My mom sent me this last night. It's a link to a site of some guy who married an ex-Amish lady, learned the lingo and can now sing in it. I guess he sings other stuff, too; but his PA Dutch warms my tiny little heart. There's no way to learn it except to have someone to work with- no books (that I'm aware of)- in fact, it's only a German dialect and not a written language...but it's my very own native tongue. English came along hard on its heels and I don't use this much now except with my family... I miss it.
It's funny because I've had plenty of mixed feelings about my heritage, sometimes had a hard time with my feelings... but I love the language. Period.
Back to the songs. There are some from my childhood here! Unreal... I never EVER thought I'd hear them on the web! #'s 6, 8, 9(!!- Mom, I always loved this one!!! tune's a bit different, though), 11 (I'd forgotten this one!), 13, 14, 17- I used to know them by heart and they come back pretty fast and easy. And then there's the last track- the love song, sung at weddings, I believe- (first half done in the traditional way). I still love to hear this. You don't get the full effect here- there's not enough people singing... but it gives me goosebumps anyway.
So come on, if any of the rest of you know this stuff, leave a comment! haha- I want to know who you are!
edit: just talked to Mom- haha- this guy's wife is some sort of relative of ours- her maiden name is same as our last name. What a hoot. So does this matter? Nope- esp since we're proly all related if you dig deep enough... I mean us Amish! haha! Did I ever tell you what my brothers used to do for fun? Well I'm not going to right now... but it was funny... and it made reference to the mental abilities of kids like us whose parents are distant cousins ;')
ya, I tink I know vat yu mean
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that too! Actually some of our ex-Amish friends have a tape of music they played to us one night...don't know if it was the same guy but they were the same songs! Fun to hear them again! Hmmm, I guess I didn't realize that was your native tongue!
ReplyDeleteRecognize some of the tunes, but obviously it's not my native tongue so I have no idea what he's saying! Very nice music, though, and he has a great voice.:-)
ReplyDeleteYou know me...I love all kinds of music. The more different the better. I really love listening to # 17 because it's the same tune as our's. Very neat! thanks so much for sharing.
ReplyDeletethis is great to hear! i thought it was great when we were together and you called your family and chatted and laughed away!!! neat!
ReplyDeleteSo I went and listened to this, makes me wish the I understood the language, as I picked up a couple of things that sounded like they could be amusing, if I could get the context.
ReplyDeleteI guess that I never new this was your "native" tongue but I'm sure that we would have been amused/amazed if you would have dropped some Pennsylvania Dutch on us when we were in college!!:)