Pennsylvania Dutch - Definition and Overview

The Pennsylvania Dutch (more correctly Pennsylvania Deutsch or Pennsylvania German, speakers of the Pennsylvania German language) are a people of various religious affiliations, living mostly in central Pennsylvania, with cultural traditions dating back to the German immigrations to America in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Despite the name, the people are not from the Netherlands, but rather are from various parts of southwest Germany, Alsace and Switzerland. Pennsylvania Germans spoke a language known as Pennsylvania German, and some continue to speak it to this day. The word "Dutch" here is left over from an archaic sense of the English word, which once referred to Germany as well as to the Low Countries (now: The Netherlands and a large part of Belgium).

This archaism may have survived for various reasons; for example, the Pennsylvania German word for "German" is "Deitsch", which sounds similar to the English "Dutch". The Standard German word for "German" (itself) is "deutsch", which also sounds similar to "Dutch".

See also: Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine; Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; Prince Edward County, Ontario; Amish.