Homestead mailing list

[sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>]

bob ford wrote:
>  ....* Note, I'm not as educated on the history of the Amish as you, I thought they 
> considered themselves "German".  German history is filled with great 
> warriors.  I don't know much about the Swiss ?  They ski, and make cheese and watches 
> and chocalate; and guard the Pope, I don't really know if they have ever been dominant
>
>   
And indeed they do often refer to themselves as "Gutch", from the German 
(Deutsch) language, and by extension, the Pennsylvania Dutch, which 
includes, actually many groups, some of them Anabaptist, but not all. 

Early Swiss formers, contemporaries of Luther in the north,  involved in 
what became the Anabaptist groups were German-speaking Swiss in 
nationality and residence.  Some of the early groups went to the 
Alsatian areas, where one presumes French might have been at least the 
local language, however, I've never heard an Amishman refer to himself 
as a 'frenchman' which even sounds funny.  I'm not aware that they 
generally have, over the years, spoken any language other than German 
other than picking up languages where they've moved (English in this 
country, Portugese and Spanish is South and Central America, for 
example) and most Old Order Churches, plus many Beachy and other 'less 
strict" groups hold services in German, speak at home in German, and use 
German bibles.  There is considerable attempt to maintain German as 
their first language, some who leave still feel strongly enough about it 
that they teach their own kids 'the old way'; my kids in fact are 
trilingual, via this route.  But their peoples of origin were Swiss 
initially. 

I've never gone along, but a lot of  folks I know have been on a 
"Berne-to-Bern" tour, from Berne, IN, to Bern, Switzerland, and they 
report that except for words added since (probably not many astronauts 
in 1600, I guess), they can speak without misunderstanding/s to 
German-speaking residents in that region, a fact in which they seem to 
delight, since that group in IN came pretty directly from the region of 
Bern and many can cite fairly close relatives still there.

SJ