Beery, John, Grim Propst, interviewed by Kurt Kehr, 1994

Scope and content:

This recording contains an interview with John Beery who is 15 years old. John speaks the Virginia German dialect with his father. Kehr begins by reading sentences in English and asking John to translate them. Next Kehr asks him to identify individual words and numbers. Then Kehr asks him to explain in dialect his background and how he came to speak the dialect. He also asks about the use of the dialect in the community. Then Kehr asks Beery to identify the word in dialect for some of the items in the room. This CD also contains another interview with a man [Irvin Propst] and it begins with Kehr reading sentences in English, which the man repeats in his Virginia German dialect. He had interviewed this same man 20 years earlier, according to the CD. They discuss whether it was easier or harder and what difference 20 years has made in his speaking of the dialect. Kehr also has him count and identify some words in the dialect.

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