The Pennsylvania Dutch Region
The Pennsylvania Dutch region in south-central Pennsylvania is a favorite for sightseers. The Pennsylvania Dutch, including the Old Order Amish, the Old Order Mennonites and at least 15 other sects, are common in the rural areas around the cities of Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg, with smaller numbers extending northeast to the Lehigh Valley and up the Susquehanna River valley. (There are actually more Old Order Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and there are plain sect communities in at least 47 states, but many Mennonites remain, particularly in Lancaster County.) Some adherents eschew modern conveniences and use horse-drawn farming equipment and carriages, while others are virtually indistinguishable from non-Amish or Mennonites. Descendants of the plain sect immigrants who do not practice the faith may refer to themselves as Pennsylvania Germans.
Despite the name, the people are not from the Netherlands, but rather are from various parts of southwest Germany, Alsace and Switzerland. The word "Dutch" here is left over from an archaic sense of the English word, which once referred to all people speaking a West Germanic language on the European mainland. It is also often thought to be a corruption of the German word for 'German,' which is "Deutsch." As one might imagine, a Pennsylvania Dutch settler would have been asked what nationality he was. His reply, in German, would have been "Deutsch," which was misunderstood as 'Dutch.'
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Pennsylvania
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