Old Order Mennonites ( Pennsylvania German : Fuhremennischte ) form a branch of the Mennonite tradition. Old Order are those Mennonite groups of Swiss German and south German heritage who practice a lifestyle without some elements of modern technology , still drive a horse and buggy rather than cars, wear very conservative and modest dress , and have retained the old forms of worship, baptism and communion.
101-563: All Old Order Mennonites reject certain technologies (e.g., radio, television, Internet), but the extent of this rejection depends on the individual group. Old Order groups generally place great emphasis on a disciplined community instead of the individual's personal faith beliefs. The Pennsylvania German language is spoken vigorously among all horse-and-buggy groups except the Virginia Old Order Mennonites, who lost their original language before becoming Old Order. There
202-465: A written standard based on the various spoken German dialects in a very long process that started in the time of classical Middle High German (1170–1250). Pennsylvania Dutch instead reflects the independent development of Palatine German, especially from the region that is called Vorderpfalz in German. Since Pennsylvania Dutch is largely derived from Palatine German, which did not fully undergo
303-601: A certain subgroup, the Ohio-Indiana Mennonite Conference . Old Order Mennonites who do not use automobiles are either referred to as "horse and buggy Mennonites" or "team Mennonites" (the word for them in Pennsylvania German is Fuhremennischte ). Sometimes the term "Old Order Mennonites" is restricted to groups that do not use cars. "Automobile" Old Order Mennonites refer to those who split from horse-and-buggy Old Order groups. It
404-736: A few exceptions, then united with the Huron Orthodox group, so that the split of 1974 was largely overcome, and the majority of Orthodox Mennonites were a single group again. The original Wellesley Orthodox Mennonites have been under the leadership of their minister David E. M. Martin since 2009. After 1989 the Huron Orthodox Mennonites were joined by some very conservative families from the Ontario Old Order Mennonite Conference , because their parent group decided to allow telephones in
505-647: A form of Swiss German and Low Alemannic Alsatian , not Pennsylvania Dutch, are spoken. Additionally, English has mostly replaced Pennsylvania Dutch among the car driving Old Order Horning and the Wisler Mennonites. Other religious groups among whose members the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect would have once been predominant, include: Lutheran and German Reformed congregations of Pennsylvania Dutch background, Schwenkfelders , and Schwarzenau (German Baptist) Brethren . Until fairly recent times,
606-641: A lesser degree, the regions of Alsace and Lorraine in eastern France , and parts of Switzerland . Differing explanations exist on why the Pennsylvania Dutch are referred to as Dutch , which typically refers to the inhabitants of the Netherlands or the Dutch language , only distantly related to Pennsylvania German. Speakers of the dialect today are primarily found in Pennsylvania, Ohio , Indiana , and other Midwestern states , as well as parts of
707-542: A participating provider (approximately 1100 local physicians and 9 hospitals in the Lancaster area accept the OOG coverage), they present a unique white card with red and blue print identifying them as a PHC member. These cards are void of any identifying information, as is the custom of their religious belief. After care is rendered, providers submit a claim to PHC for a "repricing" as if the patient had insurance. A PHC statement
808-523: A powerful conveyor of Amish identity." Although "the English language is being used in more and more situations," nonetheless Pennsylvania Dutch is "one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants." Because it is an isolated dialect and almost all native speakers are bilingual in English, the biggest threat to
909-820: A root verb and a prefix. Some of these in Standard German are completely semantically transparent, such as mit-gehen 'to go with', from mit- 'with' and gehen 'go'. Others, like mit-teilen lit. ' with-share ' which means 'to inform' and not the sharing of concrete entities, are not semantically transparent. That is, their meaning is not the sum of their parts. Separable verbs are used widely in Pennsylvania Dutch, and separable verbs can even be formed with English roots and prefixes. Virtually all separable verbs in Pennsylvania Dutch are semantically transparent. Many semantically opaque separable verbs such as um-ziehe lit. ' pull around ' , meaning, 'to move house', has been replaced by
1010-545: A second wave of immigration in the mid-19th century, which came from the same regions, but settled more frequently in Ohio, Indiana, and other parts of the Midwest. Thus, an entire industrial vocabulary relating to electricity, machinery and modern farming implements has naturally been borrowed from the English. For Pennsylvania Dutch speakers who work in a modern trade or in an industrial environment, this could potentially increase
1111-491: A similar belief and lifestyle, are normally not called Old Order Mennonite. From the first Old Order division in Indiana in 1872 under bishop Jacob Wisler (1808–1889) until the middle of the 20th century, all Old Order Mennonites were called by many "Wisler Mennonites," "Old Order Mennonites, Wisler," even "Wislerites," or the like. In a few cases this usage has persisted, but today the term "Wisler Mennonites" normally refers to
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#17327724592181212-447: A spoken dialect throughout its history, with very few of its speakers making much of an attempt to read or write it. Writing in Pennsylvania Dutch can be a difficult task, and there is no spelling standard for the dialect. There are currently two primary competing models upon which numerous orthographic (i.e., spelling) systems have been based by individuals who attempt to write in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. One 'school' tends to follow
1313-573: A yearly service in Pennsylvania Dutch. Other non-native speakers of the dialect include those persons that regularly do business with native speakers. Among them, the Old Order Amish population was probably around 227,000 in 2008. Additionally, the Old Order Mennonite population, a sizable percentage of which is Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking, numbers several tens of thousands. There are also thousands of other Mennonites who speak
1414-579: Is Isaac Horst (1918–2008) from Mount Forest (Ontario, Canada), who wrote the book Bei sich selwert un ungewehnlich (in English: "Separate and Peculiar"). Pennsylvania German texts are mostly published in the Pennsylvania German dialect newspaper Hiwwe wie Driwwe . Pennsylvania Dutch language Canada: Pennsylvania Dutch ( Deitsch , Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsch or Pennsilfaanisch ) or Pennsylvania German
1515-688: Is a variety of Palatine German spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch , including the Amish , Mennonites , Fancy Dutch , and other related groups in the United States and Canada. There are approximately 300,000 native speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch in the United States and Canada. The language traditionally has been spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch, who are descendants of late 17th- and early to late 18th-century immigrants to Pennsylvania , Maryland , Virginia , West Virginia , and North Carolina , who arrived primarily from Southern Germany and, to
1616-595: Is also a settlement in Snyder County, Pennsylvania . In 2006 a group of 12 families, that split from the main body in the Walkerton area in southern Ontario , moved to Westbourne, Manitoba , where they settled on 1,000 hectares of farmland. Until 2011 the group grew to about 20 families. They are the only Horse and Buggy Mennonites in Manitoba . There is also a growing settlement of Orthodox Mennonites in
1717-476: Is based not on a belief that the technology is in some way evil , but over a concern for the nature of their communities. Community is important to a Mennonite, and a technology or practice is rejected if it would adversely affect it. Many Old Order Mennonite groups reject automobiles but in an emergency even the most traditional Old Order Mennonite is likely to accept a ride in an automobile; those who sell milk in areas that require cooling will install electricity in
1818-564: Is best preserved in the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities, and presently the members of both groups make up the majority of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers. The ancestors of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers came from various parts of the southwestern regions of German -speaking Europe, including Palatinate , Electoral Palatinate (German: Kurpfalz ), the Duchy of Baden , Hesse , Saxony , Swabia , Württemberg , Alsace (German Elsass ), German Lorraine , and Switzerland . Most of
1919-649: Is common to name groups after a bishop, in most cases the leading bishop during the time of division. In the second half of the 19th century, the Old Order Movement emerged among Anabaptists of South German and Swiss origin in North America who spoke mostly Pennsylvania German. Most "Old Order" Mennonites emerged through divisions from the main body of Mennonites between 1872 and 1901 in four regions of North America: Indiana in 1872, Ontario in 1889, Pennsylvania in 1893 and Virginia in 1901. Conflicts over
2020-448: Is conjugated simply as realized , and 'farm' may be conjugated as farmed or ge-farm-t . Some German-origin verbs may also appear without the ge- prefix. Schwetze 'talk, speak', may be conjugated as geschwetzt or simply as schwetzt . Both English influence and overall simplification may be at work in the dropping of the ge- prefix. Pennsylvania Dutch, like Standard German, has many separable verbs composed of
2121-425: Is disputed. As in Standard German, Pennsylvania Dutch uses three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Pennsylvania Dutch has three cases for personal pronouns : the accusative , nominative , and dative , and two cases for nouns: the common case, with both accusative and nominative functions, and the dative case. There is no genitive case in Pennsylvania Dutch. The historical genitive case has been replaced by
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#17327724592182222-577: Is mainly derived from Palatine German , spoken by 2,400,000 Germans in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region , a region almost identical to the historical Palatinate. There are similarities between the German dialect that is still spoken in this small part of southwestern Germany and Pennsylvania Dutch. When individuals from the Palatinate (Pfalz) region of Germany today encounter Pennsylvania Dutch speakers, conversation
2323-424: Is more easily pronounced, and so German gesund > gsund > tsund and German gesagt > gsaat > tsaat . Likewise, German gescheid > gscheid > tscheid /tʃaɪt/ . German zurück > zrick > tsrick /tʃɹɪk/ . The shift is rather common with German children learning to speak. The softened ⟨w⟩ after guttural consonants has mixed with
2424-408: Is no overall church or conference to unite all the different groups of Old Order Mennonites. In 2008–2009, a minority of Old Order Mennonites accepted automobiles, whereas a majority retain horse and buggy transportation. The total population of Old Order Mennonites can be estimated to be between 72,000 and 84,000 in 2021. Very conservative Plautdietsch -speaking Russian Mennonites , who may have
2525-707: Is now in its fourth century on North American soil, had more than 250,000 speakers in 2012. It has shifted its center to the West with approximately 160,000 speakers in Ohio , Indiana , Wisconsin , Iowa and other Midwest states. There is even a small but growing number of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers in Upper Barton Creek and Springfield in Belize among Old Order Mennonites of the Noah Hoover group . The dialect
2626-574: Is often possible to a limited degree. Pennsylvania Dutch for the most part does not reflect the diverse origins of the early speakers from regions along the upper Rhine River ( Rhineland , Württemberg , Baden , Saarland , Switzerland and the Elsass/ Alsace ) but almost exclusively the strong immigrant group from the Palatine. Pennsylvania Dutch is not a corrupted form of Standard German , since Standard German originally developed as
2727-592: Is presented below. The text in the second column illustrates a system based on American English orthography. The text in the third column uses, on the other hand, a system based on Standard German. The English original is found in the first column, and a Standard German version appears in the fifth column. (Note: The German version(s) of the Lord's Prayer most likely to have been used by Pennsylvania Germans would have been derived in most cases from Martin Luther's translation of
2828-596: Is sick, disadvantaged, old, or who has suffered an accident. Old Order Mennonites and Old Order Amish groups are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have
2929-547: Is still rather easy to understand by German dialect speakers of the Rhineland-Palatinate area. The people from southern Germany, eastern France and Switzerland, where the Pennsylvania Dutch culture and dialect sprung, started to arrive in North America in the late 17th and the early 18th centuries, before the beginning of the Industrial Revolution . To a more limited extent, that is also true of
3030-406: Is their retention of traditional forms of worship, communion , baptism , funeral and leadership structures. By contrast, some wedding practices have changed. The Old Order Mennonites normally have neither Sunday Schools nor revival meetings . Horse-and-buggy groups have retained a rural lifestyle, with farming as an important part of their economy. Most horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites allow
3131-496: Is then sent to the medical practice and the patient indicating the discounted amount due the provider. The practice then collects the repriced amount from the patient directly, as per practice policy for collecting balances due on self-pay patient accounts. In this way, the Old Order Group has engaged in collective bargaining practices to lower their cost of health care. Additionally, the community will support any member who
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3232-797: Is true for the Hutterites , who speak Hutterisch and live in community of goods . There are also similarities with the different Old Order Schwarzenau Brethren groups and the Old Order River Brethren , who have some shared Pennsylvania Dutch heritage with the Old Order Mennonites. The Old Order Mennonites find an affinity with the Old Order Amish publishing house called Pathway Publishers located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. More recently
3333-537: Is used vigorously by the horse and buggy Old Order Mennonites in the northern part of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Speakers without an Anabaptist background in general do not pass the dialect to their children today, but the Old Order Amish and horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites do so in the current generation, and there are no signs that the practice will end in
3434-604: The American Civil War , the federal government replaced Pennsylvania German schools with English-only schools. Literary German disappeared from Pennsylvania Dutch life little by little, starting with schools, and then to churches and newspapers. With the decline of German instruction, Pennsylvania High German became a dead language . Since 1997, the Pennsylvania Dutch newspaper Hiwwe wie Driwwe allows dialect authors (of whom there are still about 100) to publish Pennsylvania Dutch poetry and prose. Hiwwe wie Driwwe
3535-596: The High German consonant shift , several vowels and consonants in Pennsylvania Dutch differ when compared with Standard German or Upper German dialects such as Alemannic and Bavarian. The American English influence is most significant on vocabulary and to a much lesser degree on pronunciation; the English influence on grammar is relatively small. The question of whether the large loss of the dative case —the most significant difference compared with Palatine German—is due to English influence or reflects an inner development
3636-673: The Noah Hoover Mennonites speak Pennsylvania Dutch. There are also some recent New Order Amish immigrants in Bolivia , Argentina , and Belize who speak Pennsylvania Dutch while the great majority of conservative Mennionites in those countries speak Plautdietsch. Heut is 's xäctly zwanzig Johr Dass ich bin owwe naus; Nau bin ich widder lewig z'rück Und steh am Schulhaus an d'r Krick Juscht nächst ans Daddy's Haus. Today it's exactly twenty years Since I went up and away; Now I am back again, alive, And stand at
3737-614: The Noah Hoover Mennonites . The merger with the group around Titus Hoover and others was only partly successful and a majority left the group after some time, while the ones that stayed in the Titus Hoover group moved to Pennsylvania, where the Titus Hoovers were located. Those that did not merge with the Titus Hoover group sought unity with the Reidenbach Mennonites of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania , under
3838-798: The Southern states such as in Kentucky and Tennessee , in the United States, and in Ontario in Canada. The dialect historically was also spoken in other regions where its use has largely or entirely faded. The practice of Pennsylvania Dutch as a street language in urban areas of Pennsylvania, including Allentown , Reading , Lancaster , and York , was declining by the beginning of the 20th century. But in more rural Pennsylvania areas, it continued in widespread use until World War II . Since that time, its use in Pennsylvania rural areas has greatly declined. It
3939-602: The Thirteen Colonies went its own way as an independent nation. In that history, Pennsylvania adopted the Pennsylvania Dutch language as its national language and developed into a German-speaking nation, with its own specific culture, very distinct from both its English-speaking neighbors and European Germany. Organizations Orthodox Mennonites The Orthodox Mennonites , also called Wellesley Orthodox Mennonites and Huron Orthodox Mennonites , are two groups of traditional Old Order Mennonites in Canada and
4040-795: The 1870s, a large group of “Russian” Mennonites from Ukraine moved to southern Manitoba. Further waves of “Russian” Mennonites came to Canada in the 1920s and 1940s". In the last 50 years, Mennonites have been coming to Canada from Mexico. The majority today are not of the Old Order. Between 1907 and 1931 another wave of church splits occurred among the Old Orders, concerning the use of new technologies, especially cars. The splits occurred in Indiana and Ohio in 1907, in Ontario in 1931, and in Pennsylvania in 1927, generally dividing them into
4141-578: The Bible into Pennsylvania Dutch. The New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs was published in 2002 by the Bible League. The entire Bible, Di Heilich Shrift , was completed and published in 2013 by TGS International. Deitsh Books has published a dictionary (2013) and a grammar book (2014) by D Miller using the same American English orthography. In 2014, Jehovah's Witnesses began to publish literature in Pennsylvania Dutch. Pennsylvania Dutch, which
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4242-611: The Desbarats and Bruce Mines area of Northern Ontario. This group migrated to the north from the Walkerton community and other Ontario communities around 2012. This growing community runs several sawmills, a cedar planing mill, market gardens and an engineered truss factory. In 1996 there were 454 people in the church, of whom 222 were under the age of 16 In 2008/9 there were about 450 baptized members in five congregations in Canada and about 200 baptized members in 3 congregations in
4343-430: The English word move . Adjectival endings exist but appear simplified compared to Standard German. As in all other South German dialects, the past tense is generally expressed using the perfect : Ich bin ins Feld glaafe ('I have run into the field') and not the simple past ( Ich lief ins Feld ['I ran into the field']), which is retained only in the verb "to be", as war or ware , corresponding to English
4444-493: The German language in everyday life and in their worship services. The spectrum of Old Order Mennonite groups ranges from those that differ little from even conservative Old Order Amish groups like the Swartzentruber Amish to those that are barely different from Conservative Mennonite groups concerning the use of technologies. What characterizes automobile groups as Old Order rather than Conservative Mennonite
4545-572: The Harvey Nolt group, divided from the Wengers. Because splits, mergers and even the dissolution of small groups are not uncommon among Old Order Mennonites, the situation today may look quite different. Horse-and-buggy (or team) Old Order Mennonites can be found in the United States, Canada, and Belize . In the year 2000 more than 70 percent of the horse-and-buggy people lived in Pennsylvania and Ontario, where they emerged through divisions from
4646-606: The New Testament.) Pennsylvania High German is a literary form of Palatine written in Pennsylvania , the Palatinate , and other Palatine states (e.g. the Hessian Palatinate ), used between the 1700s and early 1900s. In Pennsylvania, this literary form helped maintain German education and instruction, and was spoken in schools and churches. It is often seen in Fraktur art and script. Immediately after
4747-638: The Noah Hoover Mennonite: Many people from various backgrounds have been attracted to the Noah Hoover group. The ultra-conservative stance on technology combined with firm Biblicism, intense spirituality and high moral standards have had a wide appeal. Many practices among the Old Order Mennonites stem from the biblical principle of nonconformity to the world , according to Romans 12:2 and other Bible verses. The avoidance of technologies by Old Order Mennonites and Old Order Amish
4848-606: The Old Order Amish, who meet in the homes or barns of their members. Progressive ("automobile") Old Order Mennonites, like the Weaverland Conference Mennonites (USA), Wisler Mennonites (USA), and Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference (Canada), largely evolved from the same series of Old Order schisms from 1872 to 1901. Nowadays, they often share the same meeting houses with and adhere to almost identical forms of Old Order worship as their horse-and-buggy Old Order brethren with whom they parted ways in
4949-400: The Old Order Mennonites of Ontario have done some of their own publishing and a private enterprise known as Vineyard Publications has been formed near Wallenstein, Ontario. Members of the Old Order churches tend to use the Pennsylvania German dialect for literary expression more often than Old Order Amish. There are several authors of Pennsylvania German prose and poetry. Well-known, for example,
5050-411: The Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. In the 2007–2008 school year, the classes were being taught by Professor Edward Quinter. In 2008–2009, Professor Robert Lusch served as the instructor. According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as
5151-564: The Region of Waterloo Public Health unit and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health issued orders to close Old Order schools and places of worship in their regions and to limit social interactions. In Waterloo Region, the orders applied to sects "including Markham, Old Colony, and David Martin Mennonite communities", according to a news report. Both agencies cited a lack of cooperation with public health requirements that were intended to minimize
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#17327724592185252-561: The US with about 650 baptized members. Even though plain to a very high degree and primitivist concerning technology, they are rather intentionalist minded than ultra traditional. Since 1999 they were joined by several other Old Order Mennonite communities. In 1889 the Old Order Mennonites of Ontario separated from the main body of Mennonites by creating their own conference. In 1917 the David Martin Mennonites emerged under
5353-423: The United States. There are also attempts being made in a few communities to teach the dialect in a classroom setting; however, as every year passes by, fewer and fewer in those particular communities speak the dialect. There is still a weekly radio program in the dialect whose audience is made up mostly of the diverse groups, and many Lutheran and Reformed congregations in Pennsylvania that formerly used German have
5454-616: The Waterloo Region and are legally known as Orthodox Mennonite Church, Wellesley Township, Ontario . In 1976 the Wellesley Orthodox group excommunicated their acting bishop, Anson Hoover, and Amos Sherk was advanced as acting bishop. In 1987 the majority of this group, some 70 members, went back to the David Martin Mennonites. Amos Sherk in 1986 was also excommunicated. The remaining families, with
5555-812: The Wellesley Orthodox, the original group of Orthodox Mennonites in the Waterloo Region in Ontario , Canada joined the Huron Orthodox Mennonites. Orthodox Mennonites advocate high moral standard and have many restrictions on technology. They live with no electricity, no telephones, and no propane gas in their homes. They do not own automobiles or computerized technologies, and farmers use work horses instead of tractors. They dress very plain , with or without beards and no neckties, and speak Pennsylvania German . Donnermeyer and Anderson call them "an intentionalist minded, ultra-plain Old Order Mennonite body". They have made several changes of their Ordnung all of them tending to greater simplicity and nonconformity to
5656-698: The Wenger Mennonites, born between 1953 and 1968, there was a retention rate of 95 percent in 1998. There are quite a lot of similarities between Old Order Mennonites and Old Order Amish , especially between the Amish and the horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites, who both speak Pennsylvania German and who have a shared tradition of plain dress . To a lesser extent there are similarities with conservative "Russian" Mennonites , who live in Latin America, speak another German dialect, Plautdietsch , and who have their own tradition of plain dress. The same
5757-463: The age of 40 never used the dative, while older speakers showed strongly variable behavior. There was little difference between members of the different religious denominations in the Kalona. Many verbs of English origin are used in Pennsylvania Dutch. Most English-origin verbs are treated as German weak verbs , receiving a past participle with a ge- prefix and a -t suffix, thus for example
5858-729: The barn. Some of the groups that allow the use of cars and trucks, such as the Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference , will ensure that they are all black, even painting over chromed sections to achieve this effect. Old Order Mennonites also practise plainness , including the dress , which is the opposite of showiness in clothing but also in physical appearance. Many Amish and Old Order Mennonites do not use traditional health insurance with monthly premiums copayments. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania , some Amish and Mennonites use Preferred Health Care (PHC) Old Order Group coverage (OOG). When an OOG member visits
5959-606: The challenge of maintaining their mother tongue. Numerous English words have been borrowed and adapted for use in Pennsylvania Dutch since the first generations of Pennsylvania German habitation of southeastern Pennsylvania. Examples of English loan words that are relatively common are bet ( Ich bet, du kannscht Deitsch schwetze 'I bet you can speak Pennsylvania Dutch'), depend ( Es dependt en wennig, waer du bischt 'it depends somewhat on who you are'); tschaepp for 'chap' or 'guy'; and tschumbe for 'to jump'. Today, many speakers will use Pennsylvania Dutch words for
6060-619: The dative is widely used among the older generations who are fluent in Pennsylvania German, whereas younger semi-speakers tend not to use the dative as much. Many semi-speakers used the English possessive -'s . In contrast, Anabaptists in central Pennsylvania had almost completely replaced the dative with the accusative case. Meanwhile, members of the entirely Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking community in Kalona , all of whom were Amish or Mennonite, showed strong age-related variation. Speakers under
6161-406: The dative, and possession is indicated with a special construction using the dative and the possessive pronoun: 'the man's dog' becomes em Mann sei Hund (literally: 'to the man his dog'). Studies have shown variability in the use of the dative case in both sectarian and non-sectarian communities. The trend is towards use of the common case for nouns and the accusative case for pronouns, instead of
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#17327724592186262-508: The dative. Thus, em Mann sei Hund , for example, has frequently become der Mann sei Hund . The dative case in Pennsylvania German is used to express possession, to mark objects of prepositions , to mark indirect objects , and to indicate the direct objects of certain verbs. It is expressed, as in Standard German, through the use of dative forms of personal pronouns and through certain inflections of articles and adjectives modifying nouns. In non-sectarian speech in central Pennsylvania,
6363-601: The dialect is gradual decay of the traditional vocabulary, which is then replaced by English loan words or words corrupted from English. In the United States, most Old Order Amish and all "horse and buggy" Old Order Mennonite groups speak Pennsylvania Dutch, except the Old Order Mennonites of Virginia , where German was already mostly replaced at the end of the 19th century. There are several Old Order Amish communities (especially in Indiana) where Bernese German ,
6464-505: The dialect, as well as thousands more older Pennsylvania Dutch speakers of non-Amish and non-Mennonite background. The Grundsau Lodge, which is an organization in southeastern Pennsylvania of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers, is said to have 6,000 members. Therefore, a fair estimate of the speaker population in 2008 might be close to 300,000, although many, including some academic publications, may report much lower numbers, uninformed of those diverse speaker groups. There are no formal statistics on
6565-506: The dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard, or High, German ( Hochdeitsch ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as
6666-477: The early 20th century. Although Weaverland Old Orders began using cars in 1927, the cars were required to be plain and painted black. The form of the ban among progressive groups in general is less severe, which means an ex-communicant is not always shunned and is, therefore, not excluded from the family table, shunned by their spouse and/or cut off from business dealings. All progressive Old Orders have either already shifted from Pennsylvania German to English or are in
6767-416: The excommunication of numerous people. In 1954, a group of about 25 people, who attended the Rainham Old Order Mennonite Church, started to separate from the David Martin Mennonites. They joined a subgroup of the Stauffer Mennonites around the ministers Titus and Noah Hoover and Enoch Habegger of the merged Titus Hoover and Reformed Amish Christian Church. Parts of this group around Noah Hoover later became
6868-426: The future. There are only two car driving Anabaptist groups who have preserved the dialect: The Old Beachy Amish and the Kauffman Amish Mennonites , also called Sleeping Preacher Churches. Even though Amish and Old Order Mennonites were originally a minority group within the Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking population, today they form the vast majority. According to sociologist John A. Hostetler , less than 10 percent of
6969-406: The group. A third group, consisting of 50 people, who had left the David Martin Church under the leadership of deacon Samuel Horst, also entered this union in early 1958. On April 6, 1958, the merged groups held their first united communion meeting, and by 1962 they chose to call themselves the Orthodox Mennonite Church. In 1974 the Orthodox Mennonites divided, primarily over the question of whether
7070-451: The groups called horse and buggy and automobile. Between the 1940s and the 1960s, both the Orthodox Mennonites and the Noah Hoover Mennonites emerged from a long series of splits and reunifications of people among the Old Orders who were not modernizers but sought a purer form of Mennonite life. Both the Orthodox Mennonites and the Noah Hoovers are " intentionalist -minded, ultra-plain Old Order Mennonite" groups. Stephen Scott writes about
7171-421: The groups listed above there were also several smaller horse-and-buggy groups like the Joseph Brubaker group with 58 adult members, the William Weaver group with 55 adult members, the Aaron Martin group with 45 adult members, the Allen Martin group with 37 adult members, and the Wellesley Orthodox group with about 20 members (this information dates from 1995). Kraybill and Bowman in 2001 mention one more small group,
7272-467: The guttural ⟨r⟩ of earlier generations and also turned into an American ⟨r⟩ and so German gewesen > gwest > grest and German geschwind > gschwind > tschrind /tʃɹɪnt/ . The changes in pronunciation, combined with the general disappearance of declensions as described above, result in a form of the dialect that has evolved somewhat from its early Pennsylvania origins nearly 300 years ago and
7373-747: The home. This influx continued and until 2001, 37 families had made the transition to the Orthodox Mennonites. Between 1999 and 2005 the Huron Orthodox Mennonites were joined by four local groups of Old Order Mennonites, one of them coming from the Phares S. Stauffer group, a subgroup of the Stauffer Mennonites and one from the Henry Hoover group, a subgroup of the Reidenbach Mennonites . In 2009 about half of
7474-471: The introduction of such modern practices as Sunday Schools , revival meetings , and English-language preaching drove the formation of Old Order Mennonite churches. These modernizing trends that changed the form of religious practice were pushed among the Mennonites especially by two men: John F. Funk and John S. Coffman . The traditionally minded people left the old conferences to form new ones, but not
7575-519: The language from hearing their parents using it and from interactions with the generation older than their parents. Among the first natively English speaking generation, oldest siblings typically speak Pennsylvania Dutch better than younger ones. There have been efforts to advance the use of the dialect. Kutztown University offers a complete minor program in Pennsylvania German Studies. The program includes two full semesters of
7676-557: The largest horse-and-buggy group, have a growth rate of 3.7 percent a year, which is comparable to the growth rate of Old Order Amish. The Wengers have larger families and a higher retention rate than their car-driving brothers, the Horning Mennonites . In 2005, the average number of children per household was 8.25 among Old Order Mennonites in Indiana . In a sample of 199 people from the Martindale District of
7777-475: The leadership of Anson Hoover, but this merger was also not successful. During that time Plautdietsch -speaking Mennonites from Mexico , who were in Ontario to find a better economic situation there, joined the group. In 1956 Minister Elam S. Martin was excommunicated from the David Martin Mennonites and joined the group. When Elam S. Martin became their bishop the group became known as "Elam Martins". In 1957 Peter O. Nolt and those with him in Pennsylvania joined
7878-585: The leadership of Minister David B. Martin (1838-1920) from the Old Order Mennonite Conference in Ontario , mainly concerning issues of discipline. The Orthodox Mennonites have a complicated history because they did not just separate from one other Old Order Mennonite group but split and merged from different Old Order groups. In 1953 there was unrest among the David Martin Mennonites in the Waterloo Region in Canada , which resulted in
7979-456: The main body of Mennonites in the late 19th century and from the division between automobile and horse-and-buggy groups in the early 20th century. In Indiana, Ohio and Virginia they also emerged through divisions, but in much smaller numbers. Settlements of horse-and-buggy Mennonites in other states were created by migrations, that started mainly since the 1960s. There are also Old Order Mennonites in Belize (Cayo and Toledo Districts). The table on
8080-447: The modernizers. The Stauffer Mennonites had already split away in 1845 over several issues, favoring a stricter church practice. Today they, and groups that split from them, are the most traditional Old Order Mennonite groups concerning technologies and dress. The Reformed Mennonites , formed in 1812, are a special group that does not totally fit into the "Old Order" group but that has best retained some old traditions, e. g. they wear
8181-705: The most traditional form of plain dress among all Mennonites. Concerns that led to the formation of the new group were "the worldly drift of the church" and "degeneration". According to a 2017 report, "there are two basic strains of Mennonites in Canada: the Swiss-South German Mennonites came via Pennsylvania, and the Dutch-North German Mennonites came via Russia (Ukraine). In the late 1700s and early 1800s “Swiss” Mennonites from Pennsylvania settled in southern Ontario. In
8282-460: The original Pennsylvania Dutch population was Amish or Mennonite. As of 1989, non-sectarian, or non-Amish and non-Mennonite, native Pennsylvania-Dutch speaking parents have generally spoken to their children exclusively in English. The reasons they cited were preventing their children from developing a "Dutch" accent and preparing them for school. Older speakers generally did not see a reason for young people to speak it. Many of their children learned
8383-407: The past participle of 'change' is usually ge-change-t . Verbs with unstressed first syllables generally do not take the ge- prefix, so the past participle of 'adopt' is adopted , as in English. This follows the pattern of words with inseparable prefixes in German. However, English-origin verbs which are stressed on the first syllable may also appear without the ge- prefix. Thus, 'realize'
8484-415: The people in these areas spoke Rhine Franconian , especially Palatine German and, to a lesser degree, Alemannic dialects; it is believed that in the first generations after the settlers arrived, the dialects merged. The result of that dialect levelling was a dialect very close to the eastern dialects of Palatine German, especially the rural dialects around Mannheim / Ludwigshafen . Pennsylvania Dutch
8585-461: The process to do so. In recent decades, however, family sizes and growth rates of the progressive groups have diminished compared to the horse-and-buggy groups. According to a University of Waterloo report of 2017, "of the estimated 59,000 Mennonites in Ontario, only about twenty percent are members of conservative groups". In November 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario , Canada, both
8686-418: The right lists the total population of horse-and-buggy Mennonites per U.S. state, Canadian province or Belize in North America in the late 1990s and the 2015 number of Pennsylvania German speaking Mennonites that is almost identical with the number of horse-and-buggy Mennonites. According to C. Henry Smith, who wrote in 1908, all Old Order Mennonite groups counted "hardly more than two thousand members". In 1957
8787-458: The rules of American English orthography, the other the rules of Standard German orthography (developed by Preston Barba and Albert F. Buffington ). The choice of writing system is not meant to imply any difference in pronunciation. For comparison, a translation into Pennsylvania Dutch, using two spelling systems, of the Lord's Prayer , as found in the common traditional language English translation,
8888-560: The same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect. Unlike most Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonites have meeting houses for worship, typically of very simple design and lacking adornment. In many respects especially car driving Old Order Mennonite groups are quite similar to Conservative Mennonites but differ particularly in their non-acceptance of Sunday School and Revival Meetings, whereas horse and buggy Mennonites additionally retained use of
8989-473: The schoolhouse by the creek Just next to Grandpa's house. Orange is the New Black character Leanne Taylor and family are featured speaking Pennsylvania Dutch in flashbacks showing her Amish background before ending up in prison. Science-fiction writer Michael Flynn wrote the novella The Forest of Time , depicting an alternate history in which the United States was never established, but each of
9090-566: The size of the Amish population, and most who speak Pennsylvania Dutch on the Canadian and U.S. censuses would report that they speak German, since it is the closest option available. Pennsylvania Dutch was reported under ethnicity in the 2000 census. There are also some Pennsylvania Dutch speakers who belong to traditional Anabaptist groups in Latin America. Even though most Mennonite communities in Belize speak Plautdietsch , some few hundreds who came to Belize mostly around 1970 and who belong to
9191-590: The smaller numerals and English for larger and more complicated numbers, like $ 27,599. Conversely, although many among the earlier generations of Pennsylvania Dutch could speak English, they were known for speaking it with a strong and distinctive accent. Such Pennsylvania Dutch English can still sometimes be heard. Although the more-recently coined term is being used in the context of this and related articles to describe this Pennsylvania Dutch-influenced English, it has traditionally been referred to as "Dutchy" or "Dutchified" English. Pennsylvania Dutch has primarily been
9292-706: The speaking of Pennsylvania Dutch had absolutely no religious connotations. In Ontario, Canada, the Old Order Amish, the members of the Ontario Old Order Mennonite Conference , the David Martin Old Order Mennonites , the Orthodox Mennonites and smaller pockets of others (regardless of religious affiliation) speak Pennsylvania Dutch. The members of the car driving Old Order Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference have mostly switched to English. In 2017, there were about 10,000 speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch in Canada, far fewer than in
9393-532: The spread of the virus. In an interview with the Waterloo Region Record , bishop Peter Brubacher, (bishop "for seven Old Order Mennonite church districts" in north Waterloo Region, according to another news agency), made this comment: "I guess to be frank and honest, a lot of people really didn’t take it that serious, to isolate". The table below lists all groups with more than 250 members in 2008–2009 and in 2018-2019, if available. In addition to
9494-743: The total number of members of all Old Order Mennonite groups was 5,800 members in 44 congregations. For the year 2001 Kraybill and Hostetter give the number 16,478 for the membership of "all Old Order Mennonites groups" in the USA. According to the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia in 2002 there were approximately 17,000 baptized Old Order Mennonite members in the USA and 3,000 in Canada. There were more than 27,000 adult, baptized members of Old Order Mennonites in North America and Belize in 2008/9. The total population of Old Order Mennonites groups speaking Pennsylvania German
9595-513: The use of tractors for farming, although some groups insist on steel-wheeled tractors to prevent their being used for road transportation. Some traditional groups, like the Orthodox Mennonites and the Noah Hoover Mennonites , still till their fields with horses. The horse-and-buggy people stress separation from the world, excommunicate, and normally shun in a strict manner. All Old Order Mennonite groups meet in meeting houses or church buildings (when they have full-fledged congregations), contrary to
9696-401: The wearing of beards should be enforced or not, along with other issues of disciplinary interpretation. The beard wearing group, which included Bishop Elam S. Martin, moved to Howick, Ontario , en masse beginning in 1979. They were eventually nicknamed "Gorries", but are legally referred to as Orthodox Mennonite Church, Huron County, Ontario . The original group, nicknamed "Hoovers", remained in
9797-977: The world . In worldview and practice they show some similarities with the Noah Hoover Mennonites . The group originated in Ontario, where until today their main settlements are. It has also settled further west in Huron-Kinloss township in Bruce County , Ontario . In 2013 a family has settled in Renfrew County in Admaston Bromley Township near Douglas, Ontario, in the Ottawa Valley. As of 2014 there were two settlements of Orthodox Mennonites near Hopkinsville , Kentucky , one in Cerulean and one in Fairview . There
9898-676: The years. Two examples are A Simple Grammar of Pennsylvania Dutch by J. William Frey and A Pennsylvania German Reader and Grammar by Earl C. Haag . The tables below use IPA symbols to compare sounds used in Standard German (to the left) with sounds that correspond to them in their Pennsylvania Dutch cognates , reflecting their respective evolutions since they diverged from a common origin. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania , there have been numerous other shifts that can make their Pennsylvania Dutch particularly difficult for modern High German speakers to understand. A word beginning in ⟨gs⟩ generally becomes ⟨ts⟩ , which
9999-492: Was and were . The subjunctive mood is extant only as Konjunktiv I ( Konjunktiv II is totally lost) in a limited number of verbs. In all other verbs it is expressed through the form of Konjunktiv I of the verbs 'to do' ( du ) and 'to have' ( hawwe / have ) combined with the infinitive or the past participle , e.g., ich daet esse ('I would eat'), ich hett gesse ('I would have eaten'). Several Pennsylvania Dutch grammars have been published over
10100-410: Was about 43,000 in 2015, which indicates that the total population of all Old Order Mennonites groups, including those who have lost the language or are in the process of losing it, was roughly between 60,000 and 70,000 in 2015. Under the condition that the annual growth is 3.7 percent, this would result in a total Old Order Mennonite population of about 72,000 to 84,000 in 2021. The Wenger Mennonites ,
10201-632: Was founded by Michael Werner . It is published twice a year (2,400 copies per issue)—since 2013 in cooperation with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University . Since 2002, the newspaper is published both online and in print . In 2006, the German publishing house Edition Tintenfaß started to print books in Pennsylvania Dutch. Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc., using American English orthography (see Written language), has translated
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