How come Pennsylvania German was originally and mistakenly called Pennsylvania Dutch?

Zbeckabee

The Pennsylvania Dutch are the descendants of Germanic peoples who emigrated to the U.S. (primarily to Pennsylvania), from Germany, Switzerland and The Low Countries prior to 1800.[citation needed] The origin of 'Dutch' is a "folk-rendering" of the Pennsylvania Dutch's own self-designation Deitsch. It corresponds to German Deutsch, and indeed the Pennsylvania Dutch come mostly from what is now Germany rather than the Netherlands. Since the Germans and the Dutch, being closely related as continental West Germanic peoples, used to share the same self-designation with regional variants well into Early Modern Times (dietsch, duutsch etc. in the Low Countries and diutesch, düdesch in Germany), the English word Dutch also used to apply to both. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_German Nov 16 10, 10:09 AM