How to say "butterfly" and "bat" in Pennsylvania Dutch

Question

Looking at the translations of the English word "butterfly" (insect) on Wiktionary I was surprised to see it translated as Fleddermaus in Pennsylvania Dutch¹. I would have expected something more like Schmetterling or Summervogel (with Fleddermaus instead meaning "bat" as in Standard German). Out of curiosity I checked the translation of the English "bat" (mammal) into Pennsylvania Dutch but none was given.

Is the translation of Fleddermaus as "butterfly" correct (for Pennsyslvania Dutch) and what is the word for "bat" in that dialect?

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¹ The following quotation is given as a usage example:

Un hie un do sehnt mer noch en Fleddermaus, as widder zu Gnaade kumme is.

^{Source: 2006, Deutsch-Pennsylvanischer Arbeitskreis (eds.), Mit Pennsylvaanisch-Deitsch darich's yaahr: A Pennsylvania German reader for grandparents and grandchildren, Tintenfaß (publ.), page 118.}

Answer 1

We need to realize that Pennsylvania Dutch is a German (Palatian) dialect "frozen in time" - So we need to go back a few hundred years and see what your examples meant by then in German - Grimm's Wörterbuch says for "Fledermaus" (amongst several meanings, including "bat"):

unter fledermaus verstand und versteht man den schmetterling (flätterling) der abends in das licht fliegt: ër tuot mir als dër vlëdramûs daʒ lieht. MS. 1, 9ᵃ, wo die andre lesart gibt: dër viwerstëln (oben sp. 1441). im voc. ex quo heiszt es papilio ein zweifalter vel fleddermusche. Alberus hat zu fleddermaus auszer vespertilio auch: papilio, vermiculus alatus, hepiolus, quo nullum animal imbecillius est, fleddermaus odder zweifalter, fleugt ins liecht. noch heute sagen Pfälzer und Odenwälder für schmetterling fledermaus, für vespertilio speckmaus, weil sie an den speck in den schornsteinen gehn soll.

(Note the mention of Palatian, also note the "butterfly" meaning is rather a "moth" - Fledermaus seems to be exclusively used for insects flying at night)

Incidently, the Grimms also help us with "bat" (Latin vespertilio) - it's "Speckmaus" according to them in Palatian - and, also in PD which is backed by this

We simply need to accept that old German dialects weren't too picky with taxonomy: What flaps around in the dark is all the same ;)

Answer 2

Not an answer, but some extended comments. I think I'm probably the only regular here who has even heard Pennsylvania Dutch spoken live. (Please let me know in the comments if I'm wrong about this.) It's not spoken in Europe, and in the US the speakers are generally members of somewhat insular religious communities, the Amish and Mennonites. Pennsylvania Dutch does sound like German (to an English speaker at least), but there enough differences that I doubt that a native German speaker would be able to understand much of it, though they might have a chance if they are familiar with the West Central German dialects used in the region from where the Pennsylvania Dutch orginally immigrated. Here are links to the English and German Wikipedia articles on Pennsylvania Dutch, and a link to the Pennsylvania Dutch Wikipedia with about 2000 articles.

This site is meant to cover German and its dialects, which I interpret to include the varieties listed here. But while questions about Pennsylvania Dutch may technically be on-topic for the site, it seems unlikely that you'll get a knowledgeable answer. (I think the same issue exists with Yiddish.)

In general, I wouldn't put a lot of trust in the translations sections of Wiktionary. But this same information is given in a main entry here, with a quotation: Un hie un do sehnt mer noch en Fleddermaus, as widder zu Gnaade kumme is. On the other hand, an on-line Deitsh-English dictionary here here gives the meaning as "bat". Since these sources seem to contradict each other, it comes down to either trusting one source more than the other or trying to find something more reliable. In any case, I have a feeling that you'll need to ask elsewhere for first-hand answers.

Answer 3

In Palatine German, from which Pennsylvania German is descended, Fledermaus signifies both butterfly and bat; see Pfälzisches Wörterbuch, PfWB: Fledermaus.

Note that the Pfälzisches Wörterbuch has made an effort to include Pennsylvania German. Quoting from the introduction:

Auch das Pennsylvanien-Pfälzische wurde, soweit es in gedruckten Quellen zu erfassen ist, in die Sammelarbeit einbezogen, indem die Wörterbücher von Horn [sic], Danner und Lambert sowie wissenschaftliche und schöngeistig-mundartliche Literatur der Pennsylvanier, die uns die Heimatstelle Pfalz unter Dr. Fritz Braun dankenswerterweise zur Verfügung stellte, für das Wörterbuch ausgeschrieben wurden.

The mentioned references are Horne's Pennsylvania German Manual and Lambert's A Dictionary of the Non-English Words of the Pennsylvania-German Dialect. Lambert is cited in PfWB: Fledermaus for the meaning butterfly (see also Lambert: fleddermaus), and Horne for bat. However, the dictionary editors must have made a mistake, as the quotation from Horne is actually about a butterfly:

Horne: Birdie Cries

De gal fled'r-mous kumt, / Un pikt 'm fĕgli de awgă rous.
The yellow butterfly comes, / And picks birdie's eyes out.

For bat, Horne has shbĕkmous (Horne: bat). This concurs with PfWB: Speckmaus (which has Lambert concurring, see Lambert: schpeckmaus).

Note that all of this does not exclude the possibility that Fledermaus, in Pennsylvania German, has the same ambiguity it has in Palatine German, i.e. it could theoretically still signify bat as well as butterfly.