{"id":5885,"date":"2017-04-03T14:37:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T18:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=5885"},"modified":"2017-04-03T14:37:40","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T18:37:40","slug":"young-center-scholars-publish-pennsylvania-german-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2017\/04\/03\/young-center-scholars-publish-pennsylvania-german-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Center scholars publish Pennsylvania German chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pennsylvania German culture saturates the eastern half of the state. Its influence can be seen from common terminology to architecture. To celebrate this culture, Johns Hopkins University Press recently published \u201cPennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book, edited by Simon J. Bronner and Joshua R. Brown, features the chapter, \u201cLanguage Use among Anabaptist Groups,\u201d written by Elizabethtown College\u2019s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies Senior Scholar Steven Nolt, Senior Fellow Emeritus Donald Kraybill and Research Associate Edsel Burdge<\/p>\n

Kraybill explained that the Young Center possesses comprehensive information about various Old Order groups and tracks their memberships. \u201cIt was natural that they turned to us for a descriptive essay on the number and the types of groups that have continued to speak Pennsylvania German,\u201d he said of the book\u2019s editors.<\/p>\n

\n

Elements of Pennsylvania German culture are all around us in his region of the state: art, food, architecture, place names and so on, but it isn\u2019t always recognized or understood.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The primary purpose of the chapter is to \u201cexplain where and when speakers use Pennsylvania Dutch, versus German and English\u2014at home, in church and for religious rituals, in publications,\u201d Nolt explained. The E-town researchers analyze language in terms of its use and function in Old Order society.<\/p>\n

Nolt said that from the 1700s to the early 1900s, a wide range of Keystone State residents spoke Pennsylvania German. Over the last 100 years, Amish and Mennonites retained the language, while most other Old Order groups did not pass the dialect on to their children. As a result, members of plain Anabaptist groups are the primary speakers of Pennsylvania German today.<\/p>\n

The scholars said they are interested in language as a cultural aspect of Pennsylvania German life. For Kraybill, the changes in speaking habits are particularly fascinating. \u201cToday the overwhelming majority of Pennsylvania German speakers are Amish and Old Order Mennonites,\u201d he said, pointing out that their populations are \u201cdoubling about every 20 years.\u201d As a result, Pennsylvania German is one of a few minority languages in the world that is increasing in number of speakers, rather than facing extinction through globalization.<\/p>\n

Nolt said he sees importance in analyzing Pennsylvania German cultural influence on the region. \u201cElements of Pennsylvania German culture are all around us in his region of the state: art, food, architecture, place names and so on, but it isn\u2019t always recognized or understood,\u201d he said. Fraktur artwork (the ornamented calligraphy of Pennsylvania Germans) chicken pot pie and two-story \u201cbank barns\u201d are expressions of Pennsylvania German heritage. A few Pennsylvania German road names persist in Lancaster County, including \u201cSchteebruch Weeg\u201d (Stone Quarry Road) or \u201cKatze Bouckel Weeg\u201d (Cats Back Road), both in West Earl Township.<\/p>\n

Burdge noted that, in addition to their research on language use among Old Order groups, the Young Center publishes an Amish Population Profile, which explores what is, according to him, \u201cthe largest sub-set of current Pennsylvania German speakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia\u201d went on sale March 5, 2017, and can be purchased through the Johns Hopkins University Press website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania German culture saturates the eastern half of the state. Its influence can be seen from common terminology to architecture. To celebrate this culture, Johns Hopkins University Press recently published \u201cPennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia.\u201d The book, edited by Simon J. Bronner and Joshua R. Brown, features the chapter, \u201cLanguage Use among Anabaptist Groups,\u201d written […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":5888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,764],"tags":[490,1128,743,851],"class_list":["post-5885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","category-research-and-academics","tag-achievements-2","tag-feature","tag-history","tag-young-center-for-anabaptist-and-pietist-studies","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5885"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5891,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885\/revisions\/5891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}