noun
- the descendants of 17th- and 18th-century settlers in Pennsylvania from southwest Germany and Switzerland.
- Also called Pennsylvania German. a dialect of High German with an admixture of English spoken mainly in eastern Pennsylvania, developed from the language of these settlers.
- the folk style of applied and decorative art developed by the Pennsylvania Dutch.
noun
- Also called: Pennsylvania German a dialect of German spoken in E Pennsylvania
- the Pennsylvania Dutch (functioning as plural) a group of German-speaking people in E Pennsylvania, descended from 18th-century settlers from SW Germany and Switzerland
The German and Swiss settlers of Pennsylvania in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their descendants. “Dutch” is a version of the German Deutsch, meaning “German.” The Pennsylvania Dutch are known for their tidy farms and their distinctive crafts and customs. A considerable number of them belong to strict religious denominations, such as the Amish.