The Pennsylvania Dutch Country (Pennsylvania Dutch: Pennsylvanie Deitschland, Deitscherei, or Pennsilfaanisch-Deitschland), or Pennsylvania Dutchland, is a region of German Pennsylvania spanning the Delaware Valley and South Central and Northeastern regions of Pennsylvania.
By the American Revolution in the 18th century, the region had a high percentage of Pennsylvania Dutch inhabitants. Religiously, they were predominantly Lutherans but also included German Reformed, Moravian, Amish, Mennonite, Schwarzenau Brethren, and other German Christian denominations. Catholics settled around early Jesuit missions in Conewago near Hanover and Goshenhoppen, now known as Bally. The term was used in the middle of the 20th century as a description of a region with a distinctive Pennsylvania Dutch culture, but in recent decades the composition of the population is changing and the phrase is used more now in a tourism context than any other.
The Greater Pennsylvania Dutch Country (Pennsylvania Dutch: Die Breet-Deitscherei (The Broad Dutchery) refers to this Pennsylvania region but also includes smaller enclaves of Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking areas in New York, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Virginia, and the Canadian province of Ontario.
High-Dutch Pennsylvania
thumb|upright=1|A Pennsylvania Dutch windmill restaurant in [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania|Lancaster]]
thumb|upright=1|A [[Pennsylvania Dutch woman on a Works Progress Administration tourism poster for the Dutch Country]]
right|thumb|upright=1|A depiction of [[Pennsylvania Dutch|Dutchlanders]]
thumb|upright=1|[[Pennsylvania Dutch|Dutchlanders]]
right|thumb|upright=1|[[Lebanon, Pennsylvania|Lebanon, a Fancy Dutch city]]
Waves of colonial Palatines from the Rhenish Palatinate, one of the Holy Roman states, settled in the Province of New York and the Province of Pennsylvania. The first Palatines arrived in the late 1600s but the majority came throughout the 1700s; they were known collectively as the Palatine Dutch. Many American Palatines settled other states, including Indiana and Ohio.
American Palatines continued to use their language as a way of distinguishing themselves from the later (post-1830) waves of German immigrants. to the United States. The Pennsylvania Dutch came to refer to themselves as Deitsche, and called immigrants of German-speaking countries and territories in Europe Deitschlenner (literally "Dutchlanders"; compare German: Deutschländer), which translates to "European Germans", whom they saw as a distinct group.
These European Germans immigrated to Pennsylvania Dutch cities, where many came to prominence in matters of the church, newspapers and urban business. Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of Pennsylvania Dutch to describe them was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing thems from the later (post-1830) waves of German immigrants to the U.S. Further, the Pennsylvania Dutch referred to themselves as Deitsche and to Germans as Deitschlenner (literally "Germany-ers", compare Deutschland-er) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.