<P> During the Middle Ages the use of "Dutch" in English referred to West Germanic speakers of continental Europe in general . From c. 1600 onward it was mainly restricted to the inhabitants of the Low Countries . </P> <P> After the Second World War, use of Pennsylvania German virtually died out in favor of English, except among the more insular and tradition - bound Anabaptists, such as the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites . A number of German cultural practices continue to this day, and German Americans remain the largest ancestry group claimed in Pennsylvania by people in the census . </P> <P> The Pennsylvania Dutch live primarily in Southeastern and in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, a large area that includes South Central Pennsylvania, in the area stretching in an arc from Bethlehem and Allentown through Reading, Lebanon, and Lancaster to York and Chambersburg . Some Pennsylvania Dutch live in the historically Pennsylvania Dutch - speaking areas of Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia . </P> <P> After the American Revolution, John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, invited Americans, including Mennonites and German Baptist Brethren, to settle in British North American territory and offered tracts of land to immigrant groups . This resulted in communities of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers' emigrating to Canada, many to the area called the German Company Tract in the Township of Waterloo, which later became Waterloo County, Ontario . Some still live in the area around Markham, Ontario and particularly in the northern areas of the current Waterloo Region . Some members of the two communities formed the Markham - Waterloo Mennonite Conference . Today, the Pennsylvania Dutch language is mostly spoken by Old Order Mennonites . </P>

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