Jersey Dutch (Duits) was a Dutch dialect formerly spoken in and around the counties of Bergen and Passaic in New Jersey from the late 17th century until the early 20th century. It evolved in one of the two Dutch-speaking enclaves that remained for over two centuries after the dissolution of Dutch control in North America, the other (around Albany, New York) giving rise to Mohawk Dutch. It may have been a partial creole language based on Zeelandic and West Flemish Dutch dialects with English and possibly some elements of Lenape. The Jersey Dutch language was spoken by the Jersey Dutch, the descendants of New Netherlanders who settled in Bergen, New Netherland, in 1630, and by Black slaves and free people of color also residing in that region, as well as the American Indian people known as the Ramapough Lenape Nation. Etymology The term "Dutch" originally referred to all Germanic language speakers. The English settlers referred to the Dutch language spoken by the New York and Jersey Dutch as low Dutch (Dutch: leeg duits), and the language spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch in Pennsylvania as high Dutch (German: hochdeutsch). Varieties By the mid-eighteenth century, according to one estimate, up to 20% of the population of the areas of New Jersey with "a strong Dutch element" were enslaved people. Blacks who grew up in insular Dutch communities (such as Sojourner Truth) were raised speaking the Dutch language, or adopted it later in life, to speak both with their white Dutch-descendant counterparts and with each other. Some Blacks during this period spoke Dutch as their primary or only language, and for some knowing the language was a point of pride:"They were Dutch and proud of it. I can remember my Aunt Sebania telling me about her great-grandmother, a stern old lady who both spoke and understood English, but who refused to speak it except in the privacy of her home. In public she spoke Dutch, as any proper person should do, a dignified language."Some contemporary reports from white speakers of Jersey Dutch reported a distinct variety of the language unique to the Black population, which they called ("Negro Dutch", not to be confused with the Dutch creole ). This term was used both for the speech of the Ramapough (a distinct community of Black, white, and Lenape descent), and of other Blacks in Bergen County. However, as attestation of Jersey Dutch from Black