German, Pennsylvania
A language of United States
| Population | 83,700 in United States (2000 census), increasing. Population total all countries: 98,700. Ethnic population: 200,000 (Kloss and McConnell 1978). |
| Region | Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia, and Florida, and new communities in other states. Also in Canada. |
| Alternate names | Pennsylvania Deitsh, Pennsylvania Dutch, Pennsylvanish |
| Dialects | Amish Pennsylvania German (Plain Pennsylvania German), Non-Amish Pennsylvania German (Pensylvanisch Deitsch, Non-Plain Pennsylvania German). Blending of several German dialects, primarily Rhenish Palatinate (Pfalzer) German, with syntactic elements of High German and English. Mostly incomprehensible those from the Palatinate (Kloss 1978). |
| Classification | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, German, Middle German, West Middle German |
| Language use | Plain community not shifting to English, but maintains stable bilingualism (1987 M. Louden). All domains. Mainly older adults. Only preschoolers are monolingual. School children and adults also speak English. |
| Language development | NT: 1994–2002. |
| Writing system | Latin script. |
| Comments | Separate orthographies for Pennsylvania and Ohio dialects. Agriculturalists. Christian. |
Also spoken in:
Canada
| Language name | German, Pennsylvania |
| Population | 15,000 in Canada (1995). |
| Region | Kitchener-Waterloo area, Ontario. |
| Alternate names | Pennsylvania Dutch, Pennsylvanisch |
| Dialects | Amish Pennsylvania German, Non-Amish Pennsylvania German (Pennsylvanisch Deitsch). |
| Comments | Christian. |
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