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NoWarmEmbrace t1_jeam6e2 wrote

Reply to comment by tipdrill541 in TIL That There's a Bible Belt In The Netherlands by iamasinglepotassium

Fun fact; The Pennsylvania Dutch for instance aren't Dutch but German. But 'German' in german = Deutsch, so it got morphed into Dutch.

So the Pennsylvania Dutch are in fact the Pennsylvania Deutsch, with german heritage.

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Epyr t1_jeardxm wrote

Though some may have been from the Netherlands as there wasn't historically as much distinction between the Dutch and Germans as their is today.

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[deleted] t1_jeb9o3m wrote

[deleted]

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Epyr t1_jebdc9s wrote

That's also not true. The Dutch arose as an independent nation in the 1600s and share a lot of history with the low Germans. Even today groups like the Frisians have arguably more in common with Germans such as the Hanoverians than the Hanoverians have with Bavarians. They were different than other Germans but not significantly moreso than other difference within what we now call the German people.

A quick look at wikipedia also shows they came from all over Germany and parts of the Netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Dutch

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nomagneticmonopoles t1_jechaz9 wrote

Actually they're mostly originally Swiss, but yes, the word morphed with regard to the language they spoke.

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WanderingLethe t1_jegwnbm wrote

Deutsch didn't get morphed into Dutch.

It are words with the same origin, meaning of the people, the word people actually has the same origin as well.

Germanic people referred to themselves as Diets/Duutsch/Deutsch and some more variants.

The English mostly had contact with the Dutch, and called them Dutch, while the Dutch eventually started to call themselves Nederlands(Netherlandic) and only the Germans Duits. The Dutch anthem uses Duijtsche bloet, now Duitsen bloed (Dutch blood).

The Germans have kept the word Deutsch for their own, just as the Pennsylvanian Dutch (Deutsch).

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