[Magdalen] Enjoying a colleague's accent

[Jay Weigel]

​You should come to Pennsylvania (or Indiana, or Ohio, or Wisconsin, or any
other Amish stronghold) and see what sense you can make of "Deitsch", the
German dialect spoken by the Amish. I was around the dialect spoken near
Sheboygan, WI, for a couple of years, which is a variant of Plattdeutsch,
and I can't make head or tail out of Deitsch. ​

Now if you ask me to speak East Tennessee, I can, and that right fluently!
I worked in home health care in rural east Tennessee for over six years,
and I had to learn the language spoken by my patients. Yes, it's English,
but there are ways of saying things that are just as different from
standard American English as any dialect in the UK. As a friend of mine,
born and raised in Bulls Gap, TN once said, "I'm bilingual--I speak English
and East Tennessee both!"

On Fri, Jun 19, 2015 at 10:58 AM, Zephonites--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

> David
>
> Indeed the Swiss Germans will understand Bavarian quite well as it lies inn
>  the border regions.
>
> But then I can't make head or tail of Plattdeutsch (in Northern  Germany)
>
> Blessings
> Martin
>
>
> In a message dated 19/06/2015 15:51:02 GMT Summer Time,
> magdalen at herberthouse.org writes:
>
>
>
> In a message dated 6/19/2015 10:32:36 A.M. Eastern Daylight  Time,
> magdalen at herberthouse.org writes:
>
> Maddy  (who is  Swiss) went to the Swiss German border and a new Swiss
> border
> guard asked her a question. She looked at him and said "Wie    bitte".   He
> repeated it and she had to get the German   border  guard to translate
> between
> two   Swiss!!>>>>>
>
> When I lived in Frankfurt/M, one of my  dermatology professors and his
> wife, who was a professor in the  UM-Minneapolis German Department,
> came by and we spent a nice evening  chatting over dinner in my  favorite
> restaurant which was located in a  cave-like former brewery.
>
> The two visitors had just come up to Hesse  from Bavaria, and the
> wife/German professor admitted that she had trouble  following the  lingo
> of some of the Bavarian natives.  The point  is that the German  accent
> common to Bavaria in Germany, as well as  Austria and Switzerland is
> difficult for those familiar with "standard"  North German.
>
>
> David  Strang.
>
>
>
>