{"id":87442,"date":"2026-01-15T12:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T12:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/87442\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T12:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T12:25:11","slug":"machs-gut-how-pennsylvania-dutch-language-and-heritage-live-on-in-the-lehigh-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/87442\/","title":{"rendered":"Mach\u2019s gut: How Pennsylvania Dutch language and heritage live on in the Lehigh Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook brought them in<\/a> and YouTube helped get them started, as dozens of eastern Pennsylvania residents gathered in Lehigh County for the preservation of something that once belonged to their grandparents and still-older generations:<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Dutch.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a language that was a cornerstone of life for European immigrants and is still spoken fluently in thriving Amish and Mennonite communities across North America and beyond. Longtime Lehigh Valley residents may have heard it spoken by elders in private kitchen moments or among the regulars at the crossroads store and eatery.<\/p>\n

Wie bischt du? (How are you?)<\/p>\n

Ich bin zimmerlich gut. (Pretty good.)<\/p>\n

Mach\u2019s gut. (Essentially: Have a good one.)<\/p>\n

Don Billig is among its champions, unwilling to let the Pennsylvania Dutch way of life fade into the past for the general populace. He\u2019s leading classes to introduce the language and traditions on Thursday nights through March or into early April, weather permitting, at the New Tripoli Fire Co. in Lynn Township.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play games, we play bingo, we do crossword puzzles,\u201d Billig, a local real estate broker, told the 65-strong audience at opening night Jan. 8. \u201cIn fact, we might even try to sing \u2018Schnitzelbank\u2019 tonight. If you hang in there for the full class, we have fun, at the very last one, we eat some good Pennsylvania Dutch food. Everybody brings in a little dish, and we have a little party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mach'sHolding educational materials on Pennsylvania Dutch, Don Billig opens three months of Pennsylvania Dutch language classes Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, at the New Tripoli Fire Co.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com<\/p>\n

There would be no singing that first night of the popular German-American song<\/a>, but there would be some simple phrases introduced to and recited by the robust crowd that filled the firehouse social hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to speak fluent Pennsylvania Dutch when you leave here,\u201d said Irwin Hamm, one of Billig\u2019s assistants \u2014 what he calls \u201cmy Dutchies.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBut don\u2019t get discouraged. This stuff is all on YouTube,\u201d Hamm told the class participants, many of whom raised a hand to say they\u2019d seen the class advertised on Facebook.<\/p>\n

The class drew from instruction on the \u201cPA Dutch 101\u201d series<\/a> of online videos from Douglas Madenford. He\u2019s slated to appear as a special guest via Zoom during the series of classes, Billig said.<\/p>\n

\u2018One way to keep the heritage going\u2019<\/p>\n

Bern Leibensperger, from Kempton, brought her grandchildren, ages 4 1\/2 and 10. <\/p>\n

This winter is Stephanie Lenhart-Tegyi\u2019s third time taking the class, which Billig has led for about a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have recently started learning about the heritage, really getting into it,\u201d the New Tripoli resident said, adding she\u2019s saddened by the disappearance of farmland associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch. \u201cAnd I thought learning the language would be one way to keep the heritage going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mach'sAround five dozen people attend the first night of Pennsylvania Dutch language classes Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, at the New Tripoli Fire Co.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com<\/p>\n

Ronald Mohr said he grew up locally speaking Pennsylvania Dutch and had to learn how to speak English in school: \u201cWe never used English at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been going to a lot of different classes over the years,\u201d he said alongside his wife, Barbara. \u201cAnd the expression, \u2018Use it or lose it\u2019 \u2014 trust me \u2014 holds true. I go to these classes and I\u2019m still remembering words I\u2019ve long forgotten. But this is who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen Honchen, of Lehighton, brought a laugh as she recalled thinking \u201cDunner Vetter\u201d might have been her name as a child growing up in Kunkletown. A curse word of sorts, the term expresses surprise, frustration \u2014 even anger. <\/p>\n

Bill Kunsman, of Germansville, attended to try and learn some phrases he can use on Berks County deliveries as a tractor-trailer driver. Bob Peiffer, pastor at New Bethel Church in Kempton, hoped to be able to recite a prayer in Pennsylvania Dutch next Christmas. Pam Peters, an eighth-grade American history teacher at Northwestern Middle School, has been attending the classes for a couple of years to \u201cbring it into the classroom and keep it alive for our students.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMy family has been here for 200 years,\u201d said David Rex, of New Ringgold. \u201cLike most of yours, everybody spoke Pennsylvania Dutch. And when we were little you picked up stuff but nothing good. And I\u2019m here to learn the good stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mach'sTara Antonis, of Bethlehem, introduces herself alongside parents Roger and Cheryl Sinclair at the first night of Pennsylvania Dutch language classes Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, at the New Tripoli Fire Co.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com<\/p>\n

Others hailed from Wind Gap, Kunkletown, Allentown, Bethlehem, Andreas, Slatington, Danielsville, Northampton, Hamburg, Zionsville, Effort, Jim Thorpe, Schnecksville, Orefield, Palmerton and Saylorsburg. <\/p>\n

Billig asks for a minimum $25 donation to support the fire company<\/a>. He has 12 sessions planned but will cancel for inclement wintry weather. They run from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursdays in the New Tripoli firehouse\u2019s social hall, 7242 Decatur St. Students can drop in for a class whenever they can \u2014 there is no roll call or attendance requirement, he said.<\/p>\n

Events, ancestry and more in K\u2019town<\/p>\n

New Tripoli\u2019s is one of several classes in Pennsylvania Dutch offered across eastern Pennsylvania, said Patrick Donmoyer, director of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University<\/a>. His center on the state university campus in Kutztown, Berks County, often refers those looking to learn the language to the Berks History Center\u2019s hybrid in-person\/online program. Others are in Lancaster, at the Mennonite Historical Society, at Frystown on the Berks-Lebanon County border and at Groundhog Lodge No. 16 in Lehigh\u2019s Orefield.<\/p>\n

\"Mach'sThe historic Sharadin Farmstead at 22 Luckenbill Road in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, is photographed Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 \u2014 part of the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center at Kutztown University.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com<\/p>\n

The Kutztown center is the official repository of the records of the Groundhog Lodge \u2014 or Grundsau Lodsch \u2014 chapters that began forming in the area beginning in 1934. Back then, they offered camaraderie for local German immigrants who were looked down upon following World War I. The original, the Grundsau Lodsch Nummer Eens an der Lechaa (Groundhog Lodge No. 1 on the Lehigh)<\/a>, meets annually for Groundhog Day \u2014 the lodge meeting conducted entirely in Pennsylvania Dutch. Donmoyer said he can help connect those interested in attending with tickets.<\/p>\n

Kutztown visitors can also take in exhibits in a pair of galleries, focusing right now on Transatlantic traditions of botanical healing and the immense body of work of celebrated 19th-century Berks astronomer Carl Friederich Egelmann. Some 1,000 different agricultural almanacs across the Mid-Atlantic drew from his calculations. There are also quarterly public events like Heemet (pronounced HAY-met and meaning home) Fescht<\/a> on Sept. 26 in 2026. The center\u2019s library houses original manuscripts and works of art, documents pertaining to daily life, as well as church, birth and burial records and reams of passenger manifests of German immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really trace the history of the culture from that time of immigration, when there were roughly 81,000 immigrants who arrived at the Port of Philadelphia from German-speaking areas in Europe and spread all throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and then went through all the United States and other parts of the world,\u201d Donmoyer said. \u201cTheir descendants today number in the millions. And so this is a collection that\u2019s actually relevant to the cultural experience and the ancestry of millions of Americans, as well as people throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mach'sA hex sign donated by the Kutztown Folk Festival is on display Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in a gallery at the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center at Kutztown University.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.comPa. Dutch versus Pa. German<\/p>\n

The Kutztown center uses both Pennsylvania German to refer to the folk culture of the area and Pennsylvania Dutch for the name of the language.<\/p>\n

Relating today to Holland or the Netherlands, Dutch as a historic term meant \u201cnot only the people from Holland but all German-speaking people,\u201d Donmoyer explained. \u201cAnd folks from the Netherlands, they speak a form of Low German. And it\u2019s part of the family of Germanic languages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDutch was the common word that was being used to describe German,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd if someone said \u2018a Dutchman,\u2019 they meant a person from Germany or a person who was culturally German. In the second half of the 19th century, these terms tended to start to split off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mach'sIrwin Hamm helps lead the first night of Pennsylvania Dutch language classes Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, at the New Tripoli Fire Co.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com<\/p>\n

Settlers of English and Welsh background spoke it as the lingua franca of the day in eastern Pennsylvania. As a language, it blended High German in a distinctive way from that of European forms of the language, as it incorporated Americanisms. <\/p>\n

A German speaker might ask your name as, \u201cWie heissen Sie?\u201d The Pennsylvania Dutch speaker is apt to say, \u201cWas iss dei Naame?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a language that can differ from community to community and even farm to farm. <\/p>\n

The Ws and the Vs<\/p>\n

Billig\u2019s class in New Tripoli pronounced Ws as Ws. Donmoyer in Kutztown used the Germanic V.<\/p>\n

\u201cLehigh County especially pronounces those Ws as though they are Ws, as opposed to sounding more like Vs,\u201d Donmoyer said.<\/p>\n

Words can differ across county lines, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Lehigh versus Lebanon County, you have a word for a bucket,\u201d he continued. \u201cIn one place you\u2019ll hear the word eemer. The other place you\u2019ll hear the word kiwwel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same goes for spelling, since Pennsylvania Dutch is a verbal language that has changed over time. <\/p>\n

Growing up, Billig listened to his grandparents using Pennsylvania Dutch on their farm in Lynnport. His dad adopted English as he moved his own family into 20th-century commerce with a trucking company in Kuhnsville, but he could still speak it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you always want to learn what they were saying and keep the heritage alive,\u201d he told the opening night of his class. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re here. You\u2019re not going to walk out of this class knowing how to speak fluent Dutch. You\u2019re going to understand a little more. You\u2019re going to understand a little bit more about our heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mach'sBibles printed in North America in the 18th century are on display Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in a gallery at the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center at Kutztown University.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com\"Mach'sAn exhibit on European botanical healing brought to Pennsylvania is on display Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in a gallery at the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center at Kutztown University.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com<\/p>\n

Among the Plain People, as Amish and Mennonites are called, Pennsylvania Dutch is not at risk of fading into the past, Donmoyer noted. While considered a small-minority language, it is the global dialect growing at the fastest rate, he said. That\u2019s according to estimates of the Amish population doubling every 20 years from upwards of 400,000 today in North America. Worldwide, Mennonites number around 2 million, or fewer than 0.03% of the world\u2019s inhabitants when combined with the Amish. They are spread across states including Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Florida, plus international locales like Ontario, Canada, and parts of Belize and the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

The average age of a Pennsylvania Dutch speaker among the Plain People is estimated at 17, according to the Kutztown Pennsylvania German center \u2014 it\u2019s around 80 outside those communities. <\/p>\n

Being able to say a few phrases in Pennsylvania Dutch, \u201cI think, helps to highlight a shared commonality of culture and language that I think is meaningful to people,\u201d Donmoyer said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe language remains very meaningful to people despite the fact that there are fewer people who are fully communicative in it in the present day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mach'sBooks listing 19th-century immigrants to the United States are housed in the library of the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center at Kutztown University.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook brought them in and YouTube helped get them started, as dozens of eastern Pennsylvania residents gathered in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-87442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}