Swiss Amish
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The Swiss Amish (Swiss German: Schwyzer Amisch) are a subgroup of the Amish that emigrated to the United States mostly in the middle of the 19th century directly from Switzerland and Alsace, after the 18th-century emigration of most Amish via the Palatinate. They do not speak Pennsylvania German, but either a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect. Their main settlements are in Adams County, Indiana (Bernese Amish) and in Allen County, Indiana (Alsatian Amish). They form two distinct Amish affiliations.
Amish coming directly from Switzerland, neighboring Alsace and the Montbéliard region, first came to the Midwest in the 1830s. Originally these Amish came from Bern and the French-speaking region of the Jura Mountains, where two villages, Mont-Tramelan and Rebévelier, had been settled by German-speaking Mennonites (who partly became Amish after the Amish-Mennonite division) in the early 17th century, thus forming German-speaking language islands there.
In 1835 they migrated to Wayne County, Ohio, but in 1840 they went west and founded the settlement in Adams County, Indiana. In 1850 Amish from the Montbéliard region first settled in Stark County, Ohio, but then founded the settlement in Allen County, Indiana, in 1852. Not all Swiss Amish migrations can be traced.[1] The Amish settlement in Daviess County, Indiana, founded in 1868, was settled largely by Swiss Amish from Allen County, but later was mostly assimilated into the Pennsylvania German Amish culture. There are still speakers of the Alsatian dialect in Daviess County, however.[2][3]: 78 [4]
Culture and tradition
Use of technology
The Swiss Amish are more conservative concerning the use of technology than the majority of the Amish. Characteristic for the Swiss Amish is the use of open buggies only and the marking of graves with plain wooden stakes bearing only the initials of the deceased.[5]: 62–66
Language
Most speakers of the Alsatian dialect also speak or at least understand Pennsylvania German.[3]
Yodeling
The Swiss Amish of Adams County and to a lesser extent the ones of Allen County maintain the practice of yodeling from their Swiss homeland. According to Chad Thompson, almost every Amish of Adams County can yodel. Yodeling is an important symbol of their particular Swiss Amish identity.[4] Examples of Swiss Amish yodeling can be heard online.[6][7]
Names
There are certain last names which are very common among the Swiss Amish and which are not found often elsewhere. These names include: Schwartz, Hilty, Lengacher, Graber, Wittmer, Shetler, Christner, Eicher, Girod, Wengerd and Wickey.[8]
