Samuel Stehman Haldeman

“ In German, the genders are incongruous, in English they are congruous, the masculine and feminine being correlatives, with correlative relations to the neuter also, and by dropping the false nomenclature of the German genders, we may be able to get a more philosophic view of them as they now exist, independently of the Old High German system of gender and declension, which accounts for their later condition. ”

“ If we adopt strong for the German masculine gender, there would be nothing gained if the feminine were called weak, but with the first as strong, the second as soft, and the third as dull, we would have three terms which do not suggest correlation or sex, and we might see nothing irrational in the fact that man might be of the strong, and woman of the dull gender ”

“ The confusion of forms in the declension of German articles, pronouns, and adjectives, as given in print, is avoided in dialects, and on the upper Rhine all classes use the masculine nominative der for the accusative den, thus making a step towards rational grammar—the feminine die and the neuter das being equally nominative and accusative. According to Radlof, from Swisserland to Holland, on both sides of the Rhine, there is scarcely a locality where the nominative is distinguished from the accusative and the dative, and he cites as examples—"ich trinke rother Wein" (for rothen) ”

“ A fair proportion of the emigrants, including the clergy, were educated, and education has never been neglected among them. The excellent female boarding school of the Moravians were well supported, not only by the people of the interior, but also by the English-speaking population of the large cities, and of the Southern States—a support which prevented the German accent of some of the teachers from being imitated by the native teutonic pupils—for the education was in English, although German and French were taught. ”

“ The males of a family being more abroad than the females, learn English more readily, and while the father, mother, daughters, and servants may speak German, father and son may speak English together naturally, and not with a view to have two languages, as in Russia. Foreign Germans who go into the interior usually fall into the local dialect in about a year, and one remarked that he did so that he might not be misunderstood. ”

“ It is easy to see why das kind (the child) is neuter, but under the ordinary view of the rise of grammatic gender, it is not easy to see why, in modern German, der leib (body) should be masculine, and das weib (woman, wife) of the same gender as the child—why die liebe (love) should be feminine, and der friede (peace) masculine. ”

“ The German brings with him a vocabulary which is not quite adapted to the objects around him, and he improves his language by dropping such of his words as have an indefinite meaning, replacing them with terms which have an exact and scientific value, where High German is weak and indefinite—having failed to Latinise its vocabulary at the revival of learning. The Pennsylvanian uses 'fenss' or 'fents' (not "fehnsz") for the English fence, because the German zaun is equally a hedge ”

“ When German and English have the same phrase, it should be preserved, book (G. buch) has a sonant initial and a surd final in both languages; a German therefore, who brings his habits of speech into English, will not be likely to call a book a boog, poog, or pook ”

“ In various aboriginal languages of America there are two genders, the animate and the inanimate—with a vital instead of a sexual polarity; and while German can and does associate gender and sex, its departure from this system is marked by objects conspicuously sexual, which may be of the neuter gender, and by sexless objects of the three genders. ”

“ Leland has opened a new and an interesting field in literature which he has worked with great success, for previous writers wanted the definite, accurate knowledge which appears in every page of Hans Breitmann, and which distinguishes a fiction like the Lady of the Lake from a [p. 67] figment like Hiawatha. Here we have an attempt to represent the speech of a large class of Europèan [93] Germans who have acquired English imperfectly, and who must not be confounded with the Pennsylvania German, altho the language of the two may have many points in common. ”

“ How comes it, that poor people (gewöhnlich haben) commonly have the most dogs and cats? Here near us lives a family which must always beg, and which has four large dogs and seven cats. They themselves say, they (müszten haben) were obliged to have so many dogs to keep away the thieves.
[p. 55]
§3.
§ 4. Anglicised German.
The following factitious example, full of English words and idioms, is from a New York German newspaper, and purports to be written by a German resident in America. The spelling recalls the name Heyfleyer over a stall in the stables of the King of Wurtemberg. ”

“ Like other languages, the dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch presents variations due to the limited intercourse of a widely-scattered agricultural population, and to the several dialects brought from abroad, chiefly from the region of the Upper Rhine, and the Neckar, the latter furnishing the Suabian or Rhenish Bavarian element. ”

“ Gender of English Words in Pennsylvania German.
German gender and declension might be said to be in a state of barbarism, were it not that some of the languages of savages have refinements which are wanting in the tongues of civilised people. German gender being in a high degree arbitrary and irrational, there seem but few principles applicable to introduced words, and yet, the linguistic instinct produces a measure of uniformity. ”

“ Children, even when very young, may speak English entirely with their parents, and German with their grandparents, and of two house-painters (father and son) the father always speaks German and the son English, whether speaking together, or with others. ”

“ Pennsylvania Dutch (so called because Germans call themselves Deutsch [4] ) is known as a dialect which has been corrupted or enriched by English words and idioms under a pure or modified pronunciation, and spoken by natives, some of them knowing no other language, but most of them speaking or understanding English. Many speak both languages vernacularly, with the pure sounds of each, as in distinguishing German tōd [p. 5] (death) from English toad ”

“ The German element is strongly and properly represented in Allentown, and in Lehigh county generally, where the German language has retained its greatest purity, and so strong is this element, that in the city itself there are but few persons who speak English exclusively. ”

“ The clear distinction in modern English between a spring and a well, does not exist between the German der quell (and die quelle, PG. 'dii qkel') and der brunnen, but German has der spring also, which may be used alone, or compounded in springquell or springquelle. Influenced by English, PG. uses 'dii schpring' for a natural spring of water, keeping 'd'r brunnǝ' for a well, 'tsig-brunnǝ' for a draw-well with a windlas and bucket—but also 'laafǝndǝ brunnǝ' for a spring. ”

“ Apart from their proper function, and under their present spelling, the Breitmann ballads have but little philologic value. Instead of being the representative of an average speech, they contain forms which can hardly occur, even when influenced by the perversity of intentional exaggeration, such as shbeed, shdare, shdory, ghosdt, exisdt, lefdt, quesdions, excepdion, and where the sonant d occurs beside the surd sh, f, and t, in the lines:—
In these pages an average speech is assumed as the basis of comparison, and also the average German who does one thing or avoids another in language. ”

“ He adopts English expressions for clearing land and speaks of a clearing (which he makes feminine) because the destruction of forests by chopping and burning is not a European practice. Railroads were probably built in America before they were in use in Germany, and in Pennsylvania, our English name was imitated in 'reelroot' ('Plankenroad' is in print) or, as in many other cases, the word was translated into "riegelweg." At a later date the foreign name "eisenbahn" was brought in by later immigrants—and "riegel-bahn" is in use. ”

“ The English patridge (partridge, Dutch patrijs) is Germanised into 'pattǝreesǝli'—also called 'feld-hinkli' (little field-chicken) ,—hinkl being universally used for chicken or chickens.
The usual perversions by otōsis occur, as in the city of Baltimore, where foreign Germans say 'Ablass' for Annapolis and 'Kälber Strasze' (Street of Calves) for Calvert Street—but the citizens themselves have replaced the vowel of what with that of fat, in the first syllable of this name ”

“ Leland's habits as a German scholar have led him to write book, beer (and bier) , fear, free, drink, denn, trink, stately, plow, born, dokter, togeder, hart (hard) , heart, tead (dead) , fought, frolic, goot, four, hat (had, hat,—but in the latter sense it should have been het) , toes, dough (though) , tousand, pills, etc. Under this rule, his 'ploot' and 'blood' (G. blut) should have been blut:—
In cases where the two languages do not agree in phase, either phase may be taken, as in 'troo' or 'droo' for English through with a surd initial, beside German durch with a sonant ”

“ There were also natives from other regions, with certain French Neutrals deported from Nova Scotia to various parts of the United States, including the county (Lancaster) where the materials for this essay have been collected. These, and probably some families with French names from Alsace, are indicated by a few proper names, like Roberdeau, Lebo, Deshong and Shunk (both for Dejean) , and an occasional word like júschtaménnt (in German spelling) , the French justement, but which a native might take for a condensation of just-an-dem-ende. ”

“ In the very German county of Berks there is an Elsass township, which indicates an Alsatian influence. As a German province of France, [55] two languages are in use, and are taught in the schools, but the French is Germanised in pronunciation, as may be verified among the Alsatian and German servants of Paris. Being akin to Swiss and Suabian, PG. has some points in common with this dialect, without being influenced by French. ”

“ 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—
"Wie soothing vocal music is! ”

“ Rauch, in his partly English spelling, has—
He (has) maintained that one should not (lassen) let (sich) one's-self be 'ruled' by one's wife, and that the (weiber nichts wissen) women know nothing of such things, and that it is (keines von ihre) none of their 'business' how a man 'votes,' or how oft he (als) ALWAYS drinks.
In the following Suabian example (Radlof 2, 17) als is a form of G. alles (all) , and schmieren is used as in PG. for to pay off, to trick.
PG. 'dass' for als (with the sense of as) , and 'dass wan' G. als wenn (South German of Breisgau as wenn) for as if, seems peculiar. ”

“ Of the German words for horse (pferd, ross, gaul, etc.) , 'gaul' is universal in speech, ross seems not to be known, and pferd is almost restricted to print. [15] A colt is not called füllen as in German, but 'hutsch,' with a diminutival 'hutschli' (in Suabian hutschel, hutschele, Westerwald husz, Lusatian huszche.)
A pig is not ferkel (Lat. porc-ell-us, Welsh porch-ell) but 'seili' (from sau) , and children call it 'wuts' (Suab. butzel) a repetition of this being used (as well in vicinal English) in calling these animals. ”

“ Sufficient importance does not seem to have been hitherto attached to watching the growth and change of living languages. We have devoted our philological energies to the study of dead tongues which we could not pronounce, and have therefore been compelled to compare by letters rather than by sounds, and which we know only in the form impressed upon them by scholars of various times. ”

“ The early settlers were extensive purchasers and occupiers of land, and being thus widely scattered, and having but few good roads, the uniformity of the language is greater than might have been supposed possible. These people seldom became merchants and lawyers, and in the list of attorneys admitted in Lancaster County, commencing with the year 1729, the names are English until 1769, when Hubley and Weitzel appear. From 1793 to 1804, of fifty-two names, three are German ”

“ The form we know is a critical, conjectural form, patched up by men distinguished for scholarship, but for the most part entirely ignorant of the laws which govern the changes of speech. The very orthography is medieval. ”

“ For example, as the vowel of German schaf is long, the PG. word 'schafleit,' which occurs in a quoted passage farther on, would be likely to be read 'schaafleit' (sheep-people or shepherds) instead of 'schaffleit' (work-people) , although it is stated that in the spelling used, a vowel must not be made long unless its letter is doubled. ”