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Pennsylvania GermanPennsilfaanisch Deitsch |
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The Pennsylvania German language (usually referred to as Pennsylvania Dutch language, or simply as Dutch, in American English;
usually referred to in Pennsylvania German as Deitsch, Pennsylvania Deitsch or Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch) is a variety of West
Central German possibly spoken by more than 250,000 people in North America. It has traditionally been the language of the
Pennsylvania Dutch, descendants of late 17th and early 18th century immigrants to the US states of Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Virginia and North Carolina from southern Germany, eastern France and Switzerland. Although for many, the term 'Pennsylvania
Dutch' is often taken to refer to the Old Order Amish and related groups exclusively, the term should not imply a connection
to any particular religious group. The Amish and Mennonites originally made up only a small percentage of the Pennsylvania
German population. In this context, the word Dutch does not refer to the Dutch people or their descendants. Instead it is
probably left over from an archaic sense of the English word Dutch; compare German Deutsch ('German'), Dutch Duits ('German'),
Diets ('Dutch'), which once referred to any people speaking a non-peripheral continental West Germanic language on the European
mainland. Alternatively, some sources give the origin of Dutch in this case as a corruption or a folk-rendering of the Pennsylvania
German endonym Deitsch. Speakers of the language are primarily found today in Ontario in Canada and in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
and Indiana in the United States. Historically, the dialect was also spoken in several other regions where its use has either
largely or entirely faded. The use of Pennsylvania German as a street language in urban areas of Pennsylvania (such as Allentown,
Reading, Lancaster and York) was declining by the arrival of the 20th century, while in more rural areas it continued in widespread
use through the World War II era. Since that time, its use has greatly declined. The exception to this decline is in the context
of the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities, and presently the members of these two groups make up the majority
of Pennsylvania German speakers (see Survival below). Some other North and South American Mennonites of Dutch and Prussian
origin speak what is actually a Low German dialect, referred to as Plautdietsch, which is quite different from Pennsylvania
German. |
Names (more)[af] Pennsilvaniese Duits[am] ፔንስልቫኒያ ጀርመንኛ [br] Alamaneg Pennsylvania [ca] Alemany pennsilvanià [cs] Pensylvánská němčina [kw] Pennsylvaynek [de] Pennsylvania Dutch [en] German, Pennsylvania [eo] Pensilvangermana dialekto [eu] Pennsylvaniako aleman [fi] Pennsylvaniansaksa [fr] Allemand de Pennsylvanie [hr] Pensilvanijski njemački [hu] Pennsylvaniai német nyelv [it] Tedesco della Pennsylvania [ja] ペンシルベニアドイツ語 [ko] 펜실베이니아 독일어 [la] Lingua Deitsch [nl] Pennsylvania-Duits [no] Pennsylvaniatysk [pl] Język niemiecki w Pensylwanii [pt] Alemão da Pensilvânia [ro] Germana din Pennsylvania [ru] Пенсильванско-немецкий диалект [sk] Pensylvánska nemčina [sl] Pensilvanska nemščina [es] Alemán de Pensilvania [sv] Pennsylvaniatyska [ta] பென்சில்வேனியா தச்சு [tr] Pensilvanya Almancası [ug] پېنسىلۋانىيە نېمىس تىلى [uk] Пенсильвансько-німецький діалект [vi] Tiếng Đức Pennsylvania [zh] 賓夕法尼亞德語 |
Language type : Living
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Pennsylvania German. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-3 : pdcLinked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/pdchttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:pdc More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: pdcFreebase ISO 639-3 : pdc GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |