| Plautdietsch | |
| Also Known As: | Plautdiitsch; Mennonite Low German |
| Nativename: | Plautdietsch |
| States: | Vistula delta region, Poland |
| Region: | Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, United States, Uruguay |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Minority: |  (100,000+)[2] |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Germanic |
| Fam3: | West Germanic |
| Fam4: | North Sea Germanic |
| Fam5: | Low German |
| Fam6: | Low Prussian? |
| Ancestor: | Old Saxon |
| Ancestor2: | Middle Low German |
| Ancestor3: | Modern Low German |
| Iso3: | pdt |
| Glotto: | plau1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Plautdietsch |
| Map: | Lang Status 60-DE.svg |
| Notice: | IPA |
Plautdietsch (in Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low pronounced as /ˈplaʊt.ditʃ/) 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.[3] [4] The word Plautdietsch translates to "flat (or low) German" (referring to the plains of northern Germany or the simplicity of the language).[5] In other Low German dialects, the word for Low German is usually realised as Plattdütsch/Plattdüütsch in Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low pronounced as /ˈplatdyːtʃ/ or Plattdüütsk in Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low pronounced as /ˈplatdyːtsk/, 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. In Latin America the first settlement occurred in Argentina in 1877 coming from Russia.
Plautdietsch is spoken by about 400,000 Russian Mennonites, most notably in the Latin American countries of Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Belize, Brazil,[6] Argentina, and Uruguay, along with the United States and Canada (notably Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario).
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. For example, Homer Groening—the father of Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons)—spoke Plautdietsch as a child in a Mennonite community in Saskatchewan in the 1920s, but Matt never learned the language.
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.
Plautdietsch speakers today are mostly the descendants of Mennonites who fled in the 16th century to escape persecution and resettled in the Vistula delta. These refugees were Frisians and Saxons from East Frisia, people from Flanders (now part of Belgium) and central Europeans.[7] 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 some few Dutch elements.[8] Their East Low German dialect is still classified as Low Prussian.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.
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.
Plautdietsch is primarily a spoken language, and does not have an official orthography. However, there have been attempts to create a written form of the language. One of the main issues facing the development of an official orthography is the variation in pronunciation among various speech communities. Another hindrance to the unification of the language is the fact that most 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 done by Fast (1982), Reimer (1982), Reimer et al. (1983), Epp (1996), Loewen (1996, 1998), and Heinrichs et al. (2001).[9] 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 the complete version subsequently published in 2005. It shares grammatical and lexical similarities with other varieties of Low German, and in general it is 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.
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),[10] as noted above.
There was a third variety spoken by Groningen Old Flemish Mennonites in Waldheim,, and Alexanderwohl, which traced its origin from Przechovka.[11] From Przechovka some moved to Brenkenhoffswalde and Franztal, in what is today Poland, where they used to live until 1945.[12] 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 pronounced as /[freaɣ]/ | Froag pronounced as /[froaɣ]/ | Fraag | Frage | question | |
| u/y sound | Hus/Hüs pronounced as /[hys]/ | Hus pronounced as /[hus]/ | Huus | Haus | house | |
| s/ts sound | Zol (Ssol) pronounced as /[sol]/ | Zol (Tsol) pronounced as /[tsol]/ | Tahl/Tall | Zahl | number (compare "tale") |
The distinctive features of Chortitza-Plautdietsch as opposed to Molotschna-Plautdietsch include:[13]