News from yet another Kentucky Amish SMV case: defendants will have a PA Dutch interpreter following difficulties understanding court proceedings. In this latest case (the third this year in KY, in Logan County), four Amish, including one woman, have been cited for not displaying the orange triangle. Even though Amish speak English from a young [...]
Continue reading Interpreting for Amish in court
Happy Groundhog Day! (UPDATED BELOW) Something tells me that with the weather lately, old Punxsutawney Phil might just see his shadow, dooming us to 6 weeks more winter. Punxsutawney, of course, is the central Pennsylvania town known for holding the most prominent Groundhog Day celebration, complete with a tuxedoed band of residents known as the [...]
Continue reading Groundhog Day Brain Dump: Punxsutawney Amish, “Grundsow Lodges”, and the Miracle Heater in court?
Interesting bit on the East Holmes school district, from the Wooster Daily Record (see: http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4823850) What makes the East Holmes District unique is its two-thirds Amish population at each grade level, Treasurer Marsha Clark said. Because the Amish constituency prefers to keep its children closer to home, “we have more buildings, and we have smaller elementary [...]
Continue reading Holmes County schools
Dr. Michael Werner passes on a link to the Pennsylvania German website Hiwwe wie Driwwe (‘Over here as over there’). The site is coupled with a biannual newspaper of the same name, apparently the only regular Pennsylvania German language publication. A bit of background on the dialect, from the Hiwwe wie Driwwe site: In North [...]
Continue reading Hiwwe wie Driwwe: A Pennsylvania German publication
A quick note on language…as we know the first language of the Amish is Pennsylvania Dutch. Picking up English and learning it from Amish-raised teachers in school means that certain traits of speaking and accent get passed down the lines. I rather enjoy hearing a good thick ‘Amish English’ accent. Sitting with Abe and Rachel [...]
Continue reading Speaking ‘Amish English’
Well, despite the inclement weather, I managed to get up to Lancaster County and to my friends ‘Daniel’ and ‘Mary’, where I’ll be staying the next few days. The last hour-and-a-half or so, from the PA line onward, was pretty hairy, as snow and ice accumulation made driving tricky. I pulled in late Tuesday night [...]
Continue reading Getting my kicks in Lancaster County, PA
‘A hog farmer and a teacher!!’ Hog farms are few and far between in Lancaster dairyland, and hog farmers who deal with Amish ‘ninth-graders’ on a regular basis even fewer. Perhaps that’s why ‘Ephraim’ nearly shouted at me in glee when describing his odd occupational mix. He’s been handling vocational school duties for his area [...]
Continue reading The freshman class
A few road signs in Lancaster County come in English and Pennsylvania German.
Continue reading Lancaster County: Bilingual signage
