Abstract
Mixed languages are stable languages stemming from at least two parental languages from which they inherit larger parts of their linguistic system, e.g. gram-matical structure from one parental language and lexicon from another parental language. Amish Shwitzer, spoken by a group of Old Order Amish in Adams County, Indiana (US), is such a mixed language: The lexicon is derived from Bernese Swiss German (the language spoken by the ancestors of this group of Amish) but the grammar from Pennsylvania Dutch (the language spoken by most other Old Order Amish). Mixed languages emerge under specific sociolinguistic circumstances, and they are markers of a distinct identity. In this article, we will contextualize Amish Shwitzer in the existing frameworks of mixed languages and their emergence. In particular, we will use known mechanisms of mixed language emergence in order to reconstruct how and why Amish Shwitzer emerged and became the way it is today. We will argue that Amish Shwitzer expresses a new (rather than an old) identity and a threefold separation, namely from the American majority society, from Non-Swiss Amish communities and from Non-Amish Swiss communities. The specific mixed structure of Amish Shwitzer emerged first as an L2 variety spoken by Non-Swiss Amish whose native language was Pennsylvania Dutch. This variety was nativized by their children and was adopted ultimately by the Adams County Swiss Amish com-munity as a whole.