Pella Dutch, also known as Iowa Dutch, is a dialect of the
Dutch language
Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...
spoken in
Pella, Iowa.
Pella Dutch's origins began with the migration of a group of 800 Dutch settlers under the leadership of Dominee (Reverend) H. P. Scholte in 1847.
In 1860, the Pella Weekblad, Pella's first
Dutch language
Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...
newspaper, debuted. The paper continued to be published weekly until 1941.
Language use was strongly affected by Governor William L. Harding's controversial 1917
Babel Proclamation, which banned the speaking of languages other than English in public.
Semi-speakers of the dialect have been attested as recently as 2011.
References
Pella, Iowa
Dutch-American culture in Iowa
Dutch dialects
Dutch language in the United States
{{Netherlands-stub