I hope old-time list members will not mind if I repeat this post every so often for new members, when the topic resurfaces. I always feel obliged to set the record straight on this one, especially since we do call ourselves the Pennsylvania Dutch list! The term "Pennsylvania Dutch" does not come from a corruption of the German word "Deutsch." Instead, it represents a survival of an otherwise archaic meaning of the English word "Dutch." In the eighteenth century (and to a lesser extent, into the nineteenth), "Dutch" referred to the language and people of a region encompassing present-day Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, and some neighboring areas. In other words, the term encompassed both "German" and "Dutch" in their modern sense. The languages are really very closely related. "High Dutch" referred to the language spoken in the southern parts of what is now Germany, as well as in Alsace and the Alpine regions. "Low Dutch" referred to languages of the generally low-lying areas of northern Germany, the Netherlands, and Flanders. (We now call the dialects of northern Germany "Low German," a language much closer to modern Netherlands Dutch than to the dialects of southern Germany.) Gradually, as the modern state of Germany was consolidated, the word "Dutch" came to be restricted to the language and people of the Netherlands. The word "German," which had been used inconsistently through the eighteenth century, became the term for the people of the German state, and for the language and dialects of northern and southern Germany. The synonymous terms "Pennsylvania Dutch" and "Pennsylvania German" are both documented as early as the eighteenth century. At the time, "Dutch" was a perfectly valid designation for immigrants from what is now Germany. For more on the history of the English word "Dutch," see the entry in the Oxford English Dictionary—more interesting reading than you might expect! Timothy Shipe timothy-shipe@uiowa.edu