Chapter II · Phonology of Pennsylvania Dutch.

§ 1. Use of the Alphabet.

In his "Key into the Languages of America," London, 1643, Roger Williams says that "the life of all language is pronuntiation"—and in the comparison of dialects it deserves especial attention. To enable the reader the more readily to understand these pages, and to compare the words with literary German, the principles of German orthography will be used as far as they are consistent, but every letter or combination is in every case to be pronounced according to the power here indicated—except in literal quotations, where the originals are followed. A single vowel letter is always to be read short, and when doubled it must have the same sound, but lengthened—but as a single vowel letter is often read long in German, and as short vowels are often indicated by doubling a consonant letter, this absurd mode is sometimes used to prevent mispronunciation through carelessness.[6] The 's' is also sometimes doubled to prevent it from becoming English 'z' with readers who, in careless moods, might rhyme 'as' (as) with has instead of fosse. In a PG. poem of Rachel Bahn, commencing with—

most English readers would be likely to rhyme 'is' with phiz instead of hiss, which will be prevented by writing 'iss,' etc.

Although I have visited various counties of the State at distant intervals, the facts given here pertain chiefly to a single locality, so that if it is stated, for example, that 's' with its English sound in 'misery' does not occur, or that 'kǝp' (head) is used to the exclusion of haupt, it is not intended to assert that such a sound as z, or such a word as haupt, have not a local existence. In fact, although they are not recorded here, English z, w, and v, may be common enough. A German confounds met and mat, cheer and jeer, and when he becomes able to pronounce them all, he not unfrequently creates a new difficulty, and for cherry says jărry (rhyming carry), and after he has acquired sounds like English z, w, and v, they might readily slip into his German speech.

The letter b and its spirant (German w) both occur, and the latter often replaces b, in one region 'ich haw' (I have) replaces 'ich hab,' German ich habe, and 'nit' replaces 'net' (not), German nicht. The vowels of up and ope interchange, as in 'kǝch' or 'koch' (cook) 'nǝch' or 'noch' (yet); and it is difficult to determine whether the prefixes ge-and be-have the vowel of bet or but. Lastly, the nasal vowels are by some speakers pronounced pure. Should discrepancies be found upon these points, they are to be attributed rather to the dialect than to the writer—or to the two conjointly.

§ 2. The Vowels.

E. indicates English; G. German; SG. South German; PG. Pennsylvania German (or 'Dutch');.a preceding dot indicates what would be a capital letter in common print. It is used where capital forms have not been selected, as for æ.

a in what, not; PG. kat (G. gehabt) had; kats cat.

aa (ah[7]) in fall, orb; PG. haas hare; paar pair; haan (G. hahn) cock; tsaam (G. zaum) bridle.

a in aisle, height, out. In a few cases it is written â. See under the dipthongs.

æ (ä, e[1]) in fat; hær (G. Herr) Sir; dær (and d'r, G. der) the; hærn (G. hirn) brain; schtærn, pl. schtærnǝ (G. stern) star; mær (G. mähre) mare; ærscht (G. erst) first; wærts-haus (G. wirtshaus) inn.

ææ (ä, äh) in baa, the preceding vowel lengthened.[8] PG. bæær (G. bär) bear; kæær E. car.

e (ä, ö) in bet; PG. bet bed; net (G. nicht) not; apnémǝ (G. abnahme decline) PG. a wasting disease; het (G. hätte had), which, with some other words, will sometimes be written with ä (hätt) to aid the reader. In a few cases it is lengthened (as in thêre), when it is written ê, as in French.

ee (ä, äh, eh, ö) in ale; PG. meel (G. mehl) meal; eel (G. öl) oil.

ǝ (e, o, a) in but, mention;[9] PG. kǝp (G. kopf) head; lǝs (G. lasz) let, hawǝ (a short, G. haben) to have.

i (ü, ie, ö) in finny; niks (G. nichts) nothing; tsrik (G. zurück) back; míglich (G. möglich) possible; lít'rlich (G. liederlich) riotous.

ii (ih, ie, ü) in feel; fiil (G. viel) much; dii (G. die) the; riiwǝ (G. rübe) turnip; wiischt (G. wüst, ü long) nasty. It is the French î, which is sometimes used in these pages.

o in o-mit; los loose; hofnung hope. English o pronounced quickly.

oo in door, home; wool (G. wohl) well; groo (G. grau) grey.

u in full, foot; mus (G. musz) must; fun (G. von) of.

uu (uh) in fool; kuu (G. kuh) cow; guut (G. gut) good.

The true 'a' of arm does not occur, except approximately in the initial of au and ei. The proper sounds of ä, ö, ü are absent, and if these letters are used in a few cases to enable the reader to recognise words, the two former will be restricted to syllables having the vowel sound in met, and 'ü' to such as have that in fit.

§ 3. The Dipthongs.

ei (eu) in height, aisle, German ei, with the initial 'a' (italic) of Mr. Ellis (in his Early English Pronunciation), 'eu' has the same power in PG.

ai in boy, oil; somewhat rare, but present in the names Boyer, Moyer (from Meyer), ai (G. ei) egg; ajǝr (aajǝr, aijǝr) eggs; hai (G. heu) hay; bai (sounding like E. boy, and from E.) pie; wai (G. weihe) hawk. Literary German has it in 'bäume' trees, and 'eu' (which is properly ǝi) is usually confounded with it in German.

ǝi, which Mr. Ellis (ibid.) gives as the power of English 'ai' (aisle) in London, occurs in the PG. exclamation 'hǝi,' used in driving cows, and naturalised in the vicinal English. Slavonic has (in German spelling) huj, and Hungarian hü, used in driving swine. Compare Schmidt, Westerwäld. Idiot., p. 276.

au in house; G. haus, PG. haus. English 'ou' is thus pronounced in adopted words like 'County,' or 'Caunty,' 'Township' or 'Taunschip.'

Care must be taken not to confound the initial of these pairs, for G. and PG. 'eis' (ice) and 'aus' (out) have the same initial vowel, while 'aistǝr' would spell oyster.

§ 4. Nasal Vowels and Dipthongs.

PG. is not a harsh dialect, like Swiss. It has, however, the Suabian feature of nasal vowels,[10] but to a less extent. They will be indicated with (˛) a modification of the Polish mode. This nasality replaces a lost n (but not a lost m), and it does not pervert the vowel or dipthong, as in the French un, vin, as compared with une, vinaigre. Nor does it affect all vowels which have been followed by n, for most of them remain pure. Nasal 'ee' (in they, French é) is very common, but does not occur in French, and French un does not occur in PG. Being unaware of the existence of this feature, the writers of the dialect neglect it in the printed examples, which makes it difficult for a foreigner to comprehend them, because a word like 'aa' (the English syllable awe) would stand for G. auch (also), and when nasal (aa˛) for G. an (on); and 'schtee' would represent both the German stehe and stein, as in saying 'I stand on the stone'—

G. Ich stehe auf dem stein.—PG. ich schtee uf m schtee˛.

The following words afford examples:—

aa˛-fang-ǝ (G. anfangen) to begin; alée˛ (G. alleín) alone; schee˛ (G. schön) handsome; bee˛ (G. bein, pl. beine) leg, legs; kee˛ (G. kein) none; grii˛ (G. grün) green; duu˛ (G. thun) to do. Was hǝt ær geduu˛? (G. Was hat er gethan?) what has he done? mei˛ (G. mein, meine) my; dei˛ (G. dein) thy; nei˛ (G. hinein) within; ei˛ being the only nasal dipthong.

The obscurity arising from a neglect of the nasal vowels appears in the following lines—

Final n is not always rejected, but remains in many words, among which are—'in' in; 'bin' am; 'un' and; 'iin'(him) G. ihn (but hii˛ for G. hin thither); 'fun' (from) G. von; 'wan' (when); 'hen' (have) G. haben; 'kan' (can); 'schun' (already) G. schon.

German infinitives in-en end in-ǝ in PG., a vowel not subject to nasality, so that when G. gehen (to go) remains a dissyllable it is 'gee'ǝ,' but when monosyllabised it becomes 'gee˛'—this vowel being nasalisable. Similarly, G. zu stehen (to stand) becomes 'tsu schteeǝ' and 'tsu schtee˛;' G. zu thun (to do) may be 'tsu tuu˛'—'tsu tuuǝ' or (with n preserved) 'tsu tuunǝ,' and G. gehen (to go) may have the same phases.

§ 5. The Consonants.

The Germanism of confusing b, p; t, d; k, g, is present in PG. and they are pronounced flat, that is, with more of the surface of the organs in contact than in English—a characteristic which distinguishes German from languages of the Dutch and Low-Saxon (Plattdeutsch) type.[11] This must be remembered in reading the examples, in which the ordinary usage of these letters will be nearly followed.

The consonants are b, ch, d, f, g (in get, give), gh, h, j (English y), k, l, m, n, ng, p, r (trilled), s (in seal, not as in miser), sch (in ship), t, w (a kind of v made with the lips alone). 'ch' has the two usual variations as in recht and buch, and its sonant equivalent 'gh' (written with 'g' in German) presents the same two phases, as in G. regen and bogen. 'ng' before a vowel as in singer, hence 'finger' is fing-er and not fing-ger. 'n' before 'k' is like 'ng,' as in G. links (on the left), which is pronounced like an English syllable. Vowels to be repeated are indicated by a hyphen, as in ge-ennǝrt (altered), nei-ichkeit (novelty).

Should letters be wanted for English j, z, v, w, the first may have dzh, and the others italic z, v, w, with ks for x.

As the reader of English who speaks PG. can learn the German alphabetic powers in half an hour, PG. should be written on a German basis, and not according to the vagaries of English spelling, with its uncertainty and reckless sacrifice of analogy. In print, PG. should appear in the ordinary roman type, in which so many German books are now published.[12]

§ 6. Stein or Schtein?

The sequents sp, st, are perhaps universally converted into 'schp' and 'scht' in PG., as in 'geescht' for gehest, 'hascht' for hast, 'Kaschp'r' for Caspar, 'schtee˛' for stein, and 'schpeck' for speck, all of which are genuine German, as distinguished from Saxon, Anglo-saxon, and Hollandish, because S is incompatible before labials (w, m, p) and dentals (l, n, t) in High German. Hence, where Dutch has zwijn, smidt, and speelen, German has schwein, schmidt, and schpielen; and for Dutch forms like slijm, snee, and steen, German has schleim, schnee, and schtein; but as the German uses the conventional spellings 'spielen' and 'stein,' he is apt to fancy that a law of speech is of less importance than the flourishes of a writing-master, or the practice of a printing-office, even when his own speech should teach him the law.

That German has this feature practically, is proved by the fact that words apparently in sp-, st-, become schp-, scht-, when adopted into Russian, although this language has initial sp-, st-,—a transfer of speech rather than of spelling, which is as old as the thirteenth century, when the Old High German 'spiliman' (an actor) went into Old Slavonic as (using German spelling) 'schpiljman,' where 'spiljman' would have been more in accordance with the genius of the language.

§ 7. Vowel Changes.

Altho the pronunciation of many words is strictly as in High German, there are the following important variations. German a becomes normally the vowel of what and fall, but it has the Swiss characteristic of closing to 'o,' as in 'ool' (eel) G. aal; 'ee˛ mool' (once) G. ein mal; 'woor' (true) G. wahr; 'joor' (year) G. jahr; 'frooghǝ' (to ask) G. fragen; 'frook' (a question) G. frage; 'doo' (there) G. da; 'schloofǝ' (to sleep) G. schlafen; 'schtroos' (street) G. strasze; 'nooch' (towards) G. nach; 'hoor' (hair) G. haar, but 'paar' (pair) and others do not change.

The vowel of fat occurs in 'kschær' (harness) G. geschirr; 'hærpscht' (autumn) G. herbst; færtl (fourth) G. viertel; kærl (fellow) G. kerl.

German 'o' becomes 'u,' as in 'kumǝ' (u short, see § 2) to come, Austrian kuma, G. kommen; 'schun' (already) G. schon; 'fun' (of) G. von; 'wuunǝ' (to reside) G. wohnen; 'wuu' (where) G. wo; 'sun' (sun) Austr. sunn, G. sonne; 'suu˛' and 'suun' (son) G. sohn; 'númitaag' and 'nómidaak' (afternoon) G. nachmittag; 'dunǝrschtaag' (thursday) G. donnerstag; 'hunich' (honey) G. honig.

German 'ei' is often 'ee,' as in 'heem' (home) G. heim; 'deel' (part) G. theil; 'seef' (soap) G. seife; 'bleech' (pale) G. bleich; eens (one) G. eins; 'tswee' (two) G. zwei.

Irregular forms appear in 'maulwarf' (mole) G. maulwurf; 'blĕs' (pale, rhyming lace) G. blass; 'siffer' (tippler) G. säufer; 'schpoot' (late) G. spät, ä long; 'm'r wellǝ' (we will) G. wir wollen; 'dii úmeesǝ' (the ant) G. die ameise; 'ep,' 'eb' (whether) G. ob; 'dærfǝ' (to dare) G. dürfen; 'færichtǝrlich' (frightful) G. fürchterlich; 'ich færicht mich dat [or dart, G. dort] anǝ tsu gee˛.' I fear me to go yonder.

'Dat anǝ' is for G. dort hin, 'anǝ' being a Swiss adverb made of G. an (on, towards). 'dat' is not common in PG. and it may have been brought from abroad, as it occurs in Suabian—

"Aepfel hott ma dott gsia, wie d' Kirbiss bey üss;" (Radlof, 2, 10.)—(Man hat dort gesehen) Apples have been seen there like (G. Kürbisse, PG. kærǝpsǝ) pumpkins with us.

The foregoing 'anǝ' appears in Swiss "ume und anne" (thither and hither) where 'ume,' Austr. 'uma,' is from G. um (about). Stalder refers 'anne' to G. an-hin, and Swiss 'abe' to ab-hin. Schmid (Schwäb. Wb., p. 23) has ane, dortane, dettane. Schmeller (Bayer. Wb. 1869, p. 91) cites Graff (1, 499), for Ohg. ostana (from the East), and Grimm (3, 205).

While PG. 'alt' and 'kalt' (old, cold, a in what) have the comparatives 'eltǝr' 'keltǝr,' the influence of r in 'karts' (short), G. kurz, and 'hart' (hard), produces 'kærtsǝr' and 'hærtǝr,' instead of G. kürzer and härter. Long a becomes long u in G. samen (seed), PG. 'suumǝ.'

§ 8. Dipthong Changes.

German 'au' sometimes becomes 'aa' (in call), as in PG. 'laafǝ' (to walk) G. laufen; 'glaabǝ' (to believe) G. glauben; 'kaafǝ' (to buy) G. kaufen; 'tsaam' (bridle) G. zaum; 'traam' (dream) G. traum; 'fraa' (wife, woman) G. frau, PG. pl. 'weiwǝr,' because, as the German plural of frauen could not well make 'fraaǝ,' the plural of weib was preferred.

German 'au' remains in PG. 'plaum' (plum) G. pflaume; 'daum' (thumb); 'haufǝ' (heap); 'saufǝ' (to sup); 'haus' (house); 'taub' (dove) G. taube; 'aus' (out); 'fauscht' (fist).

German 'au' becomes 'oo' (Eng. floor) in PG. 'groo' (grey) an earlier form of G. grau; 'bloo' (blue) G. blau; and the name 'Stauffer' is sometimes pronounced 'stoof'r.'

In the plural, 'au' becomes 'ei,' as in PG. 'haus,' pl. 'heiser;' 'maus' pl. 'meis;' 'laus' pl. 'leis;' 'maul' (mouth) pl. 'meiler' G. pl. mäuler; 'gaul,' pl. 'geil,' G. pl. gäule (horses); 'sau' (sow, hog), pl. 'sei,' G. pl. säue, sauen.

When 'au' has become 'aa' the German plural äu becomes 'ee,' as in 'beem' (trees) G. bäume; 'tseem' (bridles) G. zäume.

'Floo,' G. floh (flea) pl. 'flee' for G. flöhe, is due to the fact that German long ö is replaced by ee.

German au is u in the earlier PG. 'uf' (up) G. auf, found in Swisserland and other localities; but 'haus' is not hūs, and 'maul' is not mūl as in Swiss.

§ 9. Words lengthened.

Some monosyllables are dissyllabised under the influence of trilled r, and of l (which is akin to r), as in 'Jar’ik' (York); 'Jær'ik,' German Georg (George), perhaps the only example of the Berlin change of G to (German) J.

PG. G. E. PG. G. E.

schtar'ik stark strong dar'ich durch through

mar'ikt markt market kar'ǝp korb basket

ær'ǝwǝt arbeit work bær'ik berg hill

kær'ich kirche church mil'ich milch milk

karrich karren cart kal'ich kalk lime

geenǝ gehen to go genunk genug enough

reeghǝrǝ regnen to rain wammǝs wamms jacket

PG. g'seenǝ (seen) G. gesehen, occurs in South German, as in the following (Radlof 2, 100), which closely resembles PG.

.... vun der Zit an het me niks me vun em g'sehne un g'hört. From that time on, ('mĕ' G. man) one (hat) has seen and heard nothing ('mē' G. mehr) more of him.

G. Es fängt an zu regnen und zu schneien. PG. es fangt (not fängt) aa˛ tsu reeghǝrǝ un tsu schneeǝ. It begins to rain and to snow.

§ 10. Words shortened.

Condensation is effected by absorption, as of d by n in 'wunǝr' (wonder) G. wunder; and of f by p in 'kǝp' (head) G. kopf;—by the elision of consonants (an Austrian feature) as in 'wet' (would) G. wollte; 'net' (not) G. nicht.

By elision of vowels (particularly final e) as in 'schuul' (school) G. schule, 'tsammǝ' (together) G. zusammen; and by shortening vowels, as in 'siw'ǝ' (seven) G. sieben; 'gew'ǝ' (to give) G. gēben; G. heurathen (to marry), Suab. heuren, PG. 'heiǝrǝ'; G. gleich (like) PG. 'glei'; 'tsimlich' (tolerable) G. ziemlich.

PG. G. E. PG. G. E.

niks nichts nothing mr sin wir sind we are

wet wollte would géscht'r gestern yesterday

set sollte should nemmǝ nehmen to take

knǝp knopf button nam'itag nachmittag afternoon

knep knöpfe buttons geblíwǝ geblieben remained

kich küche kitchen jets[13] jetzt now

kuuchǝ kūchen cake parr'ǝ pfarrer preacher

wǝch woche week oowǝt abend evening

wǝchǝ wochen weeks weipsleit weibsleute women

kiw'l kübel bucket rei˛ herein herein

blos blase bladder nei˛ hinein hither-in

meim meinem to my draa˛ daran thereon

anǝr ander other eltscht älteste oldest

nanǝr einander each other tswíwlǝ zwiebeln onions

unǝr unter under hend hände hands

drunǝ darunter ther'under plets plätze places

nunǝr hinunter down there nummǝ[13] nun mehr only

dro'wǝ daroben above nimmǝ[13] nimmer never

driw'ǝ darüber ther'over mee[13] mehr more

drin darin ther'in noo darnach ther'after

ruff darauf there up pluuk pflūg plow

nuff hinauf up there pliighǝ plfüge plows

sind sünde sin kalénǝr kalénder cálendar

As G. 'ü' becomes 'i' in PG., G. lügen (to tell a lie) and liegen (to lie down—both having the first vowel long) might be confused, but the latter is shortened in PG., as in 'ær likt' (he lies down) 'ær liikt' (he tells a lie).

PG. Was wi't? What wilst thou? G. Was willst du?

Woo't weepe? Woo't fight? Woo't teare thy ſelfe?[14]

Ich wil fischǝ gee˛. I will go to fish.

Ich hab kschriwwǝ. I have (geschrieben) written.

Sin mr net keiǝrt? Are we not married? G. Sind wir nicht geheirathet? (or verheirathet.)

Infinitive-n is rejected, as in the Swiss and Suabian dialects. In an Austrian dialect it is rejected when m, n, or ng precedes, as in singa, rena, nehma, for singen, rennen, nehmen.—Castelli, Wörterbuch, 1847, p. 31.

The length of some vowels is doubtful, as in 'rot' or 'root' (red, like English rŏte or rōde), 'so' or 'soo,' 'nochbǝr' or 'noochbǝr,' 'ǝmol' or 'ǝmool,' 'ja' or 'jaa,' 'sii' or 'sĭ' (she, they, ĭ in deceĭt, not in sit). Compare English 'Sēe!' and 'Sĕe thêre!'

Accent in PG. agrees with that of High German. When indicated, as in danóot or danoot' (for the 'oo' represent a single vowel, as in Eng. floor), it is to afford aid to the reader not familiar with German accent.

FOOTNOTES: