Plautdietsch () or Mennonite Low German is a Low Prussian dialect of East Low German with Dutch influence that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia. [notes: 1. W. Ziesemer died 1951, so this must be a reprint or something. 2. Properly, or grammatically and orthographically correct, the title would be Die ostpreußischen Mundarten (as it was in the original edition from 1924).] The word Plautdietsch translates to "flat (or low) German" (referring to the plains of northern Germany). In other Low German dialects, the word for Low German is usually realised as Plattdütsch/Plattdüütsch or Plattdüütsk , – very often also as Plattdeutsch – but the spelling Plautdietsch is used to refer specifically to the Vistula variant of the language.
Plautdietsch was a Low German dialect like others until it was taken by Mennonite settlers to the southwest of the Russian Empire starting in 1789. From there it evolved and subsequent waves of migration brought it to North America, starting in 1873.
Plautdietsch is spoken by about 400,000 Russian Mennonites, most notably in the Americas: Canada (notably Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario), Mexico, Bolivia, Paraguay, Belize, Brazil, Argentina (notably La Pampa and Santiago del Estero), Peru, Uruguay and the United States (notably Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas).
Today, Plautdietsch is spoken in two major dialects that trace their division to what is now Ukraine. These two dialects are split between Chortitza Colony and Molotschna. Today, many younger Russian Mennonites in Canada and the United States speak only English.
In 2007, Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas directed the film Stellet Licht (Silent Light), set in a Mennonite community in Chihuahua, Mexico. Most of the film's dialogue is in Plautdietsch, which some of the actors had to learn phonetically. Other parts were played by people of the local community.
Migration history Plautdietsch speakers today are mostly the descendants of Mennonites who fled in the 16th century to escape persecution and resettled in the Vistula delta in present-day Poland. These refugees were Frisians, Saxons from East Frisia, people from Flanders, and Central Europeans. [a doctor's thesis], p. 26ff. They settled in West Prussia mostly in the three local areas of Nehrung (on the Baltic Sea), Werder (islands in the Vistula delta) and Niederung (south of the Werder), where they adopted the respective local Low German dialect as their everyday language. As Mennonites they kept their own (primarily Dutch and Low German) identity, using Standard Dutch as the language of the church well into the 18th century. As a written language, they took up High German.
At the time of their migration to the Russian Empire, their spoken language resembled the dialects of the region with only a few Dutch elements.De Smet (1983) Their East Low German dialect is still classified as Low Prussian. Most Russian Mennonites trace their genealogical roots mostly to the Low Countries.
Beginning in the late 18th century, the expanding Russian Empire invited Germans and many from the Kingdom of Prussia, including many Mennonites, to create new colonies north of the Black Sea in an area that Russia had recently acquired in one of the Russo-Turkish Wars. This is now part of Ukraine as well as other countries. Beginning in 1873, many Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites migrated from the Russian Empire to the United States and Canada.
In 1922, Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from Canada started to settle in Mexico, and in 1927 in Paraguay. In the 1930s, Mennonites emigrated mainly from Soviet Ukraine directly to Brazil. The first Mennonite settlement in Bolivia was founded in 1957 by Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from Paraguay. Soon, conservative Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from Canada, Mexico, and Belize also relocated to Bolivia, settling together. In 1986/7, a settlement was founded in Argentina by Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from other Latin American countries. Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites have also recently begun colonies in the jungle of Peru.
Speaker population and language maintenance
Plautdietsch-speaking communities in Latin America have mostly maintained their language, while also learning Standard German and local languages. In North America, many Mennonites have adopted English as their common language. In Germany, many Mennonites have shifted to Standard German, with only the most conservative fraction maintaining use of the Plautdietsch dialect.
Status Plautdietsch is primarily a spoken language and does not have an official orthography. But there have been attempts to create a written form of the language. One of the main difficulties facing is the variation in pronunciation among speech communities. Another hindrance to the unification of the language is that Plautdietsch-speaking people are not found in one geographical region, being spread across North America (Canada, the United States, Mexico), Central America, and South America. Noteworthy attempts at an orthography include those by Fast (1982), Reimer (1982), Reimer et al. (1983), Epp (1996), Loewen (1996, 1998), and Heinrichs et al. (2001). [a master thesis] Despite the absence of an official orthography, there are quite a few written texts in the Plautdietsch language. A significant example is the Bible, whose New Testament was published in 1987 and complete version in 2005. It shares grammatical and lexical similarities with other varieties of Low German, and is largely intelligible to other Low German speakers after some acquaintance. On the other hand, it has several developments and sound shifts not found in any other Low German dialect.
Varieties Regional differences of the language have developed. This is common in spoken languages that have historically lacked a consistent writing system, and have been carried to territories where other languages prevail. Major differences seem to have originated in the beginning of the 19th century in the two major Mennonite settlements in Ekaterinoslav, also known as Novorossiya, or New Russia, which lies in modern-day Ukraine. The colonies were Chortitza (Old Colony) and Molotschna (New Colony),Quiring, Jacob. (1928) Die Mundart von Chortitza in Süd-Rußland. Foreign Dissertation, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität zu München as noted above.
There was a third variety spoken by Groningen Old Flemish Mennonites in Waldheim, , and Alexanderwohl, which traced its origin from Przechovka. From Przechovka some moved to Brenkenhoffswalde and Franztal, in what is today Poland, where they used to live until 1945. Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church is a Low German Mennonite Church, in Goessel, Kansas, US.
Some of the major differences between the two (major) varieties are: Old or Chortitza Colony dialect New or Molotschna Colony dialect Contemporary other Northern Low German Standard High German Meaning of word verbs and other -en endings räden räde reden reden to speak, to talk oa diphthong Froag Froag Fraag Frage question u/y sound Hus/Hüs Hus Huus Haus house s/ts sound Zol (Ssol) Zol (Tsol) Tahl/Tall Zahl number (compare "tale") A few other differences sometimes related to this issue are the exact pronunciation of the IPA c sound and words as jenau/jeneiw. According to some studies, those might be due to the level of education of the speaker, as well as the influence of Russian and standard German.
The distinctive features of Chortitza-Plautdietsch as opposed to Molotschna-Plautdietsch include:Roslyn Burns, Contrasting Spaces in Plautdietsch: Language Variation and Change, 2021, p. 3 , originally in: (The) Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies (JAPAS) vol. 9 iss. 1, 2021 Feature Chortitza-Plautdietsch Molotschna-Plautdietsch high rounded vowel - long /u/ realised as <ü> [y] <u> [ʉ] lexical allophones <eiw> [ɛɪv] <au> [au] low opening diphthong - <oa> diphthong [ɛɐ] [ɔɐ] palatal plosives <kj>/<gj> <tj>/<dj> syllabic nasal - verbal infinitives and plural suffixes ending in <–en> [n̩] <–e> [ə]
Some Plautdietsch speakers might speak a mixture of both dialects. For instance, those who trace their origin to the Bergthal Colony in New Russia—a daughter colony of the Old Colony—show all the phonetic distinction of the Old Colony version, but drop the final -n as the Molotschna speakers do.
Comparison with related languages Plautdietsch has a Low German base, and as such, it does not show the effects of the High German consonant shift. This distinguished the High German dialects from the Low German dialects and all other Germanic languages.Plautdietsch does have some loan words from High German which do have the High German sound shift and are acceptable words in the language, according to Herman Rempel's dictionary Kjenn Jie noch Plautdietsch?, e.g. "recitation" . The basic distinctions between High German and Low German are:
Effects of the High German consonant shift Standard High German Northern Low German Plautdietsch Pennsylvania German Yiddish Dutch EnglishHigh German = Low German , , pipe appleHigh German = Low German tongue what to eat foot High German = Low German to makeHigh German = Low German to do part (compare "dole", "deal")High German = Low German , life , basket English = other Germanic languages to thank Like Dutch, Frisian and Low German, Plautdietsch only shows the mutation of into .
Vowel shifts in various Germanic languages Original vowel sound Standard High German Northern Low German Plautdietsch Pennsylvania German Yiddish Dutch English wine fire (Mol), (OCol) /hauz /[haʊz] house As shown, while Dutch, English and German have experienced similar vowel shifts, Plautdietsch has only merged the old Germanic sound with , while long is retained in the Molotschna dialect. The Old Colony variety has fronted it to the now vacant .
Unique developments Not only has Plautdietsch undergone vowel shift, various dialects of Plautdietsch have also had their own shifts.Burns, Roslyn. 2015. The Plautdietsch Vowel Shift Across Space and Time. Journal of Linguistic Geography 3.2: pp 72- 94.
Vowel lowering Standard High German Northern Low German Plautdietsch Pennsylvania German Yiddish Dutch English to Fisch, dünn Fisch, dünn Fesch, denn Fisch, dinn פֿיש, דיןfish, din vis, dun fish, thin to helfen, rennen hölpen, rennen halpe(n), rane(n) helfe, schpringe (from springen) העלפֿן, לױפֿןhelfn, loyfn (from laufen) helpen, rennen to help, to run to 1 Luft, Brust Luft, Borst Loft, Brost Luft, Bruscht לופֿט, ברוסטluft, brust lucht, borst air (Latinate root)/archaic loft, breast to Mann, Hand Mann, Hand Maun, Haunt Mann, Hand מאַן, האַנטman, hant man, hand man, hand
This shift is still active, as some speakers {including a few from Hague} still retain the older pronunciation.
Vowel unrounding Standard High German Northern Low German Plautdietsch Pennsylvania German Yiddish Dutch English grün, schön gröön, schöön jreen, scheen grie, schee גרין, שײןgrin, sheyn groen, mooi/schoon green, beautiful {compare archaic sheen} to ei Heu, rein Hau, rein Hei, rein Hoi, rei הײ, רײןhey, reyn hooi, schoon/rein hay, clean to e, a Götter Gödder Jetta Gedder געטערgeter goden gods
Diphthongization before g, k, ch [IPA x] and r, with possible loss of r Standard High German Northern Low German Plautdietsch Pennsylvania German Yiddish Dutch English Herz Hart Hoat Hatz האַרץharts hart heart machen maken moake(n) mache מאַכןmakhn maken make fragen fragen froage(n) frooge פֿרעגןfregn vragen ask (compare Old English frægn) hoch hooch huach hoch הױךhoykh hoog high Horn, Hörner Hoorn, Höörn Huarn, Hieena Hann, Hanner האָרן, הערנערhorn, herner hoorn, hoorns horn, horns The deletion of r has been completed in most final positions, after front vowels and before alveolar consonants, but is still retained in the infinitive of verbs, after short vowels, and sometimes after back vowels as seen in the example Huarn, Hieena.
Various other vowel equivalences