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Archiver > GEN-DE > 2000-05 > 0957358161


From: "Roy Johnson" <>
Subject: Pennsylvania Dutch
Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 07:49:21 -0500


Encyclopedia Brittanica (online)

Pennsylvania Dutch

(from German Deutsch, or Deitsch, "German"), 17th- and 18th-century German
settlers in Pennsylvania and their descendants. They now live largely in
Lehigh, Berks, Lebanon, Lancaster, and York counties. Some groups still
speak a German dialect, known as Pennsylvania Dutch or Pennsylvania German
(Pennsylfawnish Deitsch), and much larger numbers retain such elements of
their traditional culture as a special cookery (e.g., shoofly pie, a pie of
molasses and dough crumbs) and distinctive decorative motifs, including
geometric hex signs painted on barns and floral patterns stenciled on
furniture and housewares. Most Pennsylvania Dutch are thoroughly assimilated
and live lives scarcely different from the life of other Americans. Some
groups, notably the Amish, however, wear plain, old-style clothing, drive
horse-drawn buggies, and live according to relatively strict religious
principles.

The liberal and tolerant principles of William Penn's government in colonial
Pennsylvania attracted a large flow of immigrants from the Rhine country of
Germany. The immigration began with the Mennonite Francis Daniel Pastorius,
who came to Pennsylvania with some German Quakers in 1683 and founded
Germantown, the pioneer German settlement. The early German settlers were
for the most part members of the smaller sects who came and settled as
groups--Mennonites, Amish, Dunkers, or German Baptists, Schwenckfelders, and
Moravians. After 1727 the immigrants were mostly members of the larger
Lutheran and Reformed churches. Their farming skills made their region of
settlement a rich agricultural area. By the time of the American Revolution
they numbered about 100,000, more than a third of Pennsylvania's population.


Roy Johnson

"Robert Heiling" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Jost Gudelius wrote:
>
> > Klaus und Bob,
> >
> > dem stimme ich zu, Dutch bedeutet in der Regel Deutsch; das besttigt
auch
> > John Blankenbaker, sehr aktiver Genealoge aus Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania,
> > www.Germanna.com; im brigen baute er 1971 mit dem Kenbak-1 den ersten
> > kommerziellen PC der Welt.
> > Jost
> > www.gudelius.de
>
> Ja richtig! Gibt's mehr Information hier:
http://www.kerchner.com/padutch.htm
>
> Bob
>
> > Robert Heiling <> schrieb in im Newsbeitrag:
> > ...
> > > Kbussmeyer wrote:
> > >
> > > > This question goes from the Old World to the New World.
> > > >
> > > > <snip>
> > > >
> > > > Now, being concerned with genealogy or with the state of
Pennsylvania
> > itself by
> > > > visit, one learns that there was or still is a spoken dialect which
is
> > called
> > > > 'Pennsylvania Dutch'. I came across this on my first visit to The
States
> > years
> > > > ago.
> > > >
> > > > According to the name of the dialect, I would have expected it is
> > primarily
> > > > Dutch, may be intermixed with some German.
> > >
> > > Hi Klaus :-)
> > >
> > > I'm certain that you will get extensive comment on your post, but let
me
> > offer that
> > > Pennsylvania "Dutch" is really "Deutsch" and a typical American
corruption
> > of that
> > > word. There was extensive German immigration into Pennsylvania and by
that
> > I mean
> > > not just from what constitutes present-day Germany, but from other
> > ethnic-German
> > > areas of Europe.
> > >
> > > Regards
> > >
> > > Bob
> > >
> > >
>
>






"Larry Sassaman" <> wrote in message
news:...
> To All on the list:
> I live in the Heart of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Dutch.
> The persons who speak PA Dutch are all around me. They are the Amish.
> (Amish and "some" Mennonite's)
> I am no "Authority" on those who speak the language but I would be glad
> to write some information on the Amish and the Pennsylvania Dutch
> language if any are interested.
> I don't want to duplicate efforts of others!
> Larry Sassaman
>
****************************************************************************
**
> Web Page Address <http://home.ptd.net/~lpsassmn>;
>
****************************************************************************
**
>
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