The "Do You Need To Speak Pennsylvania Dutch When You Visit Lancaster County?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Carol and I just returned from a drive around Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  We traveled in the north end of the county through areas known as Terre Hill, Adamstown, Ephrata, Akron and Denver.  The majority of our journey took us through Amish territory with acre after acre of rolling hills and beautiful farmland.   As of 2020 there were approximately 36,000 to 37,000 Amish living in Lancaster County with most of those speaking Pennsylvania Dutch.  

A young Amish couple on a Sunday afternoon ride.

Almost all also speak English, but at home they speak Deitsch (Pennsylvania Dutch).  Lancaster County has the largest Amish settlement in the world.  There are about 4,000 Amish living in other parts of the state, with the remainder living within the borders of Lancaster County.  Throughout my story today I may refer to the Amish as Mennonite or vice-versa, since they do fall under the same religious umbrella and share many of the same beliefs, but at the same time, many Amish and Mennonite, particularly Old Order and Conservative Mennonites, share an affinity for one another.  About 8% of Lancaster's residents are people who use horses and buggies for transportation and have their religious services in German and speak Deitsch as their principal family language.  There are also another 9,000 Old Order Mennonites, Amish Mennonites and Beachy Mennonites who also speak Dutch, but drive a car instead of a horse-drawn buggy.  To that I should add a few more conservative Mennonites, Lutherans, Reformed, Brethren and Moravians who speak Dutch.  Do I speak Pennsylvania Dutch or do I understand it?  I should tell you that with my poor hearing, I have a hard time understanding and speaking regular English!  So, the final number of those in Lancaster County who speak Dutch or Deitsch are about 50,000 of the 550,000 that are fluent in Pennsylvania Dutch.  Recently, Lancaster County had an increase of about 2,500 more people with about 1,000 of them being Amish.  The number of new-born Lancastrians who will grow up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch is rising.  

An Amish gathering to build a new barn for a neighbor.

Wasn't long ago that many historians believed that Pennsylvania Dutch would become non-existent in the close future, but it seems to be the exact opposite of that since the amount of Amish babies, as compared to all others, has grown in the past few years.  Mr. Frank Kessler, a Pennsylvania Dutch dialect enthusiast who lives in Belgium, has a interest in Lancaster County due to Lancaster having the largest settlement in the world in the county.  He predicts that the dialect's future looks bright and the number of newborns who'll grow up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch is rising.  

A young Amish mother with her children.

Some experts had recently predicted that the dialect would expire as older generations took their language with them when they left this world.  Mr. Kessler is a leader of the German-Pennsylvanian Association, which promotes Pennsylvania Dutch in Germany and America.  As for my thoughts on the subject, I make visits to Lancaster's Central Market quite often and one of my stops is at an Amish farm stand who sells meats and cheese.  He actually speaks English much better than quite a few other stand holders as well as myself.  I made a visit about ten years ago to an Amish buggy maker and everyone of the men and women with whom I spoke talked excellent English, but I could also hear some who, when speaking amongst themselves, were talking Pennsylvania Dutch.  Wouldn't you love to be able to do that?  I know I would.  At times, when speaking to myself, (I'll bet you do that also from time to time), I talk in just about any language and sometimes can't even understand myself.  But then, I'm allowed to do that, since I'm over 75 and can say anything I want, and in any language, while talking to myself.  When you get this old you too can do the same.  Just tell your family members that LDub  said you could!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.