Also known as: Pennsylvania German, Deitsch
A West Central German minority language maintained especially by Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Ontario, and related settlements. Despite its name, it is Germanic rather than Dutch.
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Pennsylvania Dutch is a dialect of the German language.
Pennsylvania Dutch is primarily spoken in United States, Canada.
Pennsylvania Dutch is part of the North America region on DialectAtlas.
Yes — Pennsylvania Dutch is also referred to as Pennsylvania German, Deitsch.
German also includes Hochdeutsch, Bairisch, Schwäbisch, Sächsisch, Berlinerisch, Plattdüütsch, Hessisch, Kölsch, Wienerisch, Schwyzerdütsch, Namibian German, Hunsrik, Texas German. Each variety has its own vocabulary, pronunciation, and cultural context.
Standard German · Standard High German · Schriftdeutsch
The codified standard variety of German used in education, media, and administration across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Based on the High German consonant shift and a written norm dating to Luther; the spoken standard is conventionally associated with the Hanover region of Lower Saxony.
Bavarian · Bavarian-Austrian
A large Upper German dialect group spoken across Bavaria and most of Austria, with distinctive vowel shifts and vocabulary far removed from Standard German.
Swabian
An Alemannic dialect spoken across Baden-Württemberg and parts of Bavaria. Recognisable for its diminutive "-le" suffix and softened consonants.
Saxon · Upper Saxon
An East Central German dialect spoken in Saxony around Dresden and Leipzig, characterised by softened plosives and a distinctive intonation.
Berlin German · Berlinisch
The urban dialect of Berlin and surrounding Brandenburg. Mixes Low German substrate with Standard German, famous for its dry humour and clipped delivery.
Low German · Niederdeutsch · Plattdeutsch
The Low German varieties of northern Germany and the eastern Netherlands. Linguistically closer to Dutch and English than to Standard German in several core features.
Hessian
A Central German dialect group covering Hesse around Frankfurt. The Frankfurt variety is widely recognisable from German television and theatre.
Cologne German · Ripuarian
A Ripuarian Central Franconian dialect spoken in Cologne and the surrounding Rhineland. Distinctive for its melodic intonation and rich local vocabulary.
Viennese
The urban Bavarian dialect of Vienna, layered with Yiddish, Czech, and Italian loanwords from the city's long Habsburg history.
Swiss German · Schweizerdeutsch
A cluster of High Alemannic varieties spoken across German-speaking Switzerland. Mutually unintelligible with Standard German for most non-Swiss listeners.
Namdeutsch · Namibisches Deutsch · Namibia-Deutsch
The German variety of Namibia, maintained by a long-standing German-speaking minority and shaped by contact with Afrikaans, English, and Namibian languages such as Oshiwambo, Otjiherero, and Khoekhoegowab. It remains visible in schools, churches, media, tourism, and everyday community life, especially around Windhoek and the coast.
Brazilian German · Riograndenser Hunsrückisch · Hunsrückisch
A German-derived minority variety spoken by descendants of nineteenth-century settlers in southern Brazil, especially Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Paraná. It descends mainly from Hunsrück Franconian and has developed under long contact with Brazilian Portuguese.
Texasdeutsch
An endangered German enclave variety spoken by descendants of nineteenth-century German settlers in central Texas, especially around New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, and the Hill Country. It preserves older German features while reflecting long contact with American English.
209 km away
The English of New York City and surrounding areas. Marked by the famous tense-lax split of short-a, raised /ɔ/, and (historically) non-rhoticity.
475 km away
The English of English-speaking Canada. Closer to General American than to British English in most features, but with its own vocabulary and the well-known Canadian raising.
495 km away
The English of the Appalachian mountains across West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and western North Carolina. Preserves several archaic Scotch-Irish features lost in other US varieties.
509 km away
The traditional English of Boston and eastern New England. Non-rhotic in conservative speech, with the cot-caught merger and the famously Boston-broad short-a.
544 km away
An Eastern Algonquian language of the Lenape (Delaware), originally spoken around the lower Hudson, including present-day New York City. The last native-speaker community is the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown in south-western Ontario, where a single elderly first-language speaker was reported in the 2020s alongside a growing circle of second-language learners.
619 km away
A widespread English variety with a coherent grammatical system, including aspectual habitual "be" and the zero copula. Spoken across the African American community throughout the United States.