Pennsylvania Dutchified English
Pennsylvania Dutchified English is a dialect of
English that has been influenced by
Pennsylvania German. It is largely spoken in the south central area of
Pennsylvania, both by people who are monolingual (in English) and bilingual (in Pennsylvania German and English). It differs from standard
American English in various ways. Some of its hallmark features include widespread devoicing of obstruents, the use of certain vowel variants in specific
phonological contexts, the use of Pennsylvania German
verb and
noun stems in word construction, specific intonation patterns for questions, special placement of prepositional phrases in sentences, the use of "ain't" and "not" as question tags, the use of "still" as a
habitual verbal marker, etc.