Pennsylvania Dutch: The Story of an American Language

Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies

by Mark L. Louden

The fascinating story of America's oldest thriving heritage language. Winner of the Dale W. Brown Book Award by the Young Center for Anabaptists and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College While most world languages spoken by minority populations are in serious danger of becoming extinct, Pennsylvania Dutch is thriving. In fact, the number of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers is growing exponentially, although it is spoken by less than one-tenth of one percent of the United States population and has remained for the most part an oral vernacular without official recognition or support. A true sociolinguistic wonder, Pennsylvania Dutch has been spoken continuously since the late eighteenth century despite having never been "refreshed" by later waves of immigration from abroad. In this probing study, Mark L. Louden, himself a fluent speaker of Pennsylvania Dutch, provides readers with a close look at the place of the language in the life and culture of two major subgroups of the "Fancy Dutch," whose ancestors were affiliated mainly with Lutheran and German Reformed churches, and traditional Anabaptist sectarians known as the "Plain people"―the Old Order Amish and Mennonites. Drawing on scholarly literature, three decades of fieldwork, and ample historical documents―most of which have never before been made accessible to English-speaking readers―this is the first book to offer a comprehensive look at this unlikely linguistic success story.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction

504 pages, Hardcover

First published December 18, 2015

Reviews

[Doug Kauffman]

Should probably be marked as "skimmed" instead of "read." Fairly readable academic work; lots of interesting anecdotal information and explanations.

[Jonathan Kear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal, everything I could have possibly wanted to know about PA Dutch. Louden did a great job of piecing together a coherent overview of the language's place in history and status in today's world.

[Mike Putnam · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: A more detailed review of this book will be available via H-Net later this month.) This is an excellent detailed overview of the (continued) development of Pennsylvania Dutch. I highly endorse this book for both the novice and expert in Anabaptist studies and Germanic Linguistics.