The word Dutch today describes the people that live in the Netherlands, the official language of the Netherlands, and stuff that comes from the Netherlands. But there is one language that has the name Dutch, and yet is not really one. Sure, it is a Germanic language like Dutch is, but it is not intelligible with the official language of the Netherlands.

So today, we will look at the Dutch that is not Dutch. It is primarily a variety of Palatine German, similar to the kinds of German dialects one would hear in the Upper Rhein. But it is not even spoken in Germany, nor the Netherlands. This variant of Palatine German is spoken in the United States, most of whom reside in Pennsylvania. This is Pennsylvania Dutch.

Pennsylvania Dutch, PA Dutch, or Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch, is the language that defines the various Amish and Mennonite sects, the former also known for their avoidance of various modern technologies from tractors to even chainsaws and pressurised lamps. The technologies to avoid are largely up to the various Amish churches or sects, as they laid out their own regulations, or Ordnung. If you ask around some Old Order Amish, in particular, chances are, they do speak Pennsylvania Dutch.

The ‘Dutch’ in Pennsylvania Dutch derives from the word “Deitsch”. While deriving from the same Germanic root word meaning “of the people”, the word Deitsch or Deitsche came to refer to the Pennsylvania Dutch people, distinguishing themselves from later German immigrants whom they called “Deitschlenner”.

There are notable sound differences between the words in Pennsylvania Dutch and Standard German. Some were due to the lack of consonant shifts that happened over the course of evolution of High German, and that Palatine German, spoken in the lower-lying areas of Germany from which Pennsylvania Dutch is derived, did not undergo as much a change. There are distinguishable correspondences in sounds, however. What is /pf/ in Standard German, is realised as /p/ in Pennsylvania Dutch, as in Pfarrer – Parre (minister or person). The final /n/ and /r/ in German is dropped in Pennsylvania Dutch, as in wissen – vissa (to know).

While Pennsylvania Dutch preserves noun genders like it is in High German and Palatine German, they are transcribed differently here. Instead of der, die, and das, you have da, di, and es. The indefinite article “a” or “an” are converged into one word, en (or een depending on how you transcribe it) for all grammatical genders. A similar pattern applies to the negative version of that, “no” or “none”. This is realised has ken or kee depending on variety, and is used for all grammatical genders.

However, where Pennsylvania Dutch starts to noticeably deviate from the other German variants is the fusion of the genitive case with the dative case, making it having three noun cases in contrast to German’s four. The dative case in Pennsylvania Dutch thus takes up the role of expressing possession as well as its usual functions of marking indirect objects. But even the use of the dative case can vary from community to community, as some variants may replace the dative case with the accusative case, while some do not. In a further extreme, some might mark possession with the English possessive marker -‘s, showing the influence of English in Pennsylvania Dutch.

According to some sources, pronouns may sound different depending on their stress. They might be transcribed differently, or the same depending on the source you consult since there is no standardised orthography for Pennsylvania Dutch. Additionally, for some conjugations, especially in irregular verbs, you would find them quite different from what you normally see in German or Dutch. Take a look at the verb ‘to have’ here:

English	PA Dutch	German	Dutch
I have	Ich habb	Ich habe	Ik heb
You have	Du / De hosht	Du hast	U / Jij hebt
He has	Er / Aer hott	Er hat	Hij heeft
We have	Mer / Mir henn	Wir haben	Wij hebben
You all have	Der / Dihr hend	Ihr habt	Jullie hebben
They have	Sie henn	Sie haben	Zij hebben

And for the verb ‘to be’, they are:

English	PA Dutch	German	Dutch
I am	Ich bin	Ich bin	Ik ben
You are	Du / De bischt	Du bist	U / Jij bent
He is	Er / Aer iss	Er ist	Hij is
We are	Mer / Mir sin	Wir sind	Wij zijn
You all are	Der / Dihr sint	Ihr seid	Jullie zijn
They are	Sie sin	Sie sind	Zij zijn

There are several publications covering the grammar of Pennsylvania Dutch, particularly those written by scholar and author Earl C. Haag, who also goes by the pseudonym Der Alt Professor. If you are interested in exploring deeper into this language, there should be numerous sources online to consult.

Pennsylvania Dutch has received numerous influences from English, coexisting with some of the Palatine German words with the English counterparts. This is due to the fact that many speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch are also bilingual in English. Entry of English words into Pennsylvania Dutch might have taken place through a ‘code switching’ of sorts between the two languages. This includes words like ‘Language’, which coexists with schprooch in Pennsylvania Dutch. Similarly, for the word ‘patient’, both patient and geduldich are used, but geduldich might be encountered more in topics related to the Bible, while patient might be heard more often in normal conversations. For verbs of English origin, they would follow the conjugation patterns found in Pennsylvania Dutch, such is es dependt (it depends). As such, as more English words enter Pennsylvania Dutch, there is a concern that traditional Pennsylvania Dutch words would be progressively replaced by English ones.

Despite the lack of a standard orthography used to write Pennsylvania Dutch, the language is still thriving today, with more than 250 000 native speakers today, all in the United States. With one orthography based on English, and one orthography based on German, education in Pennsylvania Dutch might vary between schools or churches or geographical areas. Nevertheless, there is literature published in Pennsylvania Dutch. There are also several Pennsylvania Dutch dictionaries available online, which I will link below:

Learn Pennsylvania Dutch

PA Dutch Dictionary

As a learner of German, and having been introduced to the Pennsylvania Dutch language through some snippets of traveler videos in the Amish communities, I paid particular attention to notable patterns in pronunciation differences between Pennsylvania Dutch and German. Occasionally, I could understand what was being said in Pennsylvania Dutch through linking these differences to German, and, without paying much attention, this language would definitely sound like a German dialect one would encounter in Germany.