Following are some notes on pronunciation.  Reference the main pronunciation pages for additional information.

The most common method of writing the Pennsylvania German dialect is the Buffington-Barba (B-B) system and it's derivatives.  Still, there are many  examples of the dialect using other spelling methods.  It helps to see a few examples of words written using English style spelling systems.  The English styles omits capitalizing nouns compared to the German convention.  If you look at the pronunciation guide web pages, most of these should be obvious.  Understanding the reverse mapping will aid in finding unknown English style words in a PG dictionary.

Mapping	B-B style	English style
a » o	gebatt	gebot
aa » aw	Naame	nawma
au » ow	nau	now
ee » ai	weescht	waisht
ee » a-e	wees	wase
ee » ay	kee	kay
ei » y	sei	sy
-e » -a	Naame	nawma
-g » -k	froog	froke
gh- » k-
o » u	hot	hut
ir » eer	dihr	deer
sch » sh	Schtor	shtore
u » oo	Bedrug	batroog
v » f	verloss	ferluss
ww » v	Druwwel	troovel
z » ts	Zung	tsoong

There are many, many other examples of alternative ways of rendering German words in English.  The above only represents a sampling of the styles you will encounter.

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Pennsylvania German (PG) has many words that look similar to their English counterparts.  While some of these are recent loan words, many are based on the dialects of German brought to the United States in the 1700's.  Many people mistakenly believe that the similarities reflect recent adoption of English words.

There are certain patterns that exist in the translation between PG and English.  The historic reasons for these patterns are related to various "sound shifts" that have occurred across the European continent over the centuries.  I think those shifts are quite fascinating, but I won't go into that detail here.  Rather, the following outline a few of the basic patterns that occur in both PG and Standard German (StG).  The same patterns also show up in more recently adopted English loan words.

Pattern	English	PG
-ay » -ag	day	Daag
	way	Weg
p » b	planet	Blaneet
	plaster	Blaschder
	pump	Bump
t » d	thanks	Dankes
	thin	dinn
	thing	Ding
	brother	Bruder
v » w	driver	Dreiwer
-y » -ich	forty	vatzich
	sloppy	schlabbich
	weighty	gewichtich
-y » -heit	bravery	Braavheit

Similar sounding words that have common origins are called cognates.

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If you already have a background a background in Standard German (StG), the following show common patterns between StG and PG.  Some reflect differences in pronunciation, while others reflect a change in spelling convention (eg, the PG use of sch- whenever that sound is implied in StG).

Pattern	StG	PG
a » aa	Tag	Daag
ä » ee	später	schpeeder
-en » -e	brennen	brenne
-g » -ck	Krug	Gruck
k- » g-	Kraut	Graut
sp » schp-	später	schpeeder
st- » scht-	Stube	Schtubb
t » d	Tag	Daag
	Tod	Dod
	Mutter	Mudder