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Friend_of_Sankt_Veit
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Joined: 9 Oct 2018
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Posts: 18
Location: Ohio, USA

11 Oct 2018, 8:30 am

Any German speakers from Ohio or Pennsylvania here?

Do you speak Pennsylvania Dutch? Low German? Any other kind of German or related continental variety of German? Even Texas German? Dutch?

Danke!



roronoa79
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Joined: 22 Jan 2012
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Posts: 1,192
Location: Indiana

23 Oct 2018, 6:13 pm

I'm from Indiana if that counts. English is my native language but I've always wanted to meet more Americans who come from German-speaking communities. The most experience I've had with that is overhearing Pennsylvania Dutch while visiting Pittsburgh or the occasional German-speaking Hoosier Mennonite. Wo sprechen sie Deutsch in Ohio?


_________________
Diagnoses: AS, Depression, General & Social Anxiety
I guess I just wasn't made for these times.
- Brian Wilson

Δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν.
Those with power do what their power permits, and the weak can only acquiesce.

- Thucydides


Friend_of_Sankt_Veit
Hummingbird
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Joined: 9 Oct 2018
Gender: Male
Posts: 18
Location: Ohio, USA

23 Oct 2018, 7:00 pm

In Eastern Ohio is where I have heard German used the most. Based on your experience this makes sense. The Mennonites and Amish in Ohio use it primarily. In Central Ohio there are quite a few immigrants from all over. Specifically, I have encountered a few recent German immigrants in Bexley, Ohio. Also, Ohio (the Midwest) is a major destination for people from the former USSR. So, I do hear a lot of Russian spoken (among other Slavic languages). Where I live there is a very large Russian Jewish community; but there are pockets of former Soviet Jewish communities all over Central Ohio. We are getting an increasingly larger Orthodox Christian and Ruthenian/Ukrainian Catholic community here as well. One of the senior clergy in the Ukrainian Catholic was born in Steubenville. Ohio has been predominately German and Dutch in terms of historical immigration, so there is strong presence of Lutherans and Roman Catholics. I find the changing demographics interesting.



roronoa79
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Joined: 22 Jan 2012
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Location: Indiana

24 Oct 2018, 4:50 pm

Yeah there used to be German speakers all over Indiana like most of the midwest but after 1945 not many people were keen on exploring their German heritage. So these days it's mostly just the Amish who speak it. My high school's German program was one of the last of its kind in the state and it was ended just a few years after I graduated. I live near a college town so there are still places I can go to speak German, but with my aspie social skills I get most of my practice reading German news.


_________________
Diagnoses: AS, Depression, General & Social Anxiety
I guess I just wasn't made for these times.
- Brian Wilson

Δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν.
Those with power do what their power permits, and the weak can only acquiesce.

- Thucydides