Amana German

Last updated
Amana German
Amana Colonies Willkommen sign.jpg
Native to United States
Region Amana Colonies in Iowa
Language codes
ISO 639-3
IETF gmw-u-sd-usia

Amana German (German : Amana-Deutsch or Kolonie-Deutsch, lit. Colony German) is a regiolect[ citation needed ] based on West Central German that is still spoken by several hundred people in the Amana Colonies in Iowa.

Contents

The Amana Colonies were founded in 1856 by Inspirationalists of German origin who came from West Seneca near Buffalo in New York. Amana is derived from the Hessian dialect, which is a West Central German dialect. There are seven villages in Amana with slightly different dialect features.

Even though the use of the language is in decline, it is far from being moribund. There are several major studies about the language of Amana. [1]

References

  1. Philip E. Webber: Kolonie-Deutsch: Life and Language in Amana, Ames, 2006, page 14.

Literature

See also