Amana German (german: Amana-Deutsch or ) is a dialect of

West Central German West Central German (german: Westmitteldeutsch) belongs to the Central, High German dialect family of German. Its dialects are Franconian and comprise the parts of the Rhinelandic continuum located south of the Benrath line isogloss, including ...

that is still spoken by several hundred people in the

Amana Colonies The Amana Colonies are seven villages on located in Iowa County in east-central Iowa, United States: Amana (or Main Amana, German: ''Haupt-Amana''), East Amana, High Amana, Middle Amana, South Amana, West Amana, and Homestead. The villa ...

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

. The Amana Colonies were founded in 1856 by

Inspirationalists The Community of True Inspiration, also known as the True Inspiration Congregations, Inspirationalists, and the Amana Church Society) is a Radical Pietist group of Christians descending from settlers of German, Swiss, and Austrian descent who sett ...

of German origin who came from West Seneca near Buffalo in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Amana is derived from the

Hessian dialect Hessian (german: Hessisch) is a West Central German group of dialects of the German language in the central German state of Hesse. The dialect most similar to Hessian is Palatinate German (german: Pfälzisch, links=no) of the Rhine Franconian su ...

, 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 Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death. Moribund may refer to: * ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann * " Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun ...

. There are several major studies about the language of Amana. Philip E. Webber: ''Kolonie-Deutsch: Life and Language in Amana'', Ames, 2006, page 14.

References

Literature

* Philip E. Webber: ''Kolonie-Deutsch: Life and Language in Amana''. Ames, 2006. * Michael T. Putnam: ''Anaphors in contact: The distribution of intensifiers and reflexives in Amana German'' in "Studies on German-language islands". Amsterdam et al., 2011. * Lawrence L. Rettig: ''Grammatical structures in Amana German''. Dissertation at the University of Iowa, 1970. * Joan Liffring-Zug: ''Life in Amana: reporters' views of the communal way, 1867 - 1935''. Iowa City, 1998.

References

Literature

See also