[alexander_busek]

I take it that the familiar expression "Pennsylvania Dutch" is actually a corruption of "Deutsch," and thus that many people who are proud of their Dutch ancestry are, in actual fact, of German extraction.

Regards,

[jay1949]

Correct. The term "Dutch" in this context does not refer to persons from the Netherlands, but to western German folk. The British use of the term "Dutch" to refer to Netherlanders alone developed later, around the time of the establishment of the German nation. In Germany, the usage survives; the German term for "German" is Deutsch and the nation is called Deutschland. The term "Pennsylvania Dutch" means "Pennsylvania German." My own German ancestors in North Carolina were known as "North Carolina Dutch" down to the time of my grandfather Slack. The North Carolina Dutch became thoroughly assimilated, however, and the usage has largely disappeared.

[TLEIBY308]

You are correct.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

H.L. Mencken claimed that in Nineteenth Century America the word Dutch was applied to both Germans and people from the Netherlands. Since New York had a sizable Dutch population (Van Buren's first language was Dutch) before there was any significant German immigration, the superficial resemblance between a Dutch and German accent might have contributed to the confusion. He cites a little ditty:

The Dutch Company is the best company
That ever came over from old Germany
There's the Potsdam Dutch and the Rotterdam Dutch
And the Amsterdam and all the other damn Dutch

Sometimes "ist" is substituted for "is" and "Shermany" for "Germany", "Dat" for "That", etc. Note the explicit association of the Adjective "Dutch" with "Germany". All three cities are imputted to Germany, though two are Dutch.

[Trinity5]

"I take it that the familiar expression "Pennsylvania Dutch" is actually a corruption of "Deutsch," and thus that many people who are proud of their Dutch ancestry are, in actual fact, of German extraction."

No, we know we're German; It's everyone else who incorrectly call us Pennsylvania Dutch.

[RegulatorCountry]

I take it that the familiar expression "Pennsylvania Dutch" is actually a corruption of "Deutsch," and thus that many people who are proud of their Dutch ancestry are, in actual fact, of German extraction.

Oh, it gets more tangled up than that, lol. My "German" ancestors came from Alsace-Lorraine, Canton Basel Switzerland and Bohemia, as well as various locations within the modern nation of Germany, which did not exist at the time.

The only safe way to say it without error would be that they were German speaking.