meeting Amish and Mennonites in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania in August 2006 ; he was born and raised in
Strasburg, Pennsylvania in
Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Pennsylvania Dutch society can be divided into two main groups: the sectarian "Plain Dutch" and the nonsectarian "Church Dutch" also known as "Fancy Dutch". These classifications highlight differences in religious practices, lifestyle, and degrees of assimilation into broader American society. The Plain Dutch consist of Anabaptist sects, including the Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren. They are known for their conservative, simple lifestyle, characterized by plain dress and limited use of modern technology. These communities typically reside in rural areas, maintaining traditional farming practices and close-knit communal living. Pennsylvania Dutch (a dialect of German) is widely spoken among them, both in daily life and religious settings. The Plain Dutch adhere strictly to their religious and community norms, emphasizing a strong cultural and religious identity with minimal integration into mainstream American culture. The Church Dutch, in contrast, belong to more mainstream Protestant denominations such as Lutheran, Reformed, United Church of Christ, and some Methodist and Baptist congregations. This group is more integrated into broader American society and is more likely to adopt modern conveniences and technologies. While they may still preserve some Pennsylvania Dutch traditions and language, English is predominantly used in daily life and religious practices. The Church Dutch exhibit a higher degree of assimilation into American culture, while still retaining elements of their Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. The primary differences between these groups lie in their religious practices, lifestyle, language use, and cultural integration. The Plain Dutch are more conservative and focused on maintaining their distinct cultural identity, whereas the Church Dutch are more assimilated and open to modern influences. In time the Fancy Dutch came to control much of the best agricultural lands, ran many newspapers and maintained their German-inspired architecture when founding new towns in Pennsylvania. There is little evidence specifically of Black Pennsylvania Dutch speakers during the early 19th century; following the Civil War, some Black Southerners who had moved to Pennsylvania developed close ties with the Pennsylvania Dutch community, adopting the language and assimilating into the culture. An 1892 article in
The New York Sun noted a community of "Pennsylvania German Negroes" in
Lebanon County for whom German was their first language. Today Pennsylvania Dutch culture is still prevalent in some parts of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Dutch speak English, with some being bilingual in English and Pennsylvania Dutch. They share cultural similarities with the Mennonites in the same area. Pennsylvania Dutch English retains some German grammar and literally translated vocabulary, some phrases include "outen or out'n the lights" (German: '''') meaning "turn off the lights", "it's gonna make wet" (German: '''') meaning "it's going to rain", and "it's all" (German: '''') meaning "it's all gone". They also sometimes leave out the verb in phrases turning "the trash needs to go out" into "the trash needs out" (German: ''''), in alignment with German grammar.
Cuisine The Pennsylvania Dutch have some foods that are uncommon outside of places where they live. Some of these include
shoo-fly pie,
funnel cake, pepper cabbage, filling and jello salads such as strawberry pretzel salad.
Religion woman from
Lancaster The Pennsylvania Dutch maintain numerous religious affiliations; the greatest number are
Lutheran or
German Reformed with a lesser number of
Anabaptists, including
Mennonites,
Amish, and
Brethren. The Anabaptist groups espoused a simple lifestyle, and their adherents were known as
Plain Dutch; this contrasts with the
Fancy Dutch, mostly of the Lutheran, or Evangelical and Reformed churches, who tended to assimilate more easily into the American mainstream. By the late 1700s, other denominations were also represented in smaller numbers. Among immigrants from the 1600s and 1700s, those known as the Pennsylvania Dutch included Mennonites, Swiss Brethren (also called Mennonites by the locals) and Amish but also Anabaptist-Pietists such as
German Baptist Brethren and those who belonged to German
Lutheran or
German Reformed Church congregations. Other settlers of that era were of the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) while a few were
Seventh Day Baptists. Calvinist Palatines and several other denominations were also represented to a lesser extent. Over sixty percent of the immigrants who arrived in Pennsylvania from Germany or Switzerland in the 1700s and 1800s were Lutherans and they maintained good relations with those of the German Reformed Church. The two groups founded Franklin College (now
Franklin & Marshall College) in 1787. According to Elizabeth Pardoe, by 1748, the future of the German culture in Pennsylvania was in doubt, and most of the attention focused on German language schools. Lutheran schools in Germantown and Philadelphia thrived, but most outlying congregations had difficulty recruiting students. Furthermore Lutherans were challenged by Moravians who actively recruited Lutherans to their schools. In the 1750s, Benjamin Franklin led a drive for free charity schools for German students, with the proviso that the schools would minimize Germanness. The leading Lutheran school in Philadelphia school had internal political problems in the 1760s, but Pastor
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg resolved them. The arrival of
John Christopher Kunze from Germany in 1770 gave impetus to the Halle model in America. Kunze began training clergy and teachers in the Halle system. Reverend Heinrich Christian Helmuth arrived in 1779 and called for preaching only in German, while seeking government subsidies. A major issue was the long-term fate of German culture in Pennsylvania, with most solutions focused on schools. Helmuth saw schools as central to the future of the ethnic community. However most Lutheran clergy believed in assimilation and rejected Helmuth's call to drop English instruction. Kunze's seminary failed, but the first German college in the United States was founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1787 as Franklin College; it was later renamed
Franklin and Marshall College. The Moravians settled Bethlehem and nearby areas and established schools for Native Americans. Historically, Pennsylvania Dutch Christians and Pennsylvania Dutch Jews often had overlapping bonds in German-American business and community life. Due to this historical bond there are several mixed-faith cemeteries in
Lehigh County, including Allentown's Fairview Cemetery, where German-Americans of both the Jewish and Protestant faiths are buried.
Language Although speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch can be found among both sectarians and nonsectarians, most speakers belong to the
Old Order Amish and
Old Order Mennonites. Nearly all Amish and Mennonites are naturally
bilingual, speaking both Pennsylvania Dutch and English natively. In the 20th century, the linguists Albert F. Buffington and Preston A. Barba developed a system for writing Pennsylvania Dutch that was largely based on contemporary German orthography, however this is not in common use. No prescribed norms for writing Pennsylvania Dutch exist and in practice most speakers orientate themselves on both German and English spelling systems. ==Notable people==