Date:  Tue, 9 Dec 1997 00:52:47 -0600
From:  Dan Goodman <dsgood[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VISI.COM>
Subject: Hudson Valley -- some questions from a nonprofessional

If the answers to these questions are easily available, my apologies.

1) Hans Kurath seems to have written about the Hudson Valley as if it
was entirely rural. Did he, or anyone at that time, investigate the
speech of Albany and Kingston?

2) The "Dutch" settlers of New Paltz were Francophones from what is
now Belgium, who had spent some time in the Palatine. (New Paltz was
originally Die Pfalz.) Is there any material on their speech?

3) Is there any material on Dutch as spoken in the Hudson Valley? The
nearest thing I could find is on Jersey Dutch, as spoken much later.
It seems likely to me that Hudson Valley Dutch was not the same as any
dialect in the Netherlands, or (after a while) New York City Dutch.

4) Were there any Frisian-speaking communities in the Hudson Valley?

5) Is there any material on German as spoken by German immigrants in
the Hudson Valley?

6) Is there any material on the influence(s) of the New York City
metro area dialect, in its various stages?

Dan Goodman
dsgood[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]visi.com
http://www.visi.com/~dsgood/index.html
Whatever you wish for me, may you have twice as much.