World Language Map

Where is Pennsylvania German spoken?

Pennsylvania German (Pennsylvanisch Deitsch) is an Indo-European language, spoken in Canada and the United States. It is marked on the map by a ringed point.

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Where Pennsylvania German is spoken

Pennsylvania German is spoken in 2 countries: Canada and the United States.

Country
Canada
United States

Pennsylvania German has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.

How many people speak Pennsylvania German?

Wikidata gives about 148,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2015). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.

Status: Threatened. Glottolog lists it as threatened: it is still spoken by all generations, but there are signs that the number of speakers is falling.

Where Pennsylvania German sits in the language family tree

Glottolog classifies Pennsylvania German as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.

  1. Indo-European
  2. Classical Indo-European
  3. Germanic
  4. Northwest Germanic
  5. West Germanic
  6. High German
  7. Middle German
  8. West Middle German
  9. Rhenish Franconian
  10. Palatinate
  11. Pennsylvania German

Related languages

Other languages in the Palatinate group:

More about Pennsylvania German

Codes: ISO 639-3 pdc, Glottolog penn1240. Glottolog macroarea: North America.

Questions about Pennsylvania German

Where is Pennsylvania German spoken?

Pennsylvania German is spoken in Canada and the United States. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.

How many people speak Pennsylvania German?

Wikidata gives about 148,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2015). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled.

Which language family is Pennsylvania German in?

Glottolog places Pennsylvania German in the Indo-European family, in the branch Classical Indo-European, Germanic, Northwest Germanic, West Germanic, High German, Middle German, West Middle German, Rhenish Franconian and Palatinate.

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