§ 3 Pg. Not Suabian
The Pennsylvania Germans have traditional stories against the Suabians, although their population is in part derived from the upper (Pfalz) Palatinate; and some Suabians settled in Northumberland County, Pa., the evidence of which remains in the name of a stream, Schwaben (or Swope) Creek.
PG. resembles Suabian in using ’e, eǝ’ for ö, and ‘ii’ for ü—in the loss of infinitive -n,—in turning final -n into a nasal vowel (as in sei˛ for seyn), and in saying ‘du bischt,’ ‘du kannscht,’ etc. (for G. du bist), ‘du witt’ for du willst; ‘nimme’ for nicht mehr; ‘glei’ for gleich in the sense of soon—but the adjective ‘gleich’ (similar) remains. PG. does not turn o into au, as in Suabian ‘braut,’ ‘hauch,’ for brot, hoch; nor cut down G. ich habe to ‘i ha’; it does not add elements, as in ‘bois’ for G. bös, PG. ‘bees,’ ‘bluat’ for G. blut, ‘reacht’ for recht, ‘kuine’ for keine, and ‘stuinige fealder’ for steinige felder, a peculiarity of Suabian, Alsatian, Swiss, Bavarian and its kin Austrian. PG. has archaic ‘hees’ (hot) for G. heisz, but nothing like Bavarian haǝs.
Difference of pronunciation causes confusion of speech between speakers of different dialects, as shown by Dr. Rapp in his Physiolōgie der Sprache, 4, 131. In the ‘Fliegende Blätter’ (13, 158) there is a dialogue called ‘Ein Deutsch-Böhme’ (a German Bohemian), between a Bauer and a Städter—but a Swiss speaker is now added, with the rejoinder to his remark.
| Bauer. | Wie is de Suppe so hāsz! |
| Städter. | Man sagt ja nicht hāsz, sondern heisz. Has [G. hase, PG. haas hare] nennt man das Thier.... |
| Bauer. | Dös hāszt bei uns Hōs! |
| Städter. | Das ist wieder falsch. Hōs bedeutet jenes Kleidungsstück, womit Eure langen Beine bedeckt sind. |
| Bauer. | Dös hāszt Hus! |
| Schweitzer. | Aber mer sind jets im Huus. |
| Bauer. | Dös iss ’n Haus! |
Diminutives in PG. and Suabian are made with-li; both use ‘des’ for das, ‘uffm’ for auf dem, ‘biirǝ’ for birnen, ‘g’hat’ or ‘kat’ for gehabt, ‘suu˛’ for sohn, ‘schoof’ for schâf, ‘Schwop’ for Schwâbe, ‘als’ for alles, and ’as’ for als.