alt Hacker NewsThis is flatly untrue; the language has a word for love, or people just use the High German or English term for it, along with colloquial expressions (like calling someone sweet).
A statement like this makes the author lose all credibility:
Neither our language nor our culture invites dwelling in the complexities of grief and loss.
This is a common attitude I’ve seen, though, of people who leave the culture / language - a certain type of sneering contempt for how uneducated and culturally poor the group they left is: “Their language is so poor they can’t say the word love or express grief or loss.” It is interesting she claims to want to try to “preserve the language” whilst having a very poor understanding of it.
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It's completely plausible the author's experience is a valid projection of the people they were surrounded by and also valid.
I’m Eythana, the article’s author. I’ve made no claims about this group being uneducated or unable to express themselves in general. There are certain limitations in the scope of the language’s vocabulary, which you would know if you spoke it. No one who’s familiar will deny this. This doesn’t mean they are unable to talk about certain topics, but when using Pennsylvania Dutch, it is simply the case that one must use more English words, choose from a much smaller pool of descriptors, or perhaps skim over it or avoid the subject altogether. All of these happen frequently. I have no contempt for the culture or language as you stated, but I do find it unfortunate when I see vocabulary being disregarded as speakers continued to use more English in the midst of Pennsylvania Dutch, which I described. This is a very well documented phenomenon and my bringing it up is completely neutral. If anything, I champion the use of PD as much as possible while many Amish people I know and encounter are less interested in that. If you have any actual evidence to contradict my these points besides your impression from a few conversations (assumably in English), I’d be happy to see it.