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| Hutterite German | |
|---|---|
| Hutterisch | |
| Region | Alberta,Saskatchewan, andManitoba, Canada;Washington,Montana,Minnesota,North andSouth Dakota, United States |
Native speakers | 40,000 (2007)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | geh |
| Glottolog | hutt1235 |
Hutterite German (German:Hutterisch) is anUpper German dialect of theBavarian variety of theGerman language, which is spoken byHutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is also calledTirolean, but this is ananachronism.
Hutterite is spoken in the US states ofWashington,Montana,North andSouth Dakota,Minnesota andOregon; and in the Canadian provinces ofAlberta,Saskatchewan, andManitoba. Its speakers belong to theSchmiedleit,Lehrerleit, andDariusleit Hutterite groups, but there is also a small number of speakers among the older generations ofPrairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). The Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit each have their own distinct dialects.[2] Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak Hutterite German before learningEnglish, the standard language of the surrounding areas.
As of 2003, there are about 34,000 speakers in the world, 85% of them living in 333 communities in Canada and the remaining 15% in 123 communities in the US. Canadian adults are generally literate inEarly New High German (also called "Biblical German", and the predecessor toStandard German used byMartin Luther) that they employ as the written form for Scriptures whileStandard German is used in the US for religious activities. Children learn English at school; Canadian Hutterites have a functional knowledge of English. Hutterite is for the most part an unwritten language, though in August 2006 Hutterite author Linda Maendel released a children's story titledLindas glücklicher Tag (Linda's Happy Day) in which all the dialogue is written in the dialect.[3] Maendel is also working on a series of biblical stories with Wycliff Bible translators.
Hutterite German is akoiné language originally based on the Bavarian dialects spoken inTyrol, home ofJacob Hutter and many early Hutterites, but it shifted its base toCarinthia dialects in the mid-18th century when so-called"Landler",Crypto-Protestants from Carinthia, were forced byempressMaria Theresia to resettle toTransylvania. A larger group of them joined the scattered remnants of the Hutterites who had been able to settle in Transylvania where there was morereligious tolerance than in other parts of theHabsburg monarchy. This tolerance for different Christian groups emerged when Transylvania was ruled by theOttoman Empire whose rulers did not care about theological differences among the "infidels" they ruled.
Hutterite German is only about 50% intelligible to a speaker ofPennsylvania Dutch,[4] as the latter variant is based on dialects spoken around theElectoral Palatinate. Hutterite German therefore belongs to theSouthern Bavarian dialect group which is spoken in the southern parts ofBavaria andAustria except for the westernmost part (Vorarlberg).
The language has adopted a limited number ofRussian and also many English loan words, which are the result of Hutterite migrations intoEastern Europe and nowNorth America. The core vocabulary is still almost exclusively of German origin.
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