Der Glee Prins — in Pennsylvania Dutch.

The Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylfaanisch Deitsch), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are an ethnic group native to Pennsylvania and other American states. They descend from Germans who settled Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, primarily from the Palatinate, but also other German-speaking areas, such as Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Saxony, and Rhineland in Germany as well as the Netherlands, Switzerland, and France’s Alsace-Lorraine region.

The ancestors of the Pennsylvania Dutch spoke Palatine German and other south German dialects; the intermixing of Palatine, English, and other German dialects formed the Pennsylvania Dutch language as it is spoken today.

Historically, “Dutch” referred to all Germanic dialect speakers (e.g. Palatine), and is the origin of the group’s name in English, the Pennsylvania “Dutch”. The Pennsylvania Dutch name has caused confusion in recent times, as the word “Dutch” has evolved to associate mainly with people from the Netherlands.