Mennonite verb tense usage

[Neto]

(And what's the difference between 'forenoon' and 'morning'?)

Forenoon is any time after around 10:00 or 10:30 until noon.

[Banawa: Mai ite eyeri towara. (Literally: Sun sitting not far away it is.) (sun sitting, not setting)

[Morning: Yama waa mina. (Thing stretched out.) (Not a really good translation. Not easy to interpret the precise meaning of 'waa' in this case, a word which has a wide range of meaning.)

In respect to tense, they have several different past tense words. One means distant past non-eye-witness, some past event which is hear-say, or reported by an eye-witness, but an event which is long past. Then there is a recent past, that is generally an eye-witness account, but it can be appended with a word that means 'reportedly', that is, a recent event, but non-eye-witness. Also an immediate past tense. (The tricky part of this one is that you have to listen carefully to the very end, because they can throw on a little "nu" at the very end, which means 'almost'. Like someone comes running up and says "So-and-so was just bitten by a snake {nu}." (We were already running back to our house to get the antivenom when that little 'nu' came floating through.)
Sorry, got carried away ....

[Heirbyadoption]

The "yet" bit always throws me a little. Dutch grammar holdovers in general get amusing. Here in PA, you generally things like "I'm going to pick her up a gallon of milk at the store" or "throw me down a bale of hale once"...

[RZehr]

“Throw over the fence, the horse, some hay.”

[Josh]

One confusing phrase is asking someone, for example, "Would you serve on the X committee?" and a very Dutchy person would say "I wouldn't care to" or "I don't care to", which means they are willing, which makes no sense to me at all.

[ohio jones]

One confusing phrase is asking someone, for example, "Would you serve on the X committee?" and a very Dutchy person would say "I wouldn't care to" or "I don't care to", which means they are willing, which makes no sense to me at all.

That's not limited to Dutchy culture, actually. One of my friends lived deep in Appalachia for a while, and soon after moving there offered to take someone to town the next time he went. They replied "I don't care to" so he went without them. They were upset because they were ready to go and he didn't pick them up.

[barnhart]

One of my friends lived deep in Appalachia for a while, and soon after moving there offered to take someone to town the next time he went. They replied "I don't care to" so he went without them. They were upset because they were ready to go and he didn't pick them up.

I had similar thoughts. I wonder if the verb construction is designed to soften impact, similar the way double modals are used in the south. "I might should/could do that" can be a way of raising the possibility for consideration without putting influence on the other person's opinion.

[ohio jones]

Where I would say something like "I went to that college," my conversation partners say "I would've gone to that college." Where I would say "I went to a baptist church growing up, my Mennonote friends say "I would've gone to a baptist church growing up."

When you're thinking about this, it shows up in unexpected places. This is from a photo caption in Biblical Archaeology Review (which as far as I know has no Mennos on the editorial staff ):

This wood engraving by Gustave Doré was published, along with 240 other biblical illustrations, in La Grande Bible de Tours in 1866. His intricate design would have been carved into a block of wood using a burin. Then the block would have been covered in ink and pressed against paper to create the illustration.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

When you're thinking about this, it shows up in unexpected places. This is from a photo caption in Biblical Archaeology Review (which as far as I know has no Mennos on the editorial staff ):

This wood engraving by Gustave Doré was published, along with 240 other biblical illustrations, in La Grande Bible de Tours in 1866. His intricate design would have been carved into a block of wood using a burin. Then the block would have been covered in ink and pressed against paper to create the illustration.

Trust me, you're going to start seeing it everywhere now that I brought it up.

[Neto]

When you're thinking about this, it shows up in unexpected places. This is from a photo caption in Biblical Archaeology Review (which as far as I know has no Mennos on the editorial staff ):

This wood engraving by Gustave Doré was published, along with 240 other biblical illustrations, in La Grande Bible de Tours in 1866. His intricate design would have been carved into a block of wood using a burin. Then the block would have been covered in ink and pressed against paper to create the illustration.

Trust me, you're going to start seeing it everywhere now that I brought it up.

I would call this a "repetitive past tense", or maybe "habitual past". (Not a one-time past event.)

[justme]

I would call this a "repetitive past tense", or maybe "habitual past". (Not a one-time past event.)

that makes a lot of sense to me.