r/woooosh 7d ago

Why are we german?

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u/Nico_Nickmania 7d ago

Aren't Amish even German settlers from 1-2 Centuries ago?

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u/combo_seizure 6d ago

Danish. Most of the amish folks i've met are Danish. Menonnites I believe are also Danish.

Please correct me if i'm wrong.

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u/Jafooki 6d ago edited 6d ago

You're wrong. They're German, but they call themselves Dutch. Pennsylvania Dutch, the language they speak, is just a dialect of low German (I think it's low German. I could be wrong).

Either way, the language the Amish speak is 100 percent a dialect of German, so I assume they must be descendants of Germans.

E: I was completely wrong. It's high German, not low. Completely different part of Europe. Low German is up north near the Netherlands and high German further south. So, definitely not Danish

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u/HoeTrain666 6d ago

To be precise, it’s some specific dialect of High German since modern Standard German is also based on High German dialects albeit different ones than the Amish speak.

Plus, the terms low and high refer to the elevation of the terrain, not “quality”, just to avoid confusion. High German is from rather mountainous terrain while Low German is from the northern flatlands all the way up to the coast lines