Tag Archives: Pennsylvania Dutch
German Companions of Saint Nicholas Posted by Constanze on Dec 5, 2018
Guten Tag! As you may know, tomorrow (December 6th) is Nikolaustag (Saint Nicholas Day) in Germany. This is a German Christmas celebration separate to that of December 24/25. If you are not yet familiar with Nikolaustag, I recommend reading this post and this post first, to get a good introduction to it. If you are…
German Culture In The USA Posted by Constanze on Feb 22, 2017
Guten Tag! When you think about countries relating to the German language and culture, the first (perhaps only) countries that come to mind are Germany and Austria. But there are, in fact, many countries around the world that have German as a second or minority language, with towns & cities that have German roots. Today…
German-American Day Posted by Constanze on Oct 5, 2016
Guten Tag! I’m bringing you this post today in light of a special day tomorrow, October 6th 2016. Tomorrow is German-American Day in the USA! This is a day to celebrate the German heritage in America. Specifically, it commemorates the date in 1683 when 13 German families settled in Philadelphia and subsequently founded Germantown, Pennsylvania…
Reading Pennsylvania German Posted by Constanze on Aug 19, 2015
With any language, being aware of its different dialects and variations is just as important (and interesting!) as learning the standard language. Recently I did a post on Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch (Pennsylvania German) and how it has developed from standard German. In that post, I focused on key words, and gave you two videos of people…
Rumspringa With Pennsylvania German Posted by Constanze on Aug 5, 2015
It was some years ago when watching a documentary on Amish teenagers that I heard the word Rumspringa for the first time. But that sounds like a Bavarian word!, I thought. At this time I knew nothing about the Amish, let alone their German roots. Everyone knows that German is spoken in Germany and Austria…