The Amish Language

The Amish's native language is called "Pennsylvania Dutch," which is a kind of dialect of old German. When you hear "Dutch," it sounds like Dutch, but it's not. It's a little confusing, but it comes from "Deitsch," which means German in German. In English, Germany is called "Germay" (Germany), but in Japanese, it's called "Doitsu" (Germany), so it makes sense.

They continue to use the same language as when they immigrated from Europe. It's different from modern German, but my Amish friend told me that it's possible to communicate in simple terms.

The Amish's native language is Pennsylvania Dutch, but most Amish people you may come into contact with in stores can speak English, so feel free to speak to them in English. These days, most Amish are bilingual.

However, when speaking at home, with family, or among Amish people, Pennsylvania Dutch is the standard. Pennsylvania Dutch is also not generally expressed in writing. It can be expressed somewhat using the alphabet in imitation of modern German and pronunciation, but it is basically a spoken language.

If you are interested, please refer to the book that my friend has published that includes a CD for learning the Amish language. If you have a chance to go to Lancaster and master it and try speaking to them, they might be surprised. (On the other hand, they might be suspicious of you...) I have also made a video introducing it.

For them, English is used to read and write and to communicate with non-Amish people.

Perhaps because of this, Amish people call all non-Amish people "English." Originally, this was probably a way of referring to people who spoke English.

In Japanese, there is a distinction between "people" and "language," such as "English" and "British," and "German" and "German," but in English, they are both English and German. Japanese people speak Japanese, so in English there is no distinction between them and just "Japanese." That's how it is.

However, strangely enough, to the Amish, we Japanese people are also "English". It may be inevitable, since historically they have never had the opportunity to come into contact with Japanese people (laughs).