| Pennsylvania Dutch | |
|---|---|
| Pennsylvania German | |
| Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch | |
| Native to | United States, Canada |
| Region | United States:
Canada: Elsewhere in North America and some locations in Central America |
| Ethnicity | Pennsylvania Dutch |
Native speakers | 237,000 (2016–2020 American Community Survey)[1] to 350,000 (2012)[2] (L2 speakers: about 3,000) |
Early forms | Proto-Indo-European
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pdc |
| Glottolog | penn1240 |
| ELP | Pennsylvania German |
| Linguasphere | 52-ACB-he |
 Pennsylvania Dutch distribution in the United States | |
 Pennsylvania Dutch is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Pennsylvania Dutch (Deitsch, or Pennsilfaanisch) or Pennsylvania German is a variety of Palatine German[3] 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.
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 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 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.
- ^ 2016 American Community Survey, 5-year estimates (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/sda/)
- ^ Steven Hartman Keiser: Pennsylvania German in the American Midwest, 2012
- ^ Der Regebogen The Rainbow · Volumes 19-21. 1985. pp. 25, 26, 27.