On the Linguistic History of the Swiss Amish in Indiana

Between 1789 and 1914, about half a million Swiss citizens left their country to find new opportunities abroad.1 By 1880, more than 88,000 Swiss had settled in the United States of America.2 These immigrants carried not only their earthly possessions and their knowledge to the foreign lands, but also brought their Swiss German dialects i.e. their linguistic varieties with them. In most settlements, the Swiss vernaculars were replaced by the majority language of English at some point. The Swiss settlers in New Glarus, Wisconsin, for example, upheld their linguistic variety for several generations before shifting to English.3 An exception is found in the Swiss Amish community in northeastern Indiana, where the descendants of Swiss Anabaptists still maintain a German variety with Bernese German features today. The complicated and often long-lasting emigration history of these Swiss Anabaptists, which will be discussed in more detail in the next section, led to several possible language contact situations. After leaving Switzerland, the Swiss Anabaptists came into contact with speakers of American English, French, Alsatian dialects, and Pennsylvania German.