Alternate Names: Pennsylvania Deitsh, Pennsylvania Dutch, Pennsylvanish
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).
Genealogy:
Demographics: 118,000 in United States (2010 census), increasing. Population total all countries: 133,000. Ethnic population: 200,000 (Kloss 1981).
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: Bible: 2013.
Writing System: Latin
Nation of Origin: United States
Other Comments: Separate orthographies for Pennsylvania and Ohio dialects. Christian.