Pennsylvania Culture & Language

Pennsylvania was founded on religious tolerance and it still shows: the Pennsylvania Dutch — a corruption of Deutsch, nothing to do with the Netherlands — include Amish and Mennonite communities that have farmed the southeast for nearly three centuries and maintain their own language and schooling.

The industrial cities produced a different culture entirely, built by Polish, Italian, Irish, Slovak and Black communities around mills and mines, and expressed in churches, clubs and food that outlasted the industry.

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are genuinely distinct — different accents, different sandwiches, different sports loyalties, and a mutual scepticism that residents enjoy.

Both cities carry serious institutions: the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Orchestra at one end, the Carnegie museums and the Warhol at the other.

English is universal. Spanish is the main second language, and there are substantial Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian-speaking communities in the cities.

Pennsylvania Dutch is a living language — a German dialect spoken daily by Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities, whose children learn English at school.

Local usage worth knowing: in Pittsburgh, yinz is the plural "you", and the local dialect is called Pittsburghese; in Philadelphia, a sandwich is a hoagie, and flavoured shaved ice is water ice, pronounced "wooder ice".