104-758: The Pennsylvania Dutch ( Pennsylvania German : Pennsylvanisch Deitsche ), also referred to as Pennsylvania Germans , are an ethnic group in Pennsylvania (U.S.), Ontario (Canada) and other regions of the United States and Canada , most predominantly in the US Mid-Atlantic region. They largely originate from the Palatinate region of Germany , and settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. While most were from
208-465: A written standard based on the various spoken German dialects in a very long process that started in the time of classical Middle High German (1170–1250). Pennsylvania Dutch instead reflects the independent development of Palatine German, especially from the region that is called Vorderpfalz in German. Since Pennsylvania Dutch is largely derived from Palatine German, which did not fully undergo
312-561: A German entrepreneur and artist, had settled in upstate New York and in May 1794, he was able to obtain sixty-four acres in Markham Township, near the current city of Toronto . Berczy arrived with approximately one hundred and ninety German families from Pennsylvania and settled here. Others later moved to other locations in the general area, including a hamlet they founded, German Mills, Ontario , named for its grist mill; that community
416-515: A colony of aliens , who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of us Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion. The Germans who immigrated to the United States saw themselves as related though distinct from later (post-1830) waves of German-speaking immigrants. The Pennsylvania Dutch referred to themselves as Deitsche and would refer to Germans who arrived after
520-647: A form of Swiss German and Low Alemannic Alsatian , not Pennsylvania Dutch, are spoken. Additionally, English has mostly replaced Pennsylvania Dutch among the car driving Old Order Horning and the Wisler Mennonites. Other religious groups among whose members the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect would have once been predominant, include: Lutheran and German Reformed congregations of Pennsylvania Dutch background, Schwenkfelders , and Schwarzenau (German Baptist) Brethren . Until fairly recent times,
624-580: A lesser degree, the regions of Alsace and Lorraine in eastern France , and parts of Switzerland . Differing explanations exist on why the Pennsylvania Dutch are referred to as Dutch , which typically refers to the inhabitants of the Netherlands or the Dutch language , only distantly related to Pennsylvania German. Speakers of the dialect today are primarily found in Pennsylvania, Ohio , Indiana , and other Midwestern states , as well as parts of
728-678: A love of real freedom to the preserving and hence making of our country. In the town halls in Dutch cities liberty bells were hung, and from the "Liberty Bell" placed in Philadelphia by Pennsylvania Dutchmen, on July 4th 1776, freedom was proclaimed "throughout all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof." These Palatine Dutchmen gave us some of our bravest men in the war of the American Revolution, notably Nicholas Herkimer . Many Hessian prisoners, German mercenaries fighting for
832-580: A mix of German dialects which have been significantly influenced by English, primarily in terms of vocabulary. Based on dialect features, Pennsylvania Dutch can be classified as a variety of Rhine Franconian , with the Palatine German dialects being most closely related. Geographically, Pennsylvania Dutch are largely found in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country and Ohio Amish Country . The main division among Pennsylvania Dutch
936-589: A platoon of Pennsylvania Dutch soldiers on patrol in Germany was once spared from being machine-gunned by Nazi soldiers who listened to them approaching. The Germans heard them speaking Pennsylvania Dutch amongst each other and assumed that they were natives of the Palatinate. An early group, mainly from the Roxborough -Germantown area of Pennsylvania, emigrated to then colonial Nova Scotia in 1766 and founded
1040-460: A powerful conveyor of Amish identity." Although "the English language is being used in more and more situations," nonetheless Pennsylvania Dutch is "one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants." Because it is an isolated dialect and almost all native speakers are bilingual in English, the biggest threat to
1144-820: A root verb and a prefix. Some of these in Standard German are completely semantically transparent, such as mit-gehen 'to go with', from mit- 'with' and gehen 'go'. Others, like mit-teilen lit. ' with-share ' which means 'to inform' and not the sharing of concrete entities, are not semantically transparent. That is, their meaning is not the sum of their parts. Separable verbs are used widely in Pennsylvania Dutch, and separable verbs can even be formed with English roots and prefixes. Virtually all separable verbs in Pennsylvania Dutch are semantically transparent. Many semantically opaque separable verbs such as um-ziehe lit. ' pull around ' , meaning, 'to move house', has been replaced by
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#17327651432101248-545: A second wave of immigration in the mid-19th century, which came from the same regions, but settled more frequently in Ohio, Indiana, and other parts of the Midwest. Thus, an entire industrial vocabulary relating to electricity, machinery and modern farming implements has naturally been borrowed from the English. For Pennsylvania Dutch speakers who work in a modern trade or in an industrial environment, this could potentially increase
1352-447: A spoken dialect throughout its history, with very few of its speakers making much of an attempt to read or write it. Writing in Pennsylvania Dutch can be a difficult task, and there is no spelling standard for the dialect. There are currently two primary competing models upon which numerous orthographic (i.e., spelling) systems have been based by individuals who attempt to write in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. One 'school' tends to follow
1456-573: A yearly service in Pennsylvania Dutch. Other non-native speakers of the dialect include those persons that regularly do business with native speakers. Among them, the Old Order Amish population was probably around 227,000 in 2008. Additionally, the Old Order Mennonite population, a sizable percentage of which is Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking, numbers several tens of thousands. There are also thousands of other Mennonites who speak
1560-688: 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
1664-530: Is a mountainous region of about 2,400 square miles (6,200 km ) located in Northeastern Pennsylvania , approximately 30 miles north of Allentown , which is a nationally popular recreational winter destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports and (in off-season months) for hiking, kayaking, tubing, and other recreational activities. The region consists of the following four Pennsylvania counties: May be considered part of
1768-564: Is best preserved in the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities, and presently the members of both groups make up the majority of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers. The ancestors of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers came from various parts of the southwestern regions of German -speaking Europe, including Palatinate , Electoral Palatinate (German: Kurpfalz ), the Duchy of Baden , Hesse , Saxony , Swabia , Württemberg , Alsace (German Elsass ), German Lorraine , and Switzerland . Most of
1872-448: Is conjugated simply as realized , and 'farm' may be conjugated as farmed or ge-farm-t . Some German-origin verbs may also appear without the ge- prefix. Schwetze 'talk, speak', may be conjugated as geschwetzt or simply as schwetzt . Both English influence and overall simplification may be at work in the dropping of the ge- prefix. Pennsylvania Dutch, like Standard German, has many separable verbs composed of
1976-561: Is corroborated with evidence, such as one of the oldest German newspapers in Pennsylvania being the High-Dutch Pennsylvania Journal in 1743. An alternative interpretation commonly found among laypeople and scholars alike is that the Dutch in Pennsylvania Dutch is an anglicization or "corruption" ( folk-etymological re-interpretation) of the Pennsylvania German autonym deitsch , which in
2080-425: Is disputed. As in Standard German, Pennsylvania Dutch uses three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Pennsylvania Dutch has three cases for personal pronouns : the accusative , nominative , and dative , and two cases for nouns: the common case, with both accusative and nominative functions, and the dative case. There is no genitive case in Pennsylvania Dutch. The historical genitive case has been replaced by
2184-519: Is mainly derived from Palatine German , spoken by 2,400,000 Germans in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region , a region almost identical to the historical Palatinate. There are similarities between the German dialect that is still spoken in this small part of southwestern Germany and Pennsylvania Dutch. When individuals from the Palatinate (Pfalz) region of Germany today encounter Pennsylvania Dutch speakers, conversation
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#17327651432102288-424: Is more easily pronounced, and so German gesund > gsund > tsund and German gesagt > gsaat > tsaat . Likewise, German gescheid > gscheid > tscheid /tʃaɪt/ . German zurück > zrick > tsrick /tʃɹɪk/ . The shift is rather common with German children learning to speak. The softened ⟨w⟩ after guttural consonants has mixed with
2392-650: Is more integrated into broader American society and is more likely to adopt modern conveniences and technologies. While they may still preserve some Pennsylvania Dutch traditions and language, English is predominantly used in daily life and religious practices. The Church Dutch exhibit a higher degree of assimilation into American culture, while still retaining elements of their Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. The primary differences between these groups lie in their religious practices, lifestyle, language use, and cultural integration. The Plain Dutch are more conservative and focused on maintaining their distinct cultural identity, whereas
2496-796: Is mostly spoken by Old Order Mennonites . From 1800 to the 1830s, some Mennonites in Upstate New York and Pennsylvania moved north to Canada, primarily to the area that would become Cambridge , Kitchener / Waterloo and St. Jacobs / Elmira in Waterloo County, Ontario, plus the Listowel area adjacent to the northwest. Settlement started in 1800 by Joseph Schoerg and Samuel Betzner Jr. (brothers-in-law), Mennonites, from Franklin County, Pennsylvania . Other settlers followed mostly from Pennsylvania typically by Conestoga wagons . Many of
2600-576: Is named for the Delaware River , which flows through the region. It includes the following five Pennsylvania counties: Pennsylvania's Piedmont region is a heavily agricultural section of the Piedmont Plateau . It consists of the following seven Pennsylvania counties: Pennsylvania Dutch Country refers to an area of Pennsylvania, which has a high percentage of Amish, Mennonite, and "Fancy Dutch" residents. The Pennsylvania Dutch language
2704-629: Is now called Thornhill, Ontario , in the township that is now part of York Region . In Canada , an 1851 census shows many Black people and Mennonites lived near each other in a number of places and exchanged labor; the Dutch would also hire Black laborers. There were also accounts of Black families providing childcare assistance for their Dutch neighbors. These Pennsylvania Dutch were usually Plain Dutch Mennonites or Fancy Dutch Lutherans. The Black-Mennonite relationship in Canada soon evolved to
2808-707: Is now in its fourth century on North American soil, had more than 250,000 speakers in 2012. It has shifted its center to the West with approximately 160,000 speakers in Ohio , Indiana , Wisconsin , Iowa and other Midwest states. There is even a small but growing number of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers in Upper Barton Creek and Springfield in Belize among Old Order Mennonites of the Noah Hoover group . The dialect
2912-574: Is often possible to a limited degree. Pennsylvania Dutch for the most part does not reflect the diverse origins of the early speakers from regions along the upper Rhine River ( Rhineland , Württemberg , Baden , Saarland , Switzerland and the Elsass/ Alsace ) but almost exclusively the strong immigrant group from the Palatine. Pennsylvania Dutch is not a corrupted form of Standard German , since Standard German originally developed as
3016-410: Is often referred to as some combination of the following counties: The following counties are less frequently included in the description of the region: Southern Alleghenies is a geographic region of West Central Pennsylvania, consisting of the following counties: Happy Valley is a large valley located in central Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State University is located in the valley. Consisting of
3120-592: Is presented below. The text in the second column illustrates a system based on American English orthography. The text in the third column uses, on the other hand, a system based on Standard German. The English original is found in the first column, and a Standard German version appears in the fifth column. (Note: The German version(s) of the Lord's Prayer most likely to have been used by Pennsylvania Germans would have been derived in most cases from Martin Luther's translation of
3224-610: Is still rather easy to understand by German dialect speakers of the Rhineland-Palatinate area. The people from southern Germany, eastern France and Switzerland, where the Pennsylvania Dutch culture and dialect sprung, started to arrive in North America in the late 17th and the early 18th centuries, before the beginning of the Industrial Revolution . To a more limited extent, that is also true of
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3328-553: Is that between sectarians (those belonging to the Old Order Mennonite , Amish or related groups) and nonsectarians, sometimes colloquially referred to as ″Church Dutch″ or ″ Fancy Dutch ″. Notable Americans of Pennsylvania Dutch descent include Henry J. Heinz , founder of the Heinz food conglomerate, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower , and the family of businessman Elon Musk . Differing explanations exist on why
3432-601: Is used vigorously by the horse and buggy Old Order Mennonites in the northern part of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Speakers without an Anabaptist background in general do not pass the dialect to their children today, but the Old Order Amish and horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites do so in the current generation, and there are no signs that the practice will end in
3536-449: Is widely spoken among them, both in daily life and religious settings. The Plain Dutch adhere strictly to their religious and community norms, emphasizing a strong cultural and religious identity with minimal integration into mainstream American culture. The Church Dutch, in contrast, belong to more mainstream Protestant denominations such as Lutheran, Reformed, United Church of Christ, and some Methodist and Baptist congregations. This group
3640-632: The 27th Infantry Division broke through the Hindenburg Line in 1917. Before World War II, the Nazi Party sought to gain the loyalty of the German-American community, and established pro-Nazi German-American Bunden , emphasizing German-American immigrant ties to the "Fatherland". The Nazi propaganda effort failed in the Pennsylvania Dutch community, as the Pennsylvania Dutch felt no sense of loyalty to Germany. During World War II,
3744-604: The American Civil War , the federal government replaced Pennsylvania German schools with English-only schools. Literary German disappeared from Pennsylvania Dutch life little by little, starting with schools, and then to churches and newspapers. With the decline of German instruction, Pennsylvania High German became a dead language . Since 1997, the Pennsylvania Dutch newspaper Hiwwe wie Driwwe allows dialect authors (of whom there are still about 100) to publish Pennsylvania Dutch poetry and prose. Hiwwe wie Driwwe
3848-621: The Battle of Springfield . The Marechausee also provided security for Washington's headquarters during the Battle of Yorktown , acted as his security detail, and was one of the last units deactivated after the Revolutionary War. The Marechaussee Corps was often not well received by the Continental Army, due in part to their defined duties but also due to the fact that some members of the corps spoke little or no English. Six of
3952-746: The Delaware Valley and in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, a large area that includes South Central Pennsylvania , in the area stretching in an arc from Bethlehem and Allentown in the Lehigh Valley westward through Reading , Lebanon , and Lancaster to York and Chambersburg . Smaller enclaves include Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking areas in New York , Delaware , Maryland , Ohio , West Virginia , North Carolina , Indiana , Illinois , Wisconsin , Virginia , and
4056-596: The High German consonant shift , several vowels and consonants in Pennsylvania Dutch differ when compared with Standard German or Upper German dialects such as Alemannic and Bavarian. The American English influence is most significant on vocabulary and to a much lesser degree on pronunciation; the English influence on grammar is relatively small. The question of whether the large loss of the dative case —the most significant difference compared with Palatine German—is due to English influence or reflects an inner development
4160-673: The Noah Hoover Mennonites speak Pennsylvania Dutch. There are also some recent New Order Amish immigrants in Bolivia , Argentina , and Belize who speak Pennsylvania Dutch while the great majority of conservative Mennionites in those countries speak Plautdietsch. Heut is 's xäctly zwanzig Johr Dass ich bin owwe naus; Nau bin ich widder lewig z'rück Und steh am Schulhaus an d'r Krick Juscht nächst ans Daddy's Haus. Today it's exactly twenty years Since I went up and away; Now I am back again, alive, And stand at
4264-745: The Southern states such as in Kentucky and Tennessee , in the United States, and in Ontario in Canada. The dialect historically was also spoken in other regions where its use has largely or entirely faded. The practice of Pennsylvania Dutch as a street language in urban areas of Pennsylvania, including Allentown , Reading , Lancaster , and York , was declining by the beginning of the 20th century. But in more rural Pennsylvania areas, it continued in widespread use until World War II . Since that time, its use in Pennsylvania rural areas has greatly declined. It
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4368-469: The Thirteen Colonies went its own way as an independent nation. In that history, Pennsylvania adopted the Pennsylvania Dutch language as its national language and developed into a German-speaking nation, with its own specific culture, very distinct from both its English-speaking neighbors and European Germany. Organizations South Central Pennsylvania Regions of Pennsylvania in
4472-603: The Township of Monckton , site of present-day Moncton, New Brunswick . The extensive Steeves clan descends from this group. After the American Revolution, John Graves Simcoe , lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, invited Americans, including Mennonites and German Baptist Brethren, to settle in British North American territory and offered tracts of land to immigrant groups. This resulted in communities of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers emigrating to Canada, many to
4576-672: The American colonies. The availability of fertile land was a significant draw for the immigrants, who were mainly farmers and craftsmen, for whom the chance to own and cultivate their own farms was highly appealing. Positive reports from early settlers as well as active recruitment by William Penn encouraged friends and family to join them, fostering tightly knit communities. About three fourths of all Germans in Pennsylvania were subject to several years of indentured servitude contracts. These indentured servants, known as redemptioners , were made to work on plantations or perform other work to pay off
4680-578: The Bible into Pennsylvania Dutch. The New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs was published in 2002 by the Bible League. The entire Bible, Di Heilich Shrift , was completed and published in 2013 by TGS International. Deitsh Books has published a dictionary (2013) and a grammar book (2014) by D Miller using the same American English orthography. In 2014, Jehovah's Witnesses began to publish literature in Pennsylvania Dutch. Pennsylvania Dutch, which
4784-484: The British, were held in camps at the interior city of Lancaster, home to a large German community known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. Hessian prisoners were subsequently treated well, with some volunteering for extra work assignments, helping to replace local men serving in the Continental Army. Due to shared German heritage and abundance of land, many Hessian soldiers stayed and settled in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country after
4888-587: The Canadian province of Ontario . The Pennsylvania Dutch, primarily German-speaking immigrants from Germany (particularly the Palatinate region ), Switzerland, and Alsace, moved to the USA seeking better opportunities and a safer, more tolerant environment. Many, including Amish and Mennonites, faced religious persecution in Europe. Pennsylvania, established by William Penn as a haven for religious minorities, promised
4992-646: The Church Dutch are more assimilated and open to modern influences. In time the Fancy Dutch came to control much of the best agricultural lands, ran many newspapers and maintained their German-inspired architecture when founding new towns in Pennsylvania. There is little evidence specifically of Black Pennsylvania Dutch speakers during the early 19th century; following the Civil War, some Black Southerners who had moved to Pennsylvania developed close ties with
5096-596: The Civil War, the federal government took steps to replace Pennsylvania German schools with English-only schools. The Pennsylvania Dutch fought to retain German as an official language in Pennsylvania to little success. Literary German disappeared from Pennsylvania Dutch life little by little, starting with schools, and then to churches and newspapers. Pennsylvania Dutch became mainly a spoken language, and as education came to only be provided in English, many Pennsylvania Dutch became bilingual. The next blow to Pennsylvania Dutch came during World War I and World War II. Prior to
5200-430: The English word move . Adjectival endings exist but appear simplified compared to Standard German. As in all other South German dialects, the past tense is generally expressed using the perfect : Ich bin ins Feld glaafe ('I have run into the field') and not the simple past ( Ich lief ins Feld ['I ran into the field']), which is retained only in the verb "to be", as war or ware , corresponding to English
5304-482: The Mennonites in the same area. Pennsylvania Dutch English retains some German grammar and literally translated vocabulary, some phrases include "outen or out'n the lights" (German: die Lichter loeschen ) meaning "turn off the lights", "it's gonna make wet" (German: es wird nass ) meaning "it's going to rain", and "it's all" (German: es ist alle ) meaning "it's all gone". They also sometimes leave out
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#17327651432105408-606: The New Testament.) Pennsylvania High German is a literary form of Palatine written in Pennsylvania , the Palatinate , and other Palatine states (e.g. the Hessian Palatinate ), used between the 1700s and early 1900s. In Pennsylvania, this literary form helped maintain German education and instruction, and was spoken in schools and churches. It is often seen in Fraktur art and script. Immediately after
5512-537: The Palatinate region of Germany, a lesser number were from other German-speaking areas of Germany and Europe, including Baden-Württemberg , Hesse , Saxony , and Rhineland in Germany, Switzerland , and the Alsace–Lorraine region of France . The Pennsylvania Dutch are either monolingual English speakers or bilingual speakers of both English and the Pennsylvania Dutch language, which is also commonly referred to as Pennsylvania German. Linguistically it consists of
5616-637: The Pennsylvania Colony. Below is a quotation of Benjamin Franklin 's complaints about the Palatine refugees in his work Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind (1751) : Why should the Palatine boors be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and by herding together establish their language and manners to the exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become
5720-432: The Pennsylvania Dutch are referred to as Dutch , which typically refers to the inhabitants of the Netherlands or the Dutch language . Several authors and etymological publications consider the word Dutch in Pennsylvania Dutch , which in medieval times could also be used to refer to speakers of various German dialects, to be an archaism specific to 19th-century American English, particularly in its colloquial form. This
5824-593: The Pennsylvania Dutch community, adopting the language and assimilating into the culture. An 1892 article in The New York Sun noted a community of "Pennsylvania German Negroes" in Lebanon County for whom German was their first language. Today Pennsylvania Dutch culture is still prevalent in some parts of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Dutch speak English, with some being bilingual in English and Pennsylvania Dutch. They share cultural similarities with
5928-411: The Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. In the 2007–2008 school year, the classes were being taught by Professor Edward Quinter. In 2008–2009, Professor Robert Lusch served as the instructor. According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as
6032-434: The Pennsylvania German language refers to the Pennsylvania Dutch or Germans in general. However, some authors have described this hypothesis as a misconception. The migration of the Pennsylvania Dutch to the United States predates the emergence of a distinct German national identity, which did not form until the late 18th century. The formation of the German Empire in 1871 resulted in a semantic shift , in which deutsch
6136-427: The Poconos The Coal Region is a term used to refer to an area of Northeastern Pennsylvania in the central Appalachian Mountains . The region is home to the largest known deposits of anthracite coal in the world with an estimated a reserve of seven billion tons. Wyoming Valley is a region of Northeastern Pennsylvania shaped like a crescent and part of the ridge-and-valley or folded Appalachians, which includes
6240-510: The United States include: The Lehigh Valley is named for the Lehigh River , which flows through it. The region includes Allentown , the third-most populous city in Pennsylvania, the neighboring eastern Pennsylvania cities of Bethlehem and Easton , and its more rural suburbs. The region was once a hub for American heavy manufacturing. Its economy is now more diverse, and it has one of the state's fastest growing populations. It consists of two eastern Pennsylvania counties: The Delaware Valley
6344-423: The United States. There are also attempts being made in a few communities to teach the dialect in a classroom setting; however, as every year passes by, fewer and fewer in those particular communities speak the dialect. There is still a weekly radio program in the dialect whose audience is made up mostly of the diverse groups, and many Lutheran and Reformed congregations in Pennsylvania that formerly used German have
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#17327651432106448-410: The age of 40 never used the dative, while older speakers showed strongly variable behavior. There was little difference between members of the different religious denominations in the Kalona. Many verbs of English origin are used in Pennsylvania Dutch. Most English-origin verbs are treated as German weak verbs , receiving a past participle with a ge- prefix and a -t suffix, thus for example
6552-419: The area called the German Company Tract, a subset of land within the Haldimand Tract , in the Township of Waterloo, which later became Waterloo County, Ontario . Some still live in the area around Markham, Ontario , and particularly in the northern areas of the current Waterloo Region . Some members of the two communities formed the Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference . Today, the Pennsylvania Dutch language
6656-606: The challenge of maintaining their mother tongue. Numerous English words have been borrowed and adapted for use in Pennsylvania Dutch since the first generations of Pennsylvania German habitation of southeastern Pennsylvania. Examples of English loan words that are relatively common are bet ( Ich bet, du kannscht Deitsch schwetze 'I bet you can speak Pennsylvania Dutch'), depend ( Es dependt en wennig, waer du bischt 'it depends somewhat on who you are'); tschaepp for 'chap' or 'guy'; and tschumbe for 'to jump'. Today, many speakers will use Pennsylvania Dutch words for
6760-424: The conflict with Britain. Frederick Muhlenberg (1750–1801), a Lutheran pastor, became a major patriot and politician, rising to be elected as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Pennsylvania Dutch contribution to the war effort was notable: In the marked influence for right and freedom of these early Hollanders and Palatines , in their brave defense of home, did such valiant service in promoting
6864-420: The costs of the sponsor or shipping company which had advanced the cost of their transatlantic voyage. In 1764, the German Society of Pennsylvania was founded to protect the German redemptioners. The bulk of German migration to the American colonies began in 1683 but concentrated on the first half of the 18th century. Overall, the historian Marianne Wokeck estimates that just under 81,000 German-speakers entered
6968-513: The dative is widely used among the older generations who are fluent in Pennsylvania German, whereas younger semi-speakers tend not to use the dative as much. Many semi-speakers used the English possessive -'s . In contrast, Anabaptists in central Pennsylvania had almost completely replaced the dative with the accusative case. Meanwhile, members of the entirely Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking community in Kalona , all of whom were Amish or Mennonite, showed strong age-related variation. Speakers under
7072-406: The dative, and possession is indicated with a special construction using the dative and the possessive pronoun: 'the man's dog' becomes em Mann sei Hund (literally: 'to the man his dog'). Studies have shown variability in the use of the dative case in both sectarian and non-sectarian communities. The trend is towards use of the common case for nouns and the accusative case for pronouns, instead of
7176-508: The dative. Thus, em Mann sei Hund , for example, has frequently become der Mann sei Hund . The dative case in Pennsylvania German is used to express possession, to mark objects of prepositions , to mark indirect objects , and to indicate the direct objects of certain verbs. It is expressed, as in Standard German, through the use of dative forms of personal pronouns and through certain inflections of articles and adjectives modifying nouns. In non-sectarian speech in central Pennsylvania,
7280-475: The dialect is gradual decay of the traditional vocabulary, which is then replaced by English loan words or words corrupted from English. In the United States, most Old Order Amish and all "horse and buggy" Old Order Mennonite groups speak Pennsylvania Dutch, except the Old Order Mennonites of Virginia , where German was already mostly replaced at the end of the 19th century. There are several Old Order Amish communities (especially in Indiana) where Bernese German ,
7384-505: The dialect, as well as thousands more older Pennsylvania Dutch speakers of non-Amish and non-Mennonite background. The Grundsau Lodge, which is an organization in southeastern Pennsylvania of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers, is said to have 6,000 members. Therefore, a fair estimate of the speaker population in 2008 might be close to 300,000, although many, including some academic publications, may report much lower numbers, uninformed of those diverse speaker groups. There are no formal statistics on
7488-558: The dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard, or High, German ( Hochdeitsch ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as
7592-618: The east of the Endless Mountains in New York state . Consisting of the following counties: The Northern Tier is a geographic region in Northeastern Pennsylvania . Consisting of the following counties: The Susquehanna River is a river in the Northeastern United States . At approximately 410 mi (715 km) in length, it is the longest river on the East Coast . South Central Pennsylvania
7696-572: The following county: Cumberland Valley is a geographic region that lies between South Mountain and Blue Ridge Mountains of Central Pennsylvania and Western Maryland . Consisting of the following counties: The Laurel Highlands, in the southwestern part of the state of Pennsylvania, traverses the Laurel and Chestnut ridges of the Allegheny Mountains . Consisting of the following counties: Also known as Southwestern Pennsylvania,
7800-585: The future. There are only two car driving Anabaptist groups who have preserved the dialect: The Old Beachy Amish and the Kauffman Amish Mennonites , also called Sleeping Preacher Churches. Even though Amish and Old Order Mennonites were originally a minority group within the Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking population, today they form the vast majority. According to sociologist John A. Hostetler , less than 10 percent of
7904-467: The guttural ⟨r⟩ of earlier generations and also turned into an American ⟨r⟩ and so German gewesen > gwest > grest and German geschwind > gschwind > tschrind /tʃɹɪnt/ . The changes in pronunciation, combined with the general disappearance of declensions as described above, result in a form of the dialect that has evolved somewhat from its early Pennsylvania origins nearly 300 years ago and
8008-477: The habit of labeling anyone who did not speak Pennsylvania Dutch "English.") Many of the Pennsylvania Dutch soldiers who fought in the Civil War were recruited and trained at Camp Curtin , Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Dutch regiments composed a large portion of the Federal Forces who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania , the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Immediately after
8112-424: The instructions of his father: "Don't ever call yourself "Dutch" or "Pennsylvania German." You're just American." Many Pennsylvania Dutch have chosen to assimilate into Anglo-American culture, except for a significant number of Amish and Mennonite plain people who chose to remain insular, which has added to the modern misconception that "Pennsylvania Dutch" is synonymous with "Amish." Palatine Dutch of New York in
8216-519: The language from hearing their parents using it and from interactions with the generation older than their parents. Among the first natively English speaking generation, oldest siblings typically speak Pennsylvania Dutch better than younger ones. There have been efforts to advance the use of the dialect. Kutztown University offers a complete minor program in Pennsylvania German Studies. The program includes two full semesters of
8320-712: The level of church membership. Pennsylvania Dutch society can be divided into two main groups: the sectarian "Plain Dutch" and the nonsectarian "Church Dutch" also known as "Fancy Dutch". These classifications highlight differences in religious practices, lifestyle, and degrees of assimilation into broader American society. The Plain Dutch consist of Anabaptist sects, including the Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren. They are known for their conservative, simple lifestyle, characterized by plain dress and limited use of modern technology. These communities typically reside in rural areas, maintaining traditional farming practices and close-knit communal living. Pennsylvania Dutch (a dialect of German)
8424-505: The majority of whom were Fancy Dutch. Some regiments like the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were entirely composed of Pennsylvania Dutch soldiers. The 47th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment also had a high percentage of German immigrants and Pennsylvania-born men of German heritage on its rosters; the regiment's K Company was formed with the intent of it being an "all-German company." Pennsylvania Dutch companies sometimes mixed with English-speaking companies. (The Pennsylvania Dutch had
8528-541: The metropolitan areas of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre . Consisting of the following counties: The Endless Mountains are a chain of mountains in Northeastern Pennsylvania that are part of the Appalachian Mountains chain. The mountains are not true mountains, geologically speaking, but are a dissected plateau and part of the Allegheny Plateau , along with the higher Catskill Mountains to
8632-460: The original Pennsylvania Dutch population was Amish or Mennonite. As of 1989, non-sectarian, or non-Amish and non-Mennonite, native Pennsylvania-Dutch speaking parents have generally spoken to their children exclusively in English. The reasons they cited were preventing their children from developing a "Dutch" accent and preparing them for school. Older speakers generally did not see a reason for young people to speak it. Many of their children learned
8736-407: The past participle of 'change' is usually ge-change-t . Verbs with unstressed first syllables generally do not take the ge- prefix, so the past participle of 'adopt' is adopted , as in English. This follows the pattern of words with inseparable prefixes in German. However, English-origin verbs which are stressed on the first syllable may also appear without the ge- prefix. Thus, 'realize'
8840-415: The people in these areas spoke Rhine Franconian , especially Palatine German and, to a lesser degree, Alemannic dialects; it is believed that in the first generations after the settlers arrived, the dialects merged. The result of that dialect levelling was a dialect very close to the eastern dialects of Palatine German, especially the rural dialects around Mannheim / Ludwigshafen . Pennsylvania Dutch
8944-597: The period of almost non-existent emigration between 1760 and 1830 from the German lands as Deitschlenner , literally "Germany-ers", compare German : Deutschländer . The Pennsylvania Dutch composed nearly half of the population of the Province of Pennsylvania . The Fancy Dutch population generally supported the Patriot cause in the American Revolution ; the nonviolent Plain Dutch minority did not fight in
9048-788: The pioneers arriving from Pennsylvania after November 1803 bought land in a sixty thousand-acre section established by a group of Mennonites from Lancaster County Pennsylvania, called the German Company Lands. Fewer of the Pennsylvania Dutch settled in what would later become the Greater Toronto Area in areas that would later be the towns of Altona, Ontario , Pickering, Ontario , and especially Markham Village, Ontario , and Stouffville, Ontario . Peter Reesor and brother-in-law Abraham Stouffer were higher profile settlers in Markham and Stouffville. William Berczy ,
9152-441: The port of Philadelphia between 1683 and 1775, with two thirds of the immigrants arriving before 1755 of whom the majority (ca. 35,000) arrived in the five-year period between 1749 and 1754. In 1790, ethnic Germans comprised 38% of the population of Pennsylvania, or approximately 165,000 people. Of these, over half resided in the counties of Berks, Lancaster, Northampton and York. Anglo-Americans held much anti-Palatine sentiment in
9256-439: The provosts had even been Hessian prisoners of war prior to their recruitment. Because the provost corps completed many of the same functions as the modern U.S. Military Police Corps , it is considered a predecessor of the current United States Military Police Regiment. Nearly all of the regiments from Pennsylvania that fought in the American Civil War had German-speaking or Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking members on their rosters,
9360-461: The religious freedom they sought. Economic hardship, marked by war, famine, and limited land access in 17th and 18th century Germany, pushed many to seek a better life in the New World, which offered abundant land and resources. Europe's, and especially Germany's, political instability, with frequent wars like the devastating Thirty Years' War , contrasted with the relatively stable environment of
9464-458: The rules of American English orthography, the other the rules of Standard German orthography (developed by Preston Barba and Albert F. Buffington ). The choice of writing system is not meant to imply any difference in pronunciation. For comparison, a translation into Pennsylvania Dutch, using two spelling systems, of the Lord's Prayer , as found in the common traditional language English translation,
9568-473: The schoolhouse by the creek Just next to Grandpa's house. Orange is the New Black character Leanne Taylor and family are featured speaking Pennsylvania Dutch in flashbacks showing her Amish background before ending up in prison. Science-fiction writer Michael Flynn wrote the novella The Forest of Time , depicting an alternate history in which the United States was never established, but each of
9672-573: The size of the Amish population, and most who speak Pennsylvania Dutch on the Canadian and U.S. censuses would report that they speak German, since it is the closest option available. Pennsylvania Dutch was reported under ethnicity in the 2000 census. There are also some Pennsylvania Dutch speakers who belong to traditional Anabaptist groups in Latin America. Even though most Mennonite communities in Belize speak Plautdietsch , some few hundreds who came to Belize mostly around 1970 and who belong to
9776-590: The smaller numerals and English for larger and more complicated numbers, like $ 27,599. Conversely, although many among the earlier generations of Pennsylvania Dutch could speak English, they were known for speaking it with a strong and distinctive accent. Such Pennsylvania Dutch English can still sometimes be heard. Although the more-recently coined term is being used in the context of this and related articles to describe this Pennsylvania Dutch-influenced English, it has traditionally been referred to as "Dutchy" or "Dutchified" English. Pennsylvania Dutch has primarily been
9880-801: The speaking of Pennsylvania Dutch had absolutely no religious connotations. In Ontario, Canada, the Old Order Amish, the members of the Ontario Old Order Mennonite Conference , the David Martin Old Order Mennonites , the Orthodox Mennonites and smaller pockets of others (regardless of religious affiliation) speak Pennsylvania Dutch. The members of the car driving Old Order Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference have mostly switched to English. In 2017, there were about 10,000 speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch in Canada, far fewer than in
9984-552: The verb in phrases turning "the trash needs to go out" in to "the trash needs out" (German: der Abfall muss raus ), in alignment with German grammar. The Pennsylvania Dutch have some foods that are uncommon outside of places where they live. Some of these include shoo-fly pie , funnel cake , pepper cabbage, filling and jello salads such as strawberry pretzel salad. Pennsylvania German language Canada: Pennsylvania Dutch ( Deitsch , Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsch or Pennsilfaanisch ) or Pennsylvania German
10088-633: The war's end. Pennsylvania Dutch were recruited for the American Provost corps under Captain Bartholomew von Heer, a Prussian who had served in a similar unit in Europe before immigrating to Reading, Pennsylvania , prior to the war. During the Revolutionary War the Marechaussee Corps were utilized in a variety of ways, including intelligence gathering, route security, enemy prisoner of war operations, and even combat during
10192-613: The war. Heinrich Miller of the Holy Roman Principality of Waldeck (1702–1782), was a journalist and printer based in Philadelphia, and published an early German translation of the Declaration of Independence (1776) in his newspaper Philadelphische Staatsbote . Miller, having Swiss ancestry, often wrote about Swiss history and myth, such as the William Tell legend, to provide a context for patriot support in
10296-402: The wars, Pennsylvania Dutch was an urban language spoken openly in the streets of towns such as Allentown, Reading, Lancaster and York; afterwards, it became relegated only to rural areas. There was rampant social & employment discrimination for anyone suspected of being German. Meritt G. Yorgey, a Pennsylvania Dutch descendant who grew up during the height of anti-German sentiment, remembers
10400-676: The years. Two examples are A Simple Grammar of Pennsylvania Dutch by J. William Frey and A Pennsylvania German Reader and Grammar by Earl C. Haag . The tables below use IPA symbols to compare sounds used in Standard German (to the left) with sounds that correspond to them in their Pennsylvania Dutch cognates , reflecting their respective evolutions since they diverged from a common origin. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania , there have been numerous other shifts that can make their Pennsylvania Dutch particularly difficult for modern High German speakers to understand. A word beginning in ⟨gs⟩ generally becomes ⟨ts⟩ , which
10504-492: Was and were . The subjunctive mood is extant only as Konjunktiv I ( Konjunktiv II is totally lost) in a limited number of verbs. In all other verbs it is expressed through the form of Konjunktiv I of the verbs 'to do' ( du ) and 'to have' ( hawwe / have ) combined with the infinitive or the past participle , e.g., ich daet esse ('I would eat'), ich hett gesse ('I would have eaten'). Several Pennsylvania Dutch grammars have been published over
10608-632: Was founded by Michael Werner . It is published twice a year (2,400 copies per issue)—since 2013 in cooperation with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University . Since 2002, the newspaper is published both online and in print . In 2006, the German publishing house Edition Tintenfaß started to print books in Pennsylvania Dutch. Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc., using American English orthography (see Written language), has translated
10712-619: Was historically common, and is still spoken today by many Amish people residing in the state. It consists of the following counties: This mountainous area of Pennsylvania includes the Pocono Mountains , the Endless Mountains , and former anthracite coal mining cities, boroughs, and villages. Northeastern Pennsylvania consists of the following 14 counties: The Poconos , or the Pocono Mountains region,
10816-413: Was no longer principally a linguistic and cultural term, but was increasingly used to describe all things related to Germany and its inhabitants. This development did not go unnoticed among the Pennsylvania Dutch who, in the 19th and early 20th century, referred to themselves as Deitsche , while calling newer German immigrants Deitschlenner lit. 'Germany-ans'. The Pennsylvania Dutch live primarily in
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