Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Songs

Professional opera singer George Britten was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. Britten's heritage inspired him to search for and study the music of his native places - songs that are vignettes of his Pennsylvania childhood, from ditties about "irritating parties" to poems in honor of Fastnacht. The songs are performed in Pennsylvania German language - a variety of West Central German language spoken by descendants of German immigrants in the USA and Canada, closely related to Palatine dialects. There are over 300,000 speakers of this language in the USA and Canada. In Pennsylvania, 29.9% of the population currently claim German ancestry. Contrary to common belief, the word "dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not an incorrect translation, but rather a distortion of the Pennsylvania German endonym "deitsch," which means "Pennsylvania German" or "German." The practice of Pennsylvania German language in urban areas of Pennsylvania (such as Allentown, Reading, Lancaster, and York) declined with the arrival of the 20th century, while in more rural areas it continued to be widely used during World War II. Since then, its usage has significantly decreased.

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