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Pennsylvania German
Sign in to saveAlso known as Pennsylvanian language, Pennsylvania Dutch, Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvanisch, Amish language, Pennsylvania German-language, Pennsylvania German language, Pennsylvanisch Deitsch
variety of West Central German
Pennsylvania German is a variety of West Central German that developed among German-speaking settlers in Pennsylvania and has been passed down through generations, particularly among Anabaptist communities like the Amish and Mennonites. It matters because it represents a distinctive linguistic heritage that preserves historical patterns of the German language while serving as a key marker of cultural identity for these communities today.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- modern language
- Subclass of
- Rhine Franconian
- Country
- United States
Show 10 more facts
- indigenous to
- Oklahoma
- writing system
- Latin script
- native label
- Pennsylvania Dutch
- topic's main category
- Category:Pennsylvania Dutch language
- Wikimedia language code
- pdc
- number of speakers, writers, or signers
- 148000
- Commons category
- Pennsylvania German language
- replaces
- Frankish
- has grammatical gender
- neuter
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Pennsylvania Dutch (Deitsch, Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsch or Pennsilfaanisch) or Pennsylvania German is a variety of Palatine German spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch, including the Amish, Mennonites, Fancy Dutch, and other related groups in the United States and Canada. There are approximately 300,000 native speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch in the United States and Canada.
The language traditionally has been spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch, who are descendants of late 17th- and early to late 18th-century immigrants to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, who arrived primarily from southern Germany and, to a lesser degree, the regions of Alsace and Lorraine in eastern France, and parts of Switzerland.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Pennsylvania German” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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