Plautdietsch

language
name=Plautdietsch
states=Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay, Russia, United States, Ukraine
speakers=260,710 – 318,500 [Probably less than 300,000 Plautdietsch speakers out of nearly 8 million Low German speakers. Epp, pp. 102-5.]
familycolor=Indo-European
fam2=Germanic
fam3=West Germanic
fam4=Low German
fam5=East Low German
iso2=gem|iso3=pdt

Plautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, was originally a Low Prussian variety of East Low German, with Dutch influence, that developed in the 16th and 17th Century in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia, today Polish territory. The word is etymologically cognate with "Plattdeutsch", or Low German. "Plaut" is the same word as German "platt" or Dutch "plat", meaning 'Low', but the name "Dietsch" = Dutch "Diets", meaning 'ordinary language, language of the people'; whereas "Deitsch" can only refer to German "Deutsch". [Welschen (2000-2005), 48.]

The language (or groups of dialects of Low German) is spoken in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Honduras, Belize, and Argentina by over 300,000 Mennonites (Russian Mennonites). They are members of a religious group that originally fled from Holland and Belgium in the 1500s to escape persecution, and who eventually resettled in these areas. They introduced and developed their particular East Low German dialect, the so-called "Weichselplatt", while they came to and lived in the Vistula delta area, beginning in the early-to-mid 1500s. These colonists from the Low Countries were especially welcome there because of their experience with and knowledge of land reclaiming and making polders. As Mennonites they kept their own (primarily Dutch and Low-German) identity, using their Dutch/Low German language. [Welschen (2000-2005), 49-50; De Smet 1983.] Their East Low German dialect is still to be classified as Low Prussian, or simply Prussian. All Mennonites including Russian Mennonites trace their roots to the Low Countries and north Germany.

Beginning in the late 1700s, the expanding Russian Empire invited Germans and many from the Kingdom of Prussia, including many Mennonites left and created new colonies north of the Black Sea in (present-day Ukraine and other countries), in an area that Russia had recently acquired in one of the Russo-Turkish Wars. Many Mennonites migrated to North America — especially Canada and the United States — and Latin America — especially south Brazil, Paraguay and Mexico — most of them live as rural settlers and added some Spanish and Portuguese words to their own language.

Today Plautdietsch is spoken in Paraguay, Mexico, Ukraine, Germany, Canada (particularly Manitoba and Saskatchewan), Brazil, Belize, and the United States. There are two major dialects that trace their division to Ukraine. These two dialects are split between the "New Colony" and "Old Colony Mennonites". Many younger Russian Mennonites in Canada and the United States today speak only English. For example, Homer Groening, the father of Matt Groening (creator of "The Simpsons"), spoke Plautdietsch as a child in Saskatchewan in the 1920s, but his son Matt never learned the language.

Certain groups, like the Old Colony Mennonites of Mexico, have guarded the language better than others. However, as Old Colony Mennonites from Mexico resettle in Canada and the United States, the stability of Plautdietsch in this group may be put to the test in their new homes, especially if the current stigmatisation of Old Colony Mennonites because of their poverty continues, as is the case in some places like Ontario by more prosperous neighbours. This may ultimately lead to an abandonment of the language by this group.

Status

There is disagreement whether Plautdietsch is a language or a dialect. Some try to classify it as a dialect of Low German (Plattdüütsch). Arguments for a dialect:
# It is a spoken, not written language;
# It shows similarities with other varieties of Low German;
# It is intelligible to High German speakers after some acquaintance;
# The grammar is much like German.

Arguments for classifying it as a language of its own:
# It has many developments and sound shifts not found in any other German dialect;
# It is spoken in many countries and areas outside German speaking countries;
# It has many borrowings from other languages completely adapted into Plautdietsch phonetics, which would not be understood by a speaker of other dialects;
# It has many idiomatic expressions of its own and usages of particular words different from German. Many idiomatic expressions of German are not used nor understood by a Plautdietsch speaker;
# With the publication of a journal (Plautdietsch FRIND, first issue 2001, Germany) and a Bible translation (2003, Canada) it is now arguably a written language.

Varieties

As one might expect from a spoken language which traditionally lacked a consistent writing system, several regional differences have developed. However, the major differences seem to have originated in the beginning 19th century in the two Mennonite settlements in New Russia (today Ukraine), known as Chortitza or Old Colony and Molotschna (New Colony), as noted above. Some of the major differences between these two dialects are:As shown, while Dutch, English and German have experienced similar vowel shifts, Plautdietsch has only merged the old Germanic IPA|y sound with IPA|i, while long IPA|u is retained in the Molotschna dialect. The Old Colony variety has fronted it to the now vacant IPA|y.

Unique developments

Vowel sinking

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

Dutch

In the first half of the 16th century was the onset of the rule of terror by the Duke of Alva in the Spanish ruled Low Countries. As a result, many Mennonites and Reformed left the country. In the Low German language area they left their language traces in particular at the lower Vistula, around Danzig and Elbing and up the river towards Toruń.The Mennonites longest maintained their old language. In Danzig, Dutch as the language of the church disappeared about 1800. As a spoken language the Mennonites took up the Vistula Low German, the vocabulary of which they themselves had already influenced. As a written language they took up High German. It was this Vistula Low German or "Weichselplatt" that the Mennonites took with them and kept while migrating to Russia, Canada and elsewhere. [De Smet (1983), 730 - 761.]

The following (very basic) words have been claimed as exclusively from Dutch origins:

Phonetics

Mennonite Low German has many sounds, including a few not found in any other related language.

Consonants

The IPA|/u/ sound has been shifted to IPA|/y/ in the Old Colony dialect, leaving the sound only as part of the ua diphthong. However, in certain areas and age groups, there is a heavy tendency to shift IPA|/o/ sound up to IPA| [u] .

Pronunciation of certain vowels and diphthongs vary from some speakers to others; the diphthong represented by ee for instances is pronounced IPA| [oi] or even IPA| [ei] by some. Likewise the long vowels represented by au and ei might have a diphthong glide into IPA| [ʊ] and IPA| [ɪ] , respectively.

*English sound equivalents are approximate. Long vowels ä and o do not have a diphthong glide.

Grammar

Low German grammar resembles High German, as the syntax and morphology is nearly the same as High German's. Over the years, Low German has lost many inflections, resulting in a greatly simplified Mennonite Low German. It is still moderately inflectional, having two numbers, three genders, two cases, two tenses, three persons, two moods, two voices, and two degrees of comparison.

Articles

Even though Low German has three genders, in the Nominative case it has only two definite articles (like Dutch and Low Saxon); masculine and feminine articles are homophonous. However, masculine and feminine indefinite articles are still different (like German) and thus, the three genders can still be perfectly established. In the Objective case, the masculine has a special definite article, making it once more different from the feminine, which, like the neuter, does not change. In the plural number, all gender identification is lost (as in German, Dutch and Low Saxon); all plural determiners and adjective endings are homophonous with the feminine singular.

All possessives (see under pronouns) are declined like in this way. With the form äa (her/their) an r has to be reinserted before adding endings (äaren, äare).

Nouns

Like High German, Mennonite Low German nouns inflect into two numbers: singular and plural, three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter, but only two cases, nominative, and objective. The historical dative and accusative have merged, even though some writers try to maintain a three cases distinction, which has been lost for most speakers, perhaps centuries ago. The objective case is distinct from the nominative only in 1) personal pronouns: ekj froag am, hee auntwuat mie (I ask him, he answers me) 2) articles and demonstrative and possessive adjectives in the singular masculine gender: de Voda halpt dän Sän (the father helps the son) (observe: nouns are not inflected themselves) and 3) proper names, i. e. traditional Mennonite names: Peeta frajcht Marie-en, Marie auntwuat Peetren (Peter asks Mary, Mary answers Peter) Demonstrative pronouns are frequently used instead of the personal pronouns. When used so, some people use special objective forms for feminine and plural. When used strictly demonstrative, only the singular masculine has a special objective form.

Verbs

Mennonite Low German verbs have six tenses. The present and first past tenses are inflected, while the second and third past and both future tenses are different words marked by auxiliary verbs. Verbs can have two moods: Declarative and Imperative, two voices: active and passive, and three persons:1st pers. sing., 2nd pers. sing., 3rd pers. sing., and plural.

Weak verbs

The basic conjugation pattern is as follows:GENERALITIES: Vowel changes in present tense are somewhat predictable: long ie and u change into short i; long ä/o change into e or a; diphthongs äa and oa are simplified to a.

The first and third person of the past tense are identical (as in weak verbs).

With only a few exceptions (like the verb sajen), all voiced consonants are devoiced in the three persons of the singular past, the nasal ng and nj are retained in second person, but devoiced in first and third person.

The past tense has the same vowel through all persons.

If there is a vowel change from ä to e or a in the present tense, that feature is retained in the singular imperative.

The plural form for wie/jie in the inverted word order keep the final consonant voiced.

Auxiliary, Modal and Anomalous Verbs

A small groups of verbs are more irregular: the auxiliaries sennen and haben, the modal verbs, and a few verbs that originally where monosylabic and with time a -nen ending has evolved:The plural of all genders is identical to the feminine singular.

Strong and weak neuter declension: after the definite article daut or the demonstratives daut and dit (neuter form of that, this) the t is dropped and a form identical to the feminine and plural is used. In other situations, as with indefinite articles, possessive adjectives or without article, the strong form is used.

The objective is used only in the masculine singular. However, if a preposition-article compound is used with a neuter noun, then the objective would be used. Example: em grooten Hus, but: en daut groote Hus, en een grootet Hus.

There is no predicate form for the superlative, a preposition-article compound with the objective or weak neuter is used: aum woamsten, or: oppet woamste, or newly just the neuter form without preposition: daut woamste: Zemorjes es et woam, opp Meddach woat et woama, no Meddach es et aum woamsten/ oppet woamste/ daut woamste (in the morning it is warm, at noon it is getting warmer, after noon it is the warmest)

The predicate form is used in predicate sentences for all genders: De Maun es oolt, de Fru es oolt, daut Hus es oolt (the man is old, the woman is old, the house is old)

Prepositions

Plautdietsch preposition inventory is rich. Some of the most common:

*aun, on, in: de Klock henjt aun de Waunt (he watch is hanging on the wall)
*äwa, over, about
*besied, beside, next to
*bie, by, at
*bowa, over
*buta, except, besides
*derch, through
*en, in
*fa, for
*hinja,
*hinjaraun (placed at the end)
*jäajen, against
*mank, among
*met, with
*no, to, after
*onen, without
*opp, on
*to, to
*tweschen, between
*unja, under
*ver
*von

Numerals

Observation: the numeral eent (one) is declined like the indefinite article (masculine een [objective eenen] , feminine eene, neuter een) or a demonstrative or possessive pronoun (eena [objective eenen] , eene, eent for the respective genders); when counting, the neuter pronoun form eent is used.

Instead of fiew, alw, twalw, some speakers say fief, alf, twalf (5, 11, 12).

The ordinal for 11th and 12th are: alfta, twalfta; from 13-19 use the ordinal + da: drettieenda (13th) ; from 20-99 use the ordinal + sta: fiew un twintichsta (25th). All ordinal numbers are declined like an adjective, the forms given here are masculine nominative.

The partitive numbers for 1/10, 1/11, 1/12 are een Tieedel, een Alftel, een Twalftel, for 13-19 add -del to the ordinal number, for 20-99 add -stel.

Syntax

Mennonite Low German shows similarity with High German in the word order. The basic word order is subject-verb-object as English. Indirect objects precede direct objects as in English John gives Mary a present. But that is where similarities end. A dependent verb, i. e. an infinitive or past participle comes at the end of the sentence where an Englishman would place it immediately after the main verb, as shown in the following:

Mennonite Low German word order: Jehaun haft dän Desch jemoakt (John has the table made).English word order: John has made the table.

Mennonite Low German, like High German has been referred to as verb-second (V2) word order. In embedded clauses, words relating to time or space, can be placed at the sentence's beginning, but then the subject has to move after the main verb to keep that verb in second position. This pattern is demonstrated here:

Mennonite Low German word order: Nu sie ekj schaftich. More Examples: "Dan" jeef de Kjennich seine Deena eenen Befäl. (Then the king gave his servants an order)

Also, effects tend to be placed last in the sentence. Example: En daut Kuffel wia soo väl Wota, daut et äwarand (In the cup, there was so much water, "that it" "overflowed").

Mennonite Low German has syntactic patterns not found in High German, or at least not as often, such as the repetition of a subject, by a pronoun.Example: Mien Hoot dee haft dree Akjen. "My hat it" has three corners.

Questons, orders and exclamations have a verb first word order: Hast du daut oole Hus aun de fefte Gauss jeseenen? (have you seen the old house on fifth street?). All questions are arranged like this. There is no auxiliary verb to form questions. If there is a question word, that word precedes the verb: Wua es dien Voda jebuaren (where is your father born?). As in English, when using verbs in the imperative mood, it is not necessary to specify the person addressed, but it can be added for emphasis: brinj (du) mie emol dän Homa (please, (you,) bring the hammer to me). The word emol is frequently asked to soften the order as a word for please. Example of an exclamation: Es daut vondoag oba kolt! (is it cold today!).

Dependent clauses

As in High German, in dependent clauses, the verb goes at the end:

Ekj well morjen miene Mutta besieekjen, wan ekj Tiet hab. (I want to visit my mother, if I have time) . Observe the construction of: if I have time.

However, when a dependent clause has an infinitive or past participle, this rule is no longer strictly applied; there is a strong tendency to move the finite (main) verb before the infinitive or participle, the direct object (or even a long circunstancial complement):

Example: German word order requires a sentence structure like: hee fruach mie, auf ekj miene Mutta jistren daut Jelt jejäft haud. (Translation: he asked me, if I had given the money yesterday to my mother.) Even though that sounds right and perfectly understandable, most speakers would rearrange these same words as follows: hee fruach mie, auf ekj miene Mutta jistren haud daut Jelt jejäft. Another example: hee sajcht, daut sien Brooda jrod no de Staut jefoaren es/ hee sajcht, daut sien Brooda jrod es no de Staut jefoaren (hee says that his brother has just gone to the city). Observe: the verb precedes a prepositional phrase, but an adverb is still placed before it.

Text sample

The Lord's Prayer in Dutch and two Low German dialects, Plautdietsch and Low German.

Plautdietsch	Low German	Dutch
Ons Voda em Himmel,	Uns Vader, in Himmel.	Onze Vader, die in de hemel zijt,
lot dien Nome jeheilicht woare;	Heiliget is dien Naam.	Uw naam worde geheiligd,
lot dien Rikjdom kome;	Dien Riek sall komen.	Uw (konink)rijk kome.
lot dien Welle jedone woare,	Dien Will doch doon,	Uw wil geschiede,
uck hia oppe Ead, soo aus em Himmel;	up Welt as dat is in Himmel.	op aarde zoals in de hemel.
jeff ons Dach fe Dach daut Broot, daut ons fehlt;	Gäv uns dis Dag, uns dagliks Brod.	Geef ons heden ons dagelijks brood,
en vejeff ons onse Schult,	Un vergäv uns uns Schuld,	en vergeef ons onze schuld,
soo aus wie den vejewe, dee sich jeajen ons veschuldicht ha;	as wi vergäven uns Schuldners.	zoals ook wij vergeven onze schuldenaars / zoals ook wij aan anderen hun schuld vergeven;
en brinj ons nich en Vesekjunk nenn,	Un bring uns nich in Versuchung.	En leid ons niet in verzoeking / in bekoring,
oba rad ons von Beeset.	Aber spaar uns van de Übel.	maar verlos ons van de boze / het kwade.
wiels die jehet daut Rikj,en dee Krauft en dee Harlichtjeit en Eewichtjeit.Amen.		Want van U is het koninkrijk,en de kracht en de heerlijkheid in eeuwigheid.Amen.

ee also

*East Low German
*Low Prussian
*Deitsch
*Pennsylvania German
*Hutterite German (not closely related linguistically, but also used primarily by a religious group)
*Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church, a Low German Mennonite Church, Kansas, USA

Notes

References

*"De Bibel", Kindred Productions, 2003. ISBN 0-921788-97-5
* De Smet, Gilbert. "Niederländische Einflüsse im Niederdeutschen" in: Gerhard Cordes and Dieter Möhn (eds.), "Handbuch zur niederdeutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft", Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1983. ISBN 3-503-01645-7, pp. 730 - 761.
* Epp, Reuben. "The Story of Low German & Plautdietsch", Reader's Press, 1996. ISBN 0-9638494-0-9.
* Epp, Reuben. "The Spelling of Low German and Plautdietsch", Reader's Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-9638494-1-0.
* Rempel, Herman "Kjenn Jie Noch Plautdietsch? A Mennonite Low German Dictionary", PrairieView Press, 1995. ISBN 1-896199-13-5.
*Thiessen, Jack "Mennonite Low German Dictionary / Mennonitisch-Plattdeutsches Wörterbuch", University of Wisconsin, 2003. ISBN 0-924119-09-8.
* Welschen, Ad (2000-2005): Course "Dutch Society and Culture", International School for Humanities and Social Studies ISHSS, University of Amsterdam.

External links

*ethnologue|code=pdt
* [http://www.plautdietsch-freunde.de/home.php4?action=1&artikelnr=1110 Was ist Plautdietsch] (in German)
* [http://www.plautdietsch-freunde.de Plautdietsch-Freunde e.V.] (Germany based NGO, world wide documentation and promotion of Plautdietsch)
* [http://www.opplautdietsch.de Opplautdietsch.de - Plautdietsch Radio e.V. Detmold, Germany]
* [http://www.plautdietsch.ca Plautdietsch.ca - written and audio resources]
* [http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/D5350ME.html Dialect Literature and Speech, Low German from the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia]
* [http://www.mhsc.ca/mennos/clanguage.html Pennsylvania German vs Plautdietsch among Mennonites]
* [http://www.mennolink.org/doc/lg/ Plautdietsch online Dictionary and grammar guide]
* [http://peterwiens.blogspot.com/ Peter Wiens - a German Plautdietsch blogger]
* [http://www.oppplautdietsch.blogspot.com Plautdietsch course (project)]