German, Pennsylvania

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A language of United States

ISO 639-3
pdc
Alternate Names
Pennsylvania Deitsh, Pennsylvania Dutch, Pennsylvanish
Population

118,000 in United States (2010 census), increasing. Population total all countries: 133,000. Ethnic population: 200,000 (Kloss and McConnell 1974–1998).

Location

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and new communities in other states. Also in Canada.

Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, German, Middle German, West Middle German
Dialects

Amish Pennsylvania German (Plain Pennsylvania German), Non-Amish Pennsylvania German (Non-Plain Pennsylvania German, Pensylvanisch Deitsch). Blending of several German dialects, primarily Rhenish Palatinate (Pfalzer) German, with syntactic elements of High German and English. Mostly incomprehensible to those from the Palatinate (Kloss and McConnell 1974–1998).

Language Use

Plain community not shifting to English [eng], but maintains stable bilingualism (1987 M. Louden). All domains. Mainly older adults. Only preschoolers are monolingual. School children and adults also speak English [eng].

Language Development
NT: 1994–2002.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about German, Pennsylvania
Writing
Latin script.
Other Comments

Separate orthographies for Pennsylvania and Ohio dialects. Christian.

Also spoken in:

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