LL-L "Low Saxon" 2002.04.05 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 05.APR.2002 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Eldo Neufeld <greneuf at interchange.ubc.ca>
Subject: Plautdietsch linguistic heritage

My thanks to Ron and Rueben for their extended explanations of
historical
linguistic threads leading to Mennonite Low Saxon (Low German)
Plautdietsch.

The Mennonite history books I have read, and college courses taken in
that
history, hardly mention language.  The emphases have always been
elsewhere.
And yet it is often said that the lives of Russian Mennonites who
immigrated to the Americas (laregly agricultural people), and their
Plautdietsch dialect were ONE, almost suggesting that one without the
other was impossible (or at least unthinkable!)

I suspect that the change from a farming people to university-trained
professionals, often leading to intermarriage with non-PD speakers (at
least in North America), is one of the most important factors in the
almost
total loss of the dialect in another generation.  There will still, no
doubt, be pockets (more in Canada than in the US), where it will
continue
to be the daily vernacular, as it still is in South America.

Any thoughts or comments?

Eldo Neufeld
4040 Blenheim St.
Vancouver, BC   V6L 2Y9
Tel: (604) 738-4378
e-mail: greneuf at interchange.ubc.ca

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