Results tagged “pennsylvania dutch” from Only in York County

The Pennsylvania Dutch Heritage Group locally is very active and has a great newsletter. One of their issues earlier this year included several sites related to the Pennsylvania Dutch language and culture.

- The Pennsylvania German Society
- The Kutztown Folk Festival, which is held each year to celebrate "Pennsylvania Dutch Folklife and Fun."
- Kutztown University's Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center
- Hiwwe-Wie-Driwwe, written 99 percent in Pennsylvania Dutch, offers audio lessons in the language. (Check them out on the right under "Webclass.")
- German-Pennsylvanian Association
- Pioneers and Patriarchs focuses on Pennsylvania Dutch History, Genealogy and Culture.
- Pennsylvania German Board, a message board in and about "Dutch"

And I would be very remiss if I didn't mention, again, the amazing "Nau loss mich yuscht eppes saage! En Blog uff Deitsch" by "Der Douglas." You might remember it from my post earlier this year.

Check them out, and let me know what you think, or if you know of any other sites like this. I'm in the process of adding these to our list of history and tradition resources online, so if you have more, I'd love to hear about them.

Yes, I know you all love reading my blog. And we even get a little multicultural when we get comments from Mark, who tells us hello from Austria.

But here's a real multicultural blog experience for you, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Dutch Heritage Group's newsletter from earlier this year.

Check out "Nau loss mich yuscht eppes saage! En Blog uff Deitsch", billed as the only blog on the Internet written entirely in Pennsylvania Dutch.

Here's what I can tell, with my VERY limited "Dutch" knowledge: The author is Douglas J. Madenford; he lived or lives in Reading; and he has degrees from Lock Haven University and - I think - is pursuing a Master's degree at Millersville.

The second part of the title of the blog I translate as "A blog in Dutch." The first part, though, completely escapes me. I tried translating it kind of word-for-word and came up with "Now leave me just (???) say."

Anyone have any insight to offer? Or have any other Penna. Dutch sites to recommend?

Got this in an e-mail from my mom. I had posted a version of this before, but with several new readers, and new posts from me on some of these topics, I thought I'd share this version too.

Talking Pennsylvanian (Joan's notes in parentheses)

You refer to Pennsylvania as "P-A" (pronounced Pee-Ay). How many other states do that? (Also, my mom calls it "Pennsy," pronounced Penn-See. Anyone else hear that one?)

"You guys" (or even "youse guys," in some places) is a perfectly acceptable reference to a group of men and women.

You know how to respond to the question "Djeetyet?"

You learned to pronounce Bryn Mawr, Wilkes-Barre, Schuylkill, the Poconos, Tamaqua, Kutztown,Tunkahannock, Bala Cynwyd, Duquesne and Monongahela. Also Conshohocken.

And we know Lancaster is pronounced Lank-ister, not Lan-kaster.

You know what "Punxsutawney Phil" is, and what it means if he sees his shadow. (Bonus points if you either love or hate "Gus, the second-most-famous groundhog in Pennsylvania.")

The first day of buck season and the first day of doe season are school holidays.

At least five people on your block have electric "candles" in all or most of their windows all year long. (Window candles! I love window candles!)

You know what a "State Store" is.

Words like "hoagie," "crick," "chipped ham," "dippy eggs," "sticky buns," "shoo-fly pie," "lemon sponge pie," "pierogies" and "pocketbook" actually mean something to you.

You live for summer, when street and county fairs signal the beginning of funnel cake season.

You know what a township, borough, and commonwealth are. (OK, I will differ on this one. Most people I talk to say they live in York, even though they live in any one of 71 other county townships/boroughs.)

You know several people who have hit deer more than once.

Driving is always better in winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

As a kid you built snow forts and leaf piles that were taller than you were.

OK, so that was their list. What should we add?