AMISH

This series of definitions is not meant to be comprehensive but rather an aid to help fiction writers make their characters’ dialog “authentic.” Some are occupational slang. Recording studio musicians hate “clams” (sour notes) for example. Others are basic terms. To a sailor a hold is where cargo is stowed aboard a ship. To a gambler a hold is the bet percentage held back by the casino.

            Among themselves the Amish speak Hochdeitsch. But assuming your character is in “Amish” country they are liable to hear a few “Amish words” spoken even among the “English.” But that doesn’t mean the English would ever gelassenheit to the demut, being too full of hochmut to follow the ordnung.      

AMISH:

Deitsch:           high German dialect spoken by Amish.

demut:             humility cultivated by the Amish.

English:           Amish term for non-Amish.

gelassenheit:    to submit.

Hochdeitsch:   high German dialect spoken by the Amish.

hochmut:         pride, rejected by the Amish.

ordnung:          rules by which the Amish live.

rumspringa:     years from 16 to early twenties when for the Amish the ordnung is not

                       strictly enforced allowing them to experience the outside “English”               

                       world.

shunned:          excommunication by order of Amish elders.