Plautdietsch

Not to be confused with Low German (Plattdütsch etc.).
Plautdietsch
Plautdiitsch; Mennonite Low German
Plautdietsch
Native toVistula delta region, Poland
RegionArgentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, United States, Uruguay
Native speakers
450,000 (2007)[1]
Early forms
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
 Mexico (100,000+)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3pdt
Glottologplau1238
Plautdietsch is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
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Plautdietsch (pronounced [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 [ˈplatdyːtʃ] or Plattdüütsk [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.[4] 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.

  1. ^ Plautdietsch Ethnologue. Retrieved August 2016.
  2. ^ Cascante, Manuel M. (8 August 2012). "Los menonitas dejan México". ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 February 2013. Los cien mil miembros de esta comunidad anabaptista, establecida en Chihuahua desde 1922, se plantean emigrar a la república rusa de Tartaristán, que se ofrece a acogerlos
  3. ^ Ziesemer, Walther (1970). Die Ostpreussischen Mundarten. pp. 101–103. [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).]
  4. ^ a b Epp, Reuben (1987). "Plautdietsch: Origins, Development and State of the Mennonite Low German Language". Journal of Mennonite Studies. 5: 61–72.
  5. ^ "plattdeutsch | Origin and meaning of plattdeutsch by Online Etymology Dictionary". etymonline.com. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  6. ^ "Plautdietsch". ethnologue.com. Retrieved 2014-09-01.