Hoffman.] -'•OO [Dec. 21_ 



A slight departure from that, even, has been found advisable, so as to 

 secure the simplest phonetic system without introducing characters foreign 

 to the English language. 



It is well known that the early German colonists represented almost 

 every dialectic subdivision of the States now embraced within the empires 

 of Germany and Austro-Hungary, but as the immigrants from the 

 Rhenish Palatinate were in excess, the present linguistic residium par- 

 takes more of the characteristics of the Pfalz dialects than those of any 

 other. This fact was most forcibly brought to the writer's attention dur- 

 ing the period of his services as Staff Surgeon in the Prussian army, in 

 1870-71, at which time opportunities for practical comparison occurred 

 almost daily. 



The chief difference between the Pennsj'lvania dialect, and those of the 

 Rhenish Palatinate, lies in the fact that the former is characterized by the 

 abundance of nasalized terminal vowel sounds, brought about by the 

 almost unvarying rule of dropping the final n of German words ending in 

 en and ein, and sounding the vowel as a or e, or a" or e". This has refer- 

 ence particularly to verbs in which the infinitive final is en in the German. 



It is extremely difl[icu!t for the people of the rural districts, who are 

 not familiar with the English language, to acquire the correct sound of j 

 as in James, and of g as in gem ; the result is tsh or ch as in chain ; words, 

 on the contrary, beginning with cli, as in Charles, are pronounced like^', 

 as in jar. 



The final th usually becomes s, while the same sound as an initial one 

 becomes d ; this applies to English words, incorporated with the Pennsyl- 

 vania German. 



Both German and English words commencing with st, si, sw, stn, sn, sp, 

 etc., are pronounced as if written witli sh, the h being inserted between 

 the first two consonants, e. g., stein = shte"; nlow = shlo ; small = shmal. 



Plurals, and diminutives, are formed after the same manner as in 

 German. 



The following alphabet will serve to represent the words of this dialect, 

 as it is spoken chiefly in tlie northern portions of Berks, Lehigh, and 

 Northampton counties. On account of local peculiarities, a drawling 

 manner, or a rapiditj' of speech, inhabitants of the several localities can 

 often be readily identified : 



a as in wJiat, loas ; German, man. 

 a as in car, far. 

 a as in li%t, mat, mass. 



a, as in laic, ball. * 



at as in aisle ; as i in pine ; used in the present work instead of the Ger- 

 man ei, ein, sein = ain, sain. 

 ai as oi in oil, boil. Ex. hai = hay ; Mhi = May. 

 au as ou in out, or ow in owl ; German, kraut, laus. 

 b as in ball, bulb. 



