Not to be confused with Low German (Plattdütsch etc.).
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Plautdietsch
Plautdiitsch; Mennonite Low German
Plautdietsch
Native to
Vistula delta region, Poland
Region
Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, United States, Uruguay
Native speakers
450,000 (2007)[1]
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
North Sea Germanic
Low German
Low Prussian?
Plautdietsch
Early forms
Old Saxon
Middle Low German
Modern Low German
Official status
Recognised minority language in
Mexico (100,000+)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3
pdt
Glottolog
plau1238
Plautdietsch is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
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.
^Plautdietsch Ethnologue. Retrieved August 2016.
^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
^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).]
^ abEpp, Reuben (1987). "Plautdietsch: Origins, Development and State of the Mennonite Low German Language". Journal of Mennonite Studies. 5: 61–72.
^"plattdeutsch | Origin and meaning of plattdeutsch by Online Etymology Dictionary". etymonline.com. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
Plautdietsch (pronounced [ˈplaʊt.ditʃ]) or Mennonite Low German is a Low Prussian dialect of East Low German with Dutch influence that developed in the...
border within the German dialects. Plautdietsch is included within Low Prussian by some observers. Excluding Plautdietsch, Low Prussian can be considered...
Mennonites in Paraguay are either Plautdietsch-speakers of mostly Flemish, Frisian and Prussian ancestry or, like the majority of Paraguayans, of mixed...
languages natively spoken in Kazakhstan are Dungan, Ili Turki, Ingush, Plautdietsch, and Sinte Romani. A number of more recent immigrant languages, such...
in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. Low German...
variety or separate language is subject to discussion. The status of Plautdietsch as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion. menschlich...
generations, but Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonite immigrants—mainly from Mexico, where there is lesser to no assimilation—rebrought Plautdietsch to Kansas....
varieties with a disputed status as separate languages (e.g., Low German/Plautdietsch), it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German...
There they gradually replaced their Dutch and Frisian languages with the Plautdietsch dialect spoken in the area, blending into it elements of their native...
Hutterite German Doukhobor Russian Newfoundland Irish Pennsylvania German Plautdietsch Ukrainian Sign languages American Sign Language Quebec Sign Language...
000 are Mennonites in Santa Cruz Department. These Mennonites speak Plautdietsch, a German dialect, as everyday language but use Standard German for reading...
the Hutterites, the Old Order Mennonites and traditional groups of Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites, like the Old Colony Mennonites. All these...
colonies and villages. The vast majority of Mennonites in Belize speaks Plautdietsch in every day life while a minority of some 10 percent speaks Pennsylvania...
present since 1948. The Mennonites of Uruguay are made up of ethnic Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites, who are descendants of Friesian, Flemish...
000 were ethnic Mennonites, most of them Russian Mennonites, who speak Plautdietsch, a Low German dialect. There are also some hundreds of Pennsylvania German...
6%) and others (0.4%) including the Moxos in the department of Beni. Plautdietsch, a German dialect, is spoken by about 70,000 Mennonites in Santa Cruz...
speak Plautdietsch (a Low German dialect) in everyday life, but use mostly Standard German for reading (the Bible) and writing. The Plautdietsch-speaking...
estimated to be between 72,000 and 84,000 in 2021. Very conservative Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites, who may have a similar belief and lifestyle...
Ladino, Plautdietsch, Armenian, Japanese, Chinese and other languages are spoken by smaller numbers. Some of these languages (Venetian and Plautdietsch) are...
Métis Missouri Muskrat New England German Pennsylvania Dutch Hutterite Plautdietsch Bernese Alsatian Texas Spanish Caló (Chicano) Isleño New Mexican Puerto...
original colonies. Russian Mennonites are traditionally multilingual but Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) is their first language as well as their lingua...
Borscht (English: /ˈbɔːrʃ, ˈbɔːrʃt/ ) is a sour soup, made with meat stock, vegetables and seasonings, common in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. In English...
Métis Missouri Muskrat New England German Pennsylvania Dutch Hutterite Plautdietsch Bernese Alsatian Texas Spanish Caló (Chicano) Isleño New Mexican Puerto...
435 or 1.79%), Mandarin (16,765 or 1.28%), Cree (16,115 or 1.23%), and Plautdietsch (15,055 or 1.15%). The question on knowledge of languages allows for...
Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince into Plautdietsch. Thiessen is perhaps most well known for his influential Plautdietsch language dictionary. The 1977 edition...
Espigão d'Oeste Minas Gerais Itueta (only in the district of Vila Nietzel) Plautdietsch, spoken by Mennonites from the former Soviet Union (since the 1930s)...
Hutterites speak Hutterite German and many "Russian" Mennonites speak Plautdietsch, a Low German dialect coming originally from the area around Danzig....
Global Information
Mexico (100,000+)[2]