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Listen: Amish Swiss German

This clip, from the North American German Dialect ArchiveExternal link of the Max Kade InstituteExternal link for German-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, features a male speaker of Amish Swiss German being interviewed by Jürgen Eichhoff in Allen County, Indiana, USA in 1984.

Here is a transcription and English translation of the interview:

“Well, usually we hitch four horses to the binder, what we call the binder, that cuts [the stalks] and binds them. Then we put those up in shocks. Then, when it’s time for threshing … of course at some point we need to spread manure … after making hay we usually spread manure where the stalks were. Then, when it’s time for threshing, then we cut down the stalks again. After threshing there’s usually a little time, and if we have tomatoes, then we’re busy with that. Then of course it’s time to sow wheat and plowing the fields, so about the beginning of October we sow wheat. And with the tomatoes that we had last year we were pretty busy in September and October.”

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR