tag“ (which, translate to ground hog day). Groundhog Day („Murmeltiertag“ in German). In Pennsylvania Dutch it‘s spelled “Grundsaudaag”. Il looked it up on Wikipedia. For those who are interested, there is a text written in Pennsylvania Dutch that is spoken during the ceremony waiting to be translated into English or German. Another word that came up early on in the video was “Steihaus” which, I’m pretty sure, means “Steinhaus” (stone house).

[@LomienEngelbrecht-yg9lq]

My ear also cought those words and, although I'm not a native German speaker, I came to more or less the same conclusions.

[@LomienEngelbrecht-yg9lq]

My ear also cought those words and, although I'm not a native German speaker, I came to more or less the same conclusions.

[@macpduff2119]

My mother was Norwegian and "dag" is also "day"in Norwegian. Norwegian is another germanic language.

[@susanwestfall2051]

I am of pure PA Dutch heritage, Pennsylvania (Lehigh County) born and raised. My grandparents could speak the dialect but my parents didn’t. Now in my 70’s I wish I could speak it. We are Moravian. My ancestors were from Germany and Switzerland and came over in the very early 1700’s.

[@adreabrooks11]

Hey, there's no time like the present, for learning! 🙂

[@susanwestfall2051]

@@adreabrooks11 I’ve picked up a few words and phrases over the years..enough to get me into trouble,probably! LOL

[@unityostara6380]

My Czech half of my family comes from Moravia!

[@richardgaylor6723]

Berks county Deitschman here. Same thing happened to my family. Grandparents spoke the dialect. WWII forced many to not speak it to their children. I learned Hoch Deutsch. But I can get the jist of whats being said if it's written down.

[@Cassxowary]

nice! And you can still learn (: and let me guess, westfalia/westphalia? :p

[@rontgenstein6659]

I'm Swiss and lived in Erie, PA for three years. When I encountered the Amish in the city and heard them speak I immediately recognized it as an older dialect of Swiss German. I was confused because I had been told by the locals that the Amish were of Dutch origin. My online research of course revealed very quickly that the word 'Deutsch' / German was confused with 'Dutch' over time. I even discovered that a lot of the Amish in Pennsylvania are immigrants from the Swiss Kanton of Aargau, which is where I am from. It shares its Northern border with Germany, the Swabian area to be more precise.

[@jacobzijlstra1131]

It also seems like it evolved a bit from different languages. Like luxembourgish, sometimes it's more German, sometimes it's more dutch, and then they throw in random french words. In swiss German, a lot of sounds are still similar as they are in dutch, some vowels are more pronounced than in modern high German.

[@VenuZz]

I thought the Amish originated in the Kanton Bern idk.

[@rontgenstein6659]

@@VenuZz Kanton Bern and Aargau are neighboring Kantons. In fact, the Kanton of Aargau was formed from several 'Gemeine Herrschaften' and some formerly Habsburg possessions in Switzerland in 1803. The South of Aargau is still called Bern-Aargau today. Switzerland is a small country with an insane diversity packed into just a few thousand square kilometers. Aarau, the captial of Aargau is only 50 miles from Bern. And Baden, Aargau's most significant city, is only 65 miles from Bern and 12 miles from Zurich. There were a lot of immigrants to the US from all those areas.

[@California92122]

@@rontgenstein6659 fellow Argovia person here 😃

[@AutoReport1]

In the past Dutch in English meant the same as we use German now. The was no distinction between low and high German. She explains this clearly.

[@mowana1232]

Quite a while ago, I was invited to the wedding of a South African /Australian couple in San Francisco. The South African groom was Jewish and I knew that his family had fled Germany in the 1930s because of the Nazis. I met his grandma, who grew up in Tilsit (now part of the Russian Kaliningrad enclave, but then part of Germany). She told me that she hadn't spoken German in quite a while, and was delighted to speak to me and my husband. Her German was flawless and without accent. Now and then she used terms and grammar that weren't used in Germany anymore, and it was such a privileged experience for me, because speaking to her was a bit like travelling in time. I have visited Tilsit. Most Germans know the town because of Tilsit cheese, but I doubt that a lot of people know were the town is actually located. The entire Kaliningrad enclave is a testament to the best and worst of German and European history. Now with Russia having invaded Ukraine, I am glad that I visited when I had the chance.

[@mazambane286]

In South Africa we have a large German farming community who live in an area where most of the towns have German names such as Wartburg, Harburg, Hermannsburg, New Hannover etc. These guys have been farming in SA since the 1850's and speak a now defunct German dialect which I believe sounds like Shakespearian English would sound to English speakers?

[@Slithermotion]

Soo...I thought for a moment I was crazy. I always thought Tilsit is a swiss cheese. Had to look it up. A swiss family immigrated to Prussia, invented the cheese and now switzerland has "reimported" the recipe. How ever the german also have now a Holsteiner variation. Thats some history.

[@moped975]

Wie faszininierend es doch sein muss, sich reden zu hören und sich selbst dabei zuzusehen!

[@carolynblaine5319]

That was so much fun! Please do more of these. It’s so interesting to hear how many German sounds exist in English. I never understood that English was a Germanic language until I studied in Paris. One day at a cafe I heard some Germans speaking and as I approached their table to say “hi,” suddenly realized that I didn’t understand what they were saying, and that they weren’t American. Close call, and a lesson about language that I’ve never forgotten.

[@California92122]

Feli, I love this video! As a Swiss, it was pretty easy to understand most of the sentences. We actually use "springen" for "running" as well, and the German "laufen" for us means to "walk", which lead to confusion with my son's elementary school teacher. He's originally from Germany, and at the gym he told the kids "lauft drei Runden", so the children began to casually stroll 😂 There's an Amish custom, btw, it's called "Rumspringe", and it means, as soon you're 18 years old, you're allowed to "run off" and explore the outside world. Some enjoy it so much that they never return to their community, and others have a huge cultural shock and can't wait to get back for good. We visited an Amish community in PA a couple of years ago, and we came across it by coincidence, so we weren't prepared. We were standing there, explaining to our 4 yo son that the Amish don't use modern technology, that's why they get places with their horse drawn carriages, and they bake the yummy bread in a wood fired oven. A local lady approached us and said "I can't tell exactly where you guys are from, Southern Germany or Switzerland, what I CAN tell you though it that I understand every word you're saying!" That's when we learned about Pennsylvania Dutch.

[@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410]

Similar thing happens with laufen's cognate in Pa Dutch, 'laafe' which means to walk ich bin deheem am Laafe

[@TrekBeatTK]

Holy crap I never made the connection that “rumspringe” is “to run off”. Makes perfect sense now.

[@timothystauffer4295]

Please don't lump all Amish people together. "Rumpringe":is certainly not a universal practice among the Amish! It was difinitely not that way in the Amish church I grew up in.

[@CLAYMEISTER]

A "crib" is a place where various hard or dried vegetables were kept... a corn crib is an example... a kind of tall, well-vetilated cage.

[@HypocrisyLaidBare]

Its also a bed, or cot.

[@linkabird_vt]

@@HypocrisyLaidBare yes, but that is not the usage here. She seemed confused about a 'pumpkin crib', and the above explanation is the correct one.

[@evanhughes7609]

A ​corn crib and baby's crib share a basic design. It's the shape that justifies the name.

[@vonkunstfreiheitgedeckt]

it is "futterkrippe" in german. a crib for animal feed/fodder.

[@jmi967]

This video reminds me of a girl that used to try to translate Portuguese for me even though she only spoke Spanish. She could usually get the gist despite the languages being different simply because she was bright and the two come directly from the same root language.

[@LRS11B]

I'm from Lancaster, Pa. and all of my great grandparents were from Germany and they spoke Deutsch and my grandmother taught me some German and she did it with an old German copy of the Gutenberg Bible

[@playlistEmmZed]

I understood almost as much as you did. But my wife could understand almost everything. She’s originally from Rhineland Palatinate and this is almost the dialect they still speak today. It was very funny watching this video together. It was for me like listening to her grandma telling jokes and laughing at them even I didn’t even understand the halft of them 😅 And btw. They still say Hinkelhaus.

[@yuusuga]

Bis aus dem Hunsrück. Mein Mann versteht mehr Deutsch als er zugibt, aber wenn ich mit meiner Mutter I'm Hunsrücker Platt rede, gibt er es auf.

[@hermannschaefer4777]

When you grow up in the southwest of Germany around Mannheim and Heidelberg, you won't have much problems understanding most of this dialect, it's more or less very old Kurpfälzisch, the dialect of this region, pronounced and mixed with English. Quite sure Feli could understand much more if she could read the words, the English pronunciation of the German words/dialect is very confusing for a German.

[@MoreLifePlease]

Yes. To my three-years-of-high-school-German ear, it sounded like he was speaking German-ish with an American English accent.

[@ChristianS.Hohnen2]

To my ears it also sounds Kurpfälzisch. Especially the Hiwwie wie Driwwe part was very much that dialect. I felt like being home :)

[@slimboyde]

Or Kalsruhe. Scheuer, Schopf (barn), springe (run), Hinkel (Chicken), Bibbele (Chick). That's the way we talk here . I sag nur: Hebe, net lupfe.

[@petethebeat4868]

I agree with Hermann, most of those words seem to be closly related more to the german dialects spoken in the southwestern part of Germany (Like the Pfalz, Saarland (Hiwwe wie driwwe) or even Hessen (ebbes=etwas=something). As I grew up in this regions I had far less difficulties understanding the spoken expamples. Listening to this was a lot of fun.

[@toddapplegate3988]

Lancaster has a town Manheim

[@sid3954]

Wow. SO MUCH I didn't know! This is actually amazing

[@CivilizedWarrior]

“Pennsylvania’s my home. Pennsylvania’s where I was born. Well I’m PA Dutch, and I ain’t learned much, but I’m willing to try.” -Frog Holler Great song, great local band from around the Lancaster/Berks County area. They have a bunch of good songs about PA. Check them out!

[@angelanave148]

"Peter, Peter Pumpkin-Eater / Had a wife but couldn't keep her. / He put her in a pumpkin shell / And there he kept her very well." It's an old English nursery rhyme. I recognized it sounded a little like "Kürbis-fresser" & Dale spoke about having "eine Frau" (a wife).

[@s_p7231]

Dang, I don't speak either language but I got this rhyme immediately like you did.

[@williamjohnson4417]

It’s kind of neat how though cultural knowledge we knew what he was saying without knowing the language, yet a German speaker without that context has much more difficulty.

[@Myrdden71]

Yes, that's what I understood the poem was, though I don't speak a lick of German, lol. She said "Peter" and I heard the rhythm and the line lengths and it just came to my mind.

[@lcgaunnac1]

I grew up in the 1960s in Michigan and this little rhyme was a very familiar one at the time. My grandma used to quote it to me, for some reason--probably just to make me smile!

[@falcianjinn6218]

@@Myrdden71 Exactly this for me too. As soon as she said "Peter" it clicked and I could hear the rhyme. Kind of interesting that I don't speak any German but still understood what the poem was but she struggled to get it. I guess they don't have this nursery rhyme in Germany.

[@stargasm1000]

As someone who lives right in its backyard, I would love to see your take on Texas German. That would be best if you included the history of Germans in Texas.

[@jody6851]

How about "Ja wohl, ya'll"?

[@lynda2450]

I was going to ask about this… Mike, what part of Texas did your family end up in?

[@Skinny_Popeye]

@@jody6851 The most common use is propably when your boss asks you to do something and you go "jawohl" it just means "sure". "Ja" is "yes" and "wohl" in this context translates to something like "no doubt".

[@bobsblues9944]

Many of the Germans in Texas came from Russia. They had moved to Russia in the late1700s early 1800 s , and fled Russia during the communist revolution in that country . Many of the Germans in Russia fled east to the Harbin area of China to get away from the Communists . From there they left and went to South America where they were wating to get into America . Some got passports and came to Texas , others stayed in South America.

[@comartindale5726]

At times, this guy seems to have a Southern accent as he speaks PA Dutch. I've heard TX German on another YT vid. It's fascinating! My only experience with TX is clinching I-10. No clue if that crosses through that linguistic area.

[@fredferd965]

Your English is amazing. Just listening to you, I would never have guessed that you were a non-native English speaker.

[@user-cg4og5mw3g]

We were taught a similar poem in childhood (1950's). Peter, Peter pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn't keep her. Put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well!

[@aliciasteiner6855]

As someone from hesse, whose grandfather speaks dialect and mumbles it was sometimes much easier to understand. For example scheier in our dialect is a barn, like he said in the video. I also was very sure about the Hinkelhaus, because Hinkel is a chicken, where I come from. It certainly makes a difference where in Germany you grew up to understand this language.

[@afcgeo882]

Correct! Hinkel is the word for a chicken or chick in Palatinate and Rhein-Main. It comes from the Middle High German word hünkel (chicken). It’s also a fairly common German surname.

[@valentinjakob2109]

I think you're right. As someone from Saxony it's actually really hard to understand...

[@aliciag.7777]

Yes. I am also from Hessen. Hinkel was my grandmothers Standard word for chicken. And a barn was a scheuer. So quite similar

[@californiahiker9616]

Same here, bin aus der Region Kassel, und manches klang bekannt!

[@acab8885]

@@aliciag.7777 Scheuer is mir als Schwob ebenfalls wohlbekannt.

[@theylied1776]

You probably already know this, but German/Deutsch was the second most spoken language in the United States and Western Territories until the late 1800s. I'm from the South, and there are still several older people that still speak Americanized German.

[@joebombero1]

My father's family went to German-language public schools in Baltimore (there were at least three German Elementary schools in Baltimore). During World War I, however, these schools were forced to switch to English.

[@theylied1776]

@@joebombero1 There are parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas where you can find people in there late 60s that speak German, because a lot of small towns in those states were settled by German immigrants in the late 1800s. Just look at Memphis, Tennessee, you have Germantown, and that's not by accident.

[@brittakriep2938]

I am german, and Brittas boyfriend, i only use her Computer. May be 15 to 20 years ago, i visited a public health bath ( Thermalbad) next to my homevillage. In those days not common, i heared an old couple speaking in english about the ruins of a fortress , you can see there. As history intessted person, i told the couple, what i know about the fortress. This had been US tourists . The man told me, that his father a short time before or after wwl emigrated to USA from my homeregion, i know the village. He could speak only few words of german language, because it was unwanted when he was a child. But in correct swabian dialect he spoke the word ,Backhäusle'/ little baking house, because his father often told him about this, slowly coming out of use, public baking houses, and he was happy, that now as an old man, he could see this.

[@DouglasDorner-I812]

Right down the road from me in Texas is a small town named Westfalia. There is a world class butcher shop and meat market named Rabrokers. They are part of a large Mennonite community.

[@madslick4147]

from the south also, my grandmother had this old decoration thing that said "ve gets too soon oldt und too late schmardt"

[@tommygregersen3180]

As a Norwegian, I was supriced of how many of the words were simuler to the older Scandinavian words.

[@user-cg1or6bo6i]

germanic roots of the words....... older germanic languages sounds really cool

[@edmund2382]

Born and still living in the southern Palatinate, I have no problems at all in understanding everything 100%. Scheier, Duwak, Hinkel are palatine words. Allgebot means "immer, fortwährend". It's like listening to my Grand-Grandmother.

[@user-ph3ih6fe2r]

Its interesting as a Swiss I have to say that some of those words arent understandable in german but work perfectly (for understanding) in swiss german.

[@unspecifiedvirusofunknownr2931]

Well many Pennsylvania Dutch speakers are swiss german. So it's not really surprising.

[@brittakriep2938]

I, Brittas boyfriend, am Swabian and was rather surprised, when i was mistaken for a Swiss in Vienna.

[@IngTomT]

@@brittakriep2938 Swiss German is like Swabian an Alemanic dialect and thus may sound similar to speakers of other dialect groups, like the Bavarian dialect spoken in Vienna.

[@brittakriep2938]

@@IngTomT : Speaking with swabian persons is usually no problem for me, but ( born 1965), when elderly people from another region speak, they sometimes use for me unknown words. Speaking with persons from Black Forrest, Allgäu or Vorarlberg , they use a ,between dialect' between Swabian and Swiss German is also no to great problem for me. Understanding watered down Swiss German/ Swiss version of Standard German, i sometimes hear on TV, understandable. But Swiss German used in rural alpine regions, i can' t understand.

[@IngTomT]

@@brittakriep2938 Alemannic dialects can be distinguishd between Swabian, Low Alemanic (which includes Upper Rhine Alemanic and Lake Constance Alemanic) and High and Highest Alemanic (which include Swiss German). So it makes totally sense that the dialects spoken in Black Forrest, Allgäu or Vorarlberg are in between Swabian and Swiss German

[@c.coleman2979]

"Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" is a well known Mother Goose rhyme in English, but don't feel bad if you couldn't make sense of it, because a lot of Mother Goose rhymes have obscure meanings if you start to analyze them. It is thought that a lot of them, composed hundreds of years ago, were meant to be cryptic as they were conveying gossip or subversive messages about royalty or the lords & ladies. Mary Mary Quite Contrary, for example, is thought to refer to Queen Mary, Elizabeth I's sister, who was not very popular with some of her subjects.

[@falconlore9666]

That was a version of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater I have never heard before. Also in other rhymes and limericks Jack Sprat likely had to do with King Charles I and his wife Henrietta Maria dissolving parliament so they could tax how ever they wanted and spend what ever they wanted. Ring around the Rosy has to do with the bubonic plague the list goes on.

[@Thr0mamay]

This is similar to slaves hiding voodoo teachings coded into cooking recipes, to hide it from the christians.

[@LWSexson1]

I know a miniscule amount of German but I knew right away it was Peter, Peter, Pumpkin eater. It does seem to be a more adult version of the English nursery rhyme than I have ever heard.

[@cathylindeboom4494]

Thank you for that info! Great explanation! She was saying "poem", and you clarified and defined "nursery rhyme", and gave examples of their origins and what they allude to.

[@allanrichardson1468]

Mary Tudor earned the nickname “Bloody Mary” for having so many English who had followed her father (Henry VIII) in his break with Rome executed as heretics. After she died, her sister Elizabeth I returned the favor to the Catholics.

[@melissadunton3534]

Ha! I am loving this video!!! I know absolutely zero German. Or at least I thought that I didn’t. But growing up in Pennsylvania I’ve picked up a lot of the PA Dutch not even realizing how close it is to conversational German. This is so cool. I’m 50 years old and am amazed at how much I’ve understood in this video! I knew it was a chicken house as I’ve eaten at sooooo many PA Dutch restaurants over the years and Hingle is chicken!!

[@CowboyJakel]

We have Mennonites in our area and I took German in high school and college and can understand them when I hear them speaking to each other at farmers markets or when they come to a yard sale. I used to go to a Lutheran church that had service in German also, but I don't think that church exists anymore. My great grandmothers last name was Kuhn and they came over during colonial times. The ridges and valleys of Pennsylvania are still populated with these people from the northern counties to the southern counties. I think Lancaster is just so well know since its so close to the city (Philly) and Lancaster itself is a small city.

[@jae7668]

This put a huge smile on my face. It is a poem from my young childhood over seventy years ago. I have tears of joy in my eyes! Thank you so very much!

[@BobyourUncle]

I had a very similar experience as an Afrikaans speaker when visiting the Netherlands a few years back. The language was familiar enough to get more or less what the conversation was about and yet foreign enough to be unable to participate in it properly. Its a strange place to find oneself in, you sort of get it but cant be in it. Kinda like some weird twilight zone ;)

[@trentpettit6336]

Have you ever been to the Flanders part of Belgium? Also what about Suriname? Or any of the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao) off the coast of Suriname, which still are Dutch colonies today?

[@g0d5m15t4k3]

Yay! I was curious about Afrikaans speakers in the Netherlands. You satisfied my curiosity.

[@BobyourUncle]

@@trentpettit6336 One day hopefully :)

[@skepticalfaith5201]

Aren’t there multiple regional languages in Netherlands that are being forgotten. Maybe one of these would be more similar to Afrikaans.

[@sarelras4103]

Years ago had a visitor from Netherlands he spoke Dutch i spoke Afrikaans we had a conversation that we understand each other.

[@Brian10962001]

You are right down the road from two Pennsylvania Dutch Amish groups! They live around Friendship Indiana and a big group just moved from PA to the little town of Butlerville Indiana. They did some work for us and would make fun of each other in German. Hardest workers I’ve ever met!

[@alexanderboulton2123]

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater Had a wife, but couldn't keep her He put her in a pumpkin shell And there he kept her very well Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater Found another, didn't love her He learned to read, he learned to spell And then he loved her very well

[@MarschelArts]

I first learned of pennsylvania dutch a few years ago when I met someone from the USA. We got to talk a while and during that, I had to answer a phone call from my mother, whith whom i spoke in a palatinate dialect on the phone. After that, the guy asked why I didn't say I was from the US too and he continued talking in, what I then lerned, was pennsylvania dutch. He could understand my regional dialect for the most part, as well as could I understand his. It was kind of cool that he had used many very old palatinate words, i otherwise was only used to hear from my grand - and great grandmother. Also those english - german mixwords that sounded like my dad trying to speak english :D In any case, its pretty cool that those dialects are still around. Same with other german dialects that almost got lost, but start to be revived again.

[@Armybrat173]

When we visited Lancaster , I could understand a lot, definitely could understand some children's books in Pennsylvanian Dutch. I can read a lot of Yiddish also if it's in the English alphabet, instead of the Hebrew letters.

[@UsernamesForDummies]

I’m Swiss and the word for jumping is ‘gumpe’. Sounds very similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch. And also, ‘springe’ is used by older people for running. I can clearly see/hear where these words are coming from.

[@knitix]

The Amish were founded by "Jakob Ammann" (hence Amish) who was born in Ehrlenbach BE. The Amish speak many different dialects amount the different settlements. Many of them are similar to Swiss German.

[@Vespasian705]

I thought it was interesting, because 'to spring' in English can mean to both suddenly run or jump, so I didn't find it that weird with my meagre German skills to understand. The Duwak one though, I have no idea how they got to that from tabac or tobacco.

[@trishoconnor2169]

@@Vespasian705 What I found interesting about the Duwak sentence was that I wondered if "doesn't have tobacco" was an idiom for "stopped smoking."

[@Vespasian705]

@@trishoconnor2169 Yeah I wondered that too, did his dad just run out of tobacco, or does he no longer use tobacco

[@tseetzett1848]

@@Vespasian705 'Mein Vater hat keinen Tabak mehr' would be the high german version of that sentence. That translate to 'My dad hasn't any tobacco left'. For Duwak you probably have to trace from Tabak via Tubak/Dubak to Duwak.

[@BanterMaestro2-y9z]

As late as the mid-20th Century there were still isolated communities in the U.S. who still spoke in their native tongue as it was spoken when they first emmigrated to America. I remember reading many years ago about a community where Dutch was still spoken the same way it was in the 1600s.

[@Randy7th]

My ex-sister-in-law had a German exchange student for a year, and when I tried to speak German to her (I had left Germany 15 years before) she just looked at me funny. I said I know my speaking German isn't THAT bad, she replied that it was good but that I spoke too fast and it sounded funny...lol. i learned primarily Schwabish and she was from Hamburg...I couldn't understand ANYTHING she said lol. The dialects are SO different and change very quickly as you move through the country!

[@waldgeist3234]

This is so easy to understand for me. Palatine dialect and Pennsylvania Dutch are almost identical. Having a conversation with a Pennsylvania Dutch speaker is as easy as having a conversation with my parents.

[@sigogglin]

I am a language nerd, the other cool thing about large immigrant waves of any group is that you capture the vocabulary of that time and it persists in isolation. I saw a French reaction video to Cajun (Louisiana) French and they said "these are words my grandmother from the country side used when I was a kid in the 70s"

[@truckerdaddy-akajohninqueb4793]

Exactly. Québec is a snapshot of royal French before 1763 and certainly before the beheading of Louis XVI and the French revolution

[@sharroon7574]

Yes! My family was from germany and came to canada in the 50s, when people come from germany now they say my older family still speaks like in the 50s.

[@handcoding]

Do you happen to have a link handy for that video? I’d love to watch that one too!

[@jtom2958]

American English does this with retaining the r sound where the British accent now drops it.

[@saudade2100]

Indeed, the scholars often travel to isolated little hamlets in the USA to gain insight on how English, German, etc., WAS spoken centuries ago. Immigrants from various parts of Europe holed up in little hamlets with little interaction with outside areas because of geography, and continued speaking the language the way it WAS spoken..

[@calm_down_isley]

I'm currently learning Swedish and its helping me understand little bits of Pennsylvania Dutch more easily than I can modern German. For instance hind is also dog but springer is run.

[@markgaudry7549]

When I lived in Berlin, we met French occupiers and I couldn't understand why my Father didn't speak French with them. He was from Quebec. The comments here make it clear. Great discussion. It also explains why he didn't speak German with our local Amish community here in central Pennsylvania. He was fluent in German. I have found this comments section to be delightful.

[@maikek.76]

I really like this video, especially the „hiwwe wie driwwe“ part, because it‘s amazing how very close the language still is to the original dialect. I‘m from the Palatinate and it‘s really easy to understand for the most part, including all the special words. Hiwwe wie driwwe meaning „hüben wie drüben“, so „here and there“ by the way 🙂

[@ClaudiaG.1979]

hiwwe wie driwwe & nuff en nunner :) i am born and raised in baden württemberg, now living in bavaria and some parts were really difficult to understand, others were pretty difficult for me.

[@brigittefranz4889]

Yes and also here in "Hessen", where I live, in the "Wetterau" and spoken by native speakers in Frankfurt. I was very surprised that words, like Hinkel, hiwwe und niwwe or driwwe are also spoken in the "Pfalz"

[@Halfdome05]

@@brigittefranz4889 in Hessen I know it has „hibbe und dribbe“. Thats even the name of a hessian Asterix book

[@brigittefranz4889]

@@Halfdome05 Oh yes, I know... 😂 There are also some more Asterix in german dialects, and even some more in "frankforderisch" , as we call the dialekt spoken around of Frankfurt on the Main But of course I love the Asterix storys I have some in french, in latin and of course "hibbe un dribbe" and it is so so funny

[@davidh.4649]

@@brigittefranz4889 I have one for schwäbisch ... Asterix schwätzt schwäbisch, Asterix em Morgaländle. 😂

[@dutchgish]

As a 13th generation Lancastrian of PA Dutch stock, I’d like to extend my sincere compliments on your video (…not least of which for pronouncing Lancaster correctly)! I can understand a decent amount of the dialect, but really wish I’d have had my grandmother teach me more while she was alive. Having lived in Niedersachsen and picked up a second degree in German, I enjoy all of your videos… but this one was especially touching. Thanks!

[@stevemyers8330]

Yes, pronouncing Lancaster correctly is a major plus for us, isn't it? 🙂

[@conlon4332]

Lancaster? That's a city in England. I'm English, so I was pretty sure, but my Geography is bad enough that I Googled it to be sure. So are you in England, or is this another Lancaster? And if so, is it pronounced the same or differently?

[@dutchgish]

@@conlon4332 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster,_Pennsylvania

[@dutchgish]

@@conlon4332 kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpeypnmmod16p5Y

[@panzerlieb]

⁠@@conlon4332there was a trend right after the conclusion of the French and Indian war that many towns in central Pennsylvania were named after English towns. So you will find a Lancaster, a York and a Reading, all named after their respective English towns. I know it’s hard to fathom in our modern times, but the Susquehanna river was the frontier at that time all lands west of it were wild territories of the Native American tribes. The English victory in the F&I war truly change the whole geography of the North American. It moved the original frontier much farther west into Ohio.

[@johnglielmi6428]

My Maternal Grandmother was of the Mennonite faith. they never celebrated any birthdays or holidays. I remember as a child visiting during Christmas and never seeing a tree or getting presents. but she did feed us very well!

[@basicforge]

I remember a documentary about the oigins of what is now English, where old German was one of the languages of invaders of England in addition to Norse and French. One chapter in the documentary visited some remote village in England where people still spoke a very old dialect of English, and they demonstrated how similar this was to the German language. Fascinating stuff.

[@d.l.hemmingway3758]

Feli one thing to remember Modern German is a living language, a lot of the dialects of German spoken in the United States are just as they were when the original immigrants came here from the various areas of Germany.

[@kylechalve]

That's true but there's also a lot of influence from English.

[@frankinselmann2874]

Especially the immigrants used Lower German. Beside Fries (spoken in Netherland and Germany), it even was the root language for Dutch, including some influence on English, since the Anglo Saxons entered Great Brittain.

[@Katharina-rp7iq]

I disagree - any spoken language changes constantly. So no, the dialects in the US are not the same as back then - languages not used by a community just die within 3-5 generations usually (parents speak it as natives, children learn it from their parents when they're young and grandkids have one parent with the language and often one parent who doesn't know that language, so the great-grandchild doesn't speak the language at home - they might learn quite a bit, but not use it in day to day life. At this point a language starts dying because people are not speaking the language regularly anymore. Now if such a person has kids - will they teach the child a language they're not that good at and have never found much use for? In an active community the language lives - and keeps changing.

[@meganoob12]

@@Katharina-rp7iq a great example of how languages evolve actually is the difference between Dutch and German. Originating from the same family, at some point German took a different route than Dutch and today Germans will understand written Dutch for the most part, many words used seem vastly outdated if you would use the German counter part.

[@kyraeuswulf5091]

@@Katharina-rp7iq Within reason, normally yes. But remember you're dealing with a couple of things here. The amish and mennonite communities specifically are examples of fairly closeted communities for YEARS. Decades even. I was born in 1980 and even my early experiences both being of PA Dutch descent (though not amish or mennonite), growing up literally 20 miles from lancaster county (in the southern central PA town of Glen Rock or thereabouts right on the mason dixon line with MD), was that they were very insular. You're either part of their community or you're not, back then. Nowadays, that has changed, and in the last 10 years or so, we've seen the community open up to both ideas and people. For example, the old order mennonites and amish were incredibly against the use of technology and modern implements as part of their beliefs and religion. They considered any technology that might adversely affect their community as evil or rejected (think like in terms of the internet today and how social media has affected us all... not exactly unreasonable in some ways, no?). This, and their customs such as Rumshpringa kind of tell the tale of why a lot of this language and culture has remained for the last couple centuries. Delve into that term, and you find a community that 'allows' its young to go out and explore the non-amish world. After which period they're expected to come home and go through their adult version of baptism, and become members of adult society. The popular notions of this are a little off, but reasonably close to reality. Either way, it showcases how closed off their society was, and how that's changed in the last few decades or so, with most of the communities now accepting at least some nods to current technology, insofar as electricity, farming implements, and other such developments. PA law has started to more heavily affect the amish communities in recent years as well, with the pandemic and VERY RECENT (read: just last week and in recent months)events including some amish farmers being affected by severe penalties due to USDA food requirements, and one I believe who was amish being subject to the ATF seizing firearms he apparently was selling from his private collection to other amish. (the big issue here is amish refused to be photographed and due to this can't be photo identified... i.e. licenses and such. Therefore they can't LEGALLY purchase firearms per the ATF rules.). Previously a LOT of laws that apply to most residents have previously been 'handwaved' or 'looked the other way' about in regards to the amish population. I suspect with these changes in recent years, you're going to see a lot more of the old ways and the culture and tenets as well as the old PA Dutch language kind of fade into southern pennsylvania culture pretty quickly and homogenize like you're saying. The TL;DR here is: Normally you'd be right, but in this case there are reasons that hasn't happened thus far, but IS now, and probably will fairly quickly. I'll be surprised if much of that culture exists by the time I'm 80 in another 38 years.

[@darleneschneck]

Hi! I’m 8th generation Pennsylvania Dutch from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania (Lutheran on my dad’s side, Mennonite and Schwenkfelder on my mother’s side). You explained our culture really well, thank you! My parents are 91 years old and fluent in the dialect and they enjoy going to Lancaster to speak Dutch with the Amish and old order Mennonites. There are very few native speakers left in the non-anabaptist communities.

[@mariapierce2707]

It would be great to record their conversations. Blessings. :>)

[@BomBoo-rn8gj]

"You can always tell a German, but you can't tell 'em much" Amanamus

[@BrittanySchrum]

Fun fact, a lot of the PA Dutch language translated into English has stuck around for a long time. So you might hear a Pennsylvanian say “outten the lights” (turn off the lights) or “it’s all” (meaning it’s empty) etc, which is a direct translation and why it sounds so strange!

[@stefanrichter9162]

Feli , I am 61 now , lets say one generation above you . It is astonishing how many words from ancient german I grasped at the first glance from hearing it , when you had much more struggle to get the meanings straight. I am living now the last 31 years in Spain , and I can tell you that when I hear german teenagers (tourists) speaking with each other I have sometimes a hard time to battle my brain through all that modern anglicisms and slang they use nowadays.

[@kv2315]

its horrible in my opinion. german is such a beautiful language and it is a shame to me that it gets butchered this way.

[@realretta]

The same is true of my brother's wife. She is from Bavaria. Her mother can mostly understand my mom if she speaks PA Dutch, but my SIL struggles.

[@rainerwittner7815]

Hello Feli, just came over your video. I am from Palatinate Germany an I can tell you everything that is spoken in pensilvania dutch is totally understandable in Palatinate. Some terms are quite old school „pfälzisch“ (we say pälzisch) but other terms are existing in nowadays pfälzisch and are quite common. Än schäne Gruß aus de Palz😊

[@mikemathias1562]

Grüße aus zweebrigge

[@StevenMaff]

ok im german and didn’t understand a word lol

[@suvetar]

I was born in Germany, lived there (NRW) and also in the Netherlands (Amsterdam and near), although I am English ... I found a lot of that Pennsylvania Dutch to be quite understandable - Fascinating, even the slang - I understand the runs hard straight away, but I think the Netherlands Dutch influence helped! The old woman was saying it was nice to talk Pd in the shops, but you clipped her last word which made more sense of it. Love the video!

[@Jesussayspayattention]

Mr. Dale Hollenbach read the Rhyme "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater"... had a wife but couldn't keep her, put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well"... many American children were read this Rhyme many decades ago, I know because I did in early 1960's. My mother's family come from Holstein Germany, mein Mutter Vater Familia Kramer kommen von Deutschland. I know a bit of German. My Great Grandma Lucy Kramer spoke and wrote in broken German. My mother's Father Bock also from Deutschland.😊

[@kranzandreas3776]

Als someone from Palatine, most words Feli stumbled about were very familiar (Hinkel, Scheier, Hiwwe), especially Douglas (the Hinkelhaus guy) was really easy to understand. Cool video. Pennsylvania Dutch is such a cool language especially because it is so close to my own dialect.

[@fsinjin60]

Henhouse = Hinkelhaus

[@frankwandelmaier5471]

I grew up in a village in Baden close to the Palatinate. Our local dialect was heavily infused with Badisch, Pfälzisch , Alemannisch (Elsäsisch) und Fränkisch. Although am living since the Seventies in Canada and rarely speak my childhood dialect, I had no difficulty understanding the Pennsylvania Dutch. Ebbes, Scheier, Hinkel… brought back sweet memories of the language of my childhood.

[@ThomasCullen-jp4fy]

I traced my PD heritage back to 1747, when Konrat Meckes got off the boat and settled in PD country. Very insular people. My GGM (1874-1947) spoke with a german accent according to my mom.

[@jamesgibson5642]

In the seventies, my sisters high school French class went to a Cajun French town to practice listening to and speaking with native French speakers. Neither group could understand the other.

[@DramaQueenMalena]

From Switzerland: we also use "springe" for "run" and "gumpe" for "jump". I think it's not a influence from English but an old word that both languages still use and Standard German not.

[@shallowgal462]

An online dictionary said of the etymology the English verb jump, "probably akin to Low German gumpen to jump." It's therefore fascinating to me that it's used in High German dialects yet not Standard.

[@ricardogardel2470]

A lot of PA Dutch came from Switzerland.

[@DramaQueenMalena]

@@ricardogardel2470 Yes. I understand almost everything.

[@nooneatall8072]

As Ricardo Gardel states, a lot of the PA Dutch came from Switzerland. In fact, Jakob Amman (from whom the Amish or Ammanisch derive their name) was an itinerant preacher of Swiss origin. My last name is, from what I am told, a very common Swiss surname, though spelled slightly differently across the Pond. (I am PA Dutch in my ancestry). The Mennonites derive their name from Menno Simons who was an actual Dutch (ie, Niederlander) clergyman who converted to Anabaptism. (Most PA Dutch religious sects are Anabaptist, which is why they were persecuted in Europe)

[@LaurentMayor]

Indeed. There are so many words that exist in some variation in swiss dialects.

[@greshnok5207]

I'm born in the Palatinate and it seems that I have some advantage in understanding Pennsylvanian Dutch. I know most of the Phrases used in the videos from my dialect, so it is easy to understand them, even the ones Feli didn't get. It's fascinating to see how close this language is to its origins after all these years. And in Pennsylvania they still know the Belznickel, some kind of Santa Claus or St Nicholas known in our region.

[@maxpower2480]

I'm an expat from there and honestly I can understand them better than I can understand my grandma's family/generation when they go hard dialect.

[@tohellwithgoogle4261]

Belsnickel is more like a monster that brings bad things to bad kids or does bad things to them. There is an equivalent of Santa that brings presents to the good kids.

[@sonicrolfo]

Volle Zustimmung. Ich bin zwar in Worms aufgewachsen, also "nicht ganz" Pfalz, aber erstaunlich hohe Ähnlichkeit und Begriffe.

[@dewwel1183]

@@tohellwithgoogle4261 de belznickel is de belzebub, eher de knecht rupprecht odder sowas, der kummt mit de rut...

[@annoyedbipolar7424]

Admirable or Impish? A famous American TV show set in Pennsylvania The Office (US) has a Pennsylvania Dutch character who dressed as Belznickel for a Xmas episode. They ask 'naughty' or 'nice' but instead, it's Admirable or Impish. Then they hit their co-worker with a wooden switch.

[@christopherko475]

About the earbuds, you’re German. You would know it when it comes to a question of quality. I’m speaking as a French person who’s grown up in Singapore but on an island of my family’s culture. Thanks a bug for the meaningful content and the many Qualities you present as a German like a work of art.

[@ELWOOD333]

Great introduction to Pennsylvania Dutch , I have been in Lancaster County for the pass two year and never consider speaking German but this was a super fun video and you've truly earn a new subscribe , great content !

[@Diana7x7]

„Ebbes“ heißt „etwas“, ist übrigens auch im Saarländischem so. Ich bin in Hessen geboren, ging im Saarland zur Schule und lebe seitdem in Mannheim (Baden). Ich konnte einwandfrei jedes Wort verstehen und übersetzen. Dabei haben mir hauptsächlich meine Kenntnisse im Dialekt der Saarländer geholfen! Schönes Video, vielen Dank! 🌸

[@ruthannmiller5336]

Thank you for being so respectful of the Pennsylvania Dutch! As a former Amish person that still speaks it as a primary language it was delightful to hear you understanding and making it fun. We have definitely worn it down over the years and thrown in a smattering of English and you just took it all in stride.

[@a.alphonso6193]

lmao no you don't. stop trying to be unique

[@jonathanduplantis1403]

​@A. Alphonso what's wrong with you?

[@IsraelShekelberg]

I learned this as a child in English: Peter, Peter, Pumpkin-eater, Had wife and couldn't keep her; He put her in a pumpkin-shell, And there he kept her very well. Not very PC. Hope you don't get a strike.

[@karisfunkartist]

I speak German and Plattdeutsch and I caught about half of what he said (Peter Pumpkin Eater) . I spent some time in southern Germany in high school and heard Schwäbisch a lot - though I don't understand a good chunk of it. It's interesting to hear such a mash up of dialects, and similarities!

[@TXJan0057]

Texas has a German speaking group mostly stopped speaking German in the last few generations. My father in law was a translator in world war 2. My mother in law did not speak English until 4th grade because she lived in Fredericksburg and went to private school which was taught in German.

[@paradoxstudios6639]

was he from New Braunfels area ?

[@joebombero1]

German-speaking public schools were quite common throughout the United States. My father's family went through German-language public schools in Baltimore until World War I, when they were required to change to all-English curriculum.

[@DannyBear70]

I visited Fredericksburg approx 5-10 years ago. To see/read the German inscription in the buildings was amazing; however, when spending a few evenings there, it was sad to find no one who spoke German. I asked for any “reden„ group. I was answered as if they were supposed to speak only English and Spanish. Sad.

[@paradoxstudios6639]

@@DannyBear70 No one will, maybe a few older people in town who know a few words or accents, but everyone today speaks something else, there have been no fresh German immigrants in that town since I don't know when.

[@tomsitzman3952]

A relative of mine was in a German prison of war camp. His served as the translator using his old 1700's Pennsylvania Dutch dialect which was spoken by his family in Lincoln Nebraska. The German guards had a lot of fun listening to his dialect.

[@johnnymossville]

I find it quite impressive that after 300+ years being separated from their "home" language that you can mostly understand what they are saying. I'm sure given a few weeks immersed in the language you'd be speaking to them completely fluently.

[@HunterShows]

You may even be able to make out what they're saying in England, notwithstanding those years.

[@MWilsonME]

@@HunterShows Looking forward to the conclusion of Metal Gear!

[@HunterShows]

@@MWilsonME :) Sorry, I'm slow.

[@johanna2690]

When I visited Peru I was fascinated how many villages only spoke Quechua and didn't know any Spanish. That's of course a bit different. But I thought it was so cool that they could preserve their culture and language even though they were conquered by Spain.

[@jeroenslaghout]

Same as with Dutch and Afrikaans. Although Afrikaans speakers usually don't understand Dutch, but I guess that would also be the case with Pensylvanian Dutch speakers.

[@janekmundt579]

The darker side of this story is that smaller sects such as the Amish were brutally persecuted by some states. Zürich drowned members in the Limmat river etc. Thus many of the religious followers emigrated to the US to avoid persecution. It’s a very dark chapter in Switzerlands history.

[@KalebMarshallDulcimerPlayer]

If you're still in cincinnati, you should come up to Berne Indiana, and Shipshewana. I took one year of German in college, and the language they speak around Shipshewana just sounds so much more Americanized. Even the accent sounds super American to my ears.

[@Capt.Turner]

I grew in up as a farm boy in Hessia, Germany and we had chicken, in our local dialect referred to as Hinkel, so that makes perfect sense to me (for a change).

[@BanjoSick]

Woihinkelche heisst coq aux vin mit Weiswein bei uns in Hessen:)

[@elemef2801]

As you already mentioned in the beginning: The whole southwest of germany has many similiar words. I am living in southern Hesse and words like „Scheier“ and „Hinkel“ (often pronounced as „Hingel“) are standard words you will normally not hear in urban regions. Cool video! Keep going :)

[@fritzieschomaker1476]

My grandfather (Limburg region) would pronounce it Hingl 🙂.

[@denzzlinga]

The same in Baden and Würtemberg. Scheier, Scheuer, Schiere, etc. ist hier je nach Gegend auch das normale Wort.

[@riveroak-dp8gt]

Yes, it definitely helps knowing a Franconian German dialect. It was cute seeing Feli struggle with some of these very “dialecty” words which was very easy to understand for me coming from “Rheinhessen”. 😄

[@iZeb0x]

There was a restaurant chain in germany up until the 90s i think „Hinkelhaus“.

[@aksiiska9470]

as i was in my elementary school the slang was geschennt=geschimpft=berated and evangelisch=äppelisch (from apple) =protestant and katholisch=kartoffelisch (from the german word for potato) the moon is 60times the earth radius distant from earth the potato was brought from america and the compass needle always points to the north. also the protestantism was declared while (i learnded many years later) magellan was killed on the philippines

[@reneedavenport4322]

I’m an older American, we had a children’s poem that goes: Peter Peter pumpkin eater , had a wife and couldn’t keep her, he put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well.