Joan and others: I don't think that "Wos Wit" is just a brand name that the food company gave their products without any meaning. I've actually heard Pa. Dutchmen ask the others: "Wos (or Was) Wit?", similar to the way they would ask "Wie geht's?" or "Wie bischt du?". We once had friends who actually taught their dog to understand only Pa. Dutch and they claimed that the dog didn't understand English! One of the things that they always asked the dog was "Was wit?" and the dog would bark! I'm not making this up, believe me! /Dennis/ At 11:52 AM 2/20/1999 -0800, you wrote: >Dennis O. Gehris, Ed.D. wrote: >> >> >Dennis, Just a guess but might Wos Wit actually translate to "what's >with >> you?" which would in effect have the meaning of "what do you >want?" >> > >> >Joan >> >> I thought of that also. However, the Pa. Dutch (German) word for "with" is >> "mit", as it also is in high German. Any other ideas from anyone? >> >> /Dennis/ > >Dennis, Joan, et al - > >I don't know much about that dialect but I think I have seen other >things printed in it with 'wit' meaning 'with'. It may be what happened >as the dialect drifted away from the High German (mit) but hadn't yet >reached English (with). That is a guess and not a very educated one. > >The other thing I wondered is how are you all so sure it has a >translatable meaning at all, could it just be a brand name like >Coca-Cola or Exxon that just means itself? > >Jan > ****************************************************** Dennis O. Gehris, Ed.D. [email protected] 660 E. 2nd Street Bloomsburg, PA 17815 717-784-8648 ******************************************************