“En Friehyaahr fer die Mudderschprooch” (Springtime for our mother tongue) is the title of a series of Pennsylvania German events that take place in many areas of “Pennsylvania Dutch-land”.
There are many different events and projects dealing with Pennsylvania German language, culture and history: the meetings of the Groundhog Lodges, events in museums and libraries, Pennsylvania German classes, TV and radio shows, Folk Festivals, lectures at universities and even Pennsylvania German columns in newspapers and the internet.
The Deutsch-Pennsylvanischer Arbeitskreis (German-Pennsylvanian Association) seeks to inform the visitors of this website about the great variety of Pennsylvania German activities. We invite all organizers of events and projects to send us information about their activities. It is our goal to let our visitors know what is going on in the counties where Pennsylvania German is still spoken.
It is estimated that some 400,000 people still speak Pennsylvania German at the beginning of the 21st century. The number of speakers is even growing – due to the many children of the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites. But there are also young “mainstream Americans” learning the language of their forefathers.
We believe that it is time to bring all these people and activities closer together and unite them in the aim of keeping the dialect alive. This is why the initiative “En Friehyaahr fer die Mudderschprooch” has been established.
German-Pennsylvanian Association
