@article{769128,
      recid = {769128},
      author = {Louden, Mark Laurence,},
      title = {Pennsylvania Dutch : the story of an American language /},
      pages = {1 online resource (500 pages) :},
      abstract = {"While most world languages spoken by minority populations  are in serious danger of becoming extinct, Pennsylvania  Dutch is thriving. In fact, the number of Pennsylvania  Dutch speakers is growing exponentially, although it is  spoken by less than one-tenth of one percent of the United  States population and has remained for the most part an  oral vernacular without official recognition or support. A  true sociolinguistic wonder, Pennsylvania Dutch has been  spoken continuously since the late eighteenth century, even  though it has never been "refreshed" by later waves of  immigration from abroad.In this probing study, Mark L.  Louden, himself a fluent speaker of Pennsylvania Dutch,  provides readers with a close look at the place of the  language in the life and culture of two major subgroups of  speakers: the "Fancy Dutch," whose ancestors were  affiliated mainly with Lutheran and German Reformed  churches, and conservative Anabaptist sectarians known as  the "Plain people"--the Old Order Amish and  Mennonites.Drawing on scholarly literature, three decades  of fieldwork, and ample historical documents--most of which  have never before been made accessible to English-speaking  readers--this is the first book to offer a comprehensive  look at this unlikely linguistic success story"--},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/769128},
}