LL-L "Language varieties" 2003.12.13 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 13.DEC.2003 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: jpkrause <jpkrause at weblink2000.net>
Subject: Language Varieties

Dear Lowlanders,
    I have been interested in recovering something of my ancestral heritage
most of my adult life.  And that includes revovering something of the
language they spoke.  When I was a kid, I heard my parents' aged uncles and
aunts speaking Low German, and being only exposed to Molotschna Low German,
thought that was the only kind until much later.
 I've since come to understand that Mennonite Low German has been influenced
by a lost language called Nether Purssian.  What was that language?  How was
it related to Low German?  I understand that my Low German ancestors could
understand it relatively easily with their Lowlands Nether Saxon when they
began to migrate into the Vistula Delta region in the middle of the
sixteenth century.
 Some of the differences I have noticed between Mennonite Low German and
European Low German are most pronounced in vowel shifts.  For example:

European Low German/Low Saxon: ja
Mennonite Low German/Low Saxon: jo

For further comparisons between European Low German and Molotschna Low
German, I enclose the two links.  (Väl dank Ron fe de Nie-Haunseatsche
Schriewwies.)

Interesting observation: in Mennonite Low German only does one pronounce the
affirmative as "jo."  All other Germanic languages to my knowlege are
consistently "ja" even the official national languages.  How did that
happen?  Is that one of the influences of Nether Prussian?

Freelijche Wienacht un seelijch Nie Joah to Jiedra
Jim Krause
http://www.sassisch.net/rhahn/low-saxon/ns-neo-hans.html

http://www.sassisch.net/rhahn/low-saxon/ns-plautdietsch.htm

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Dear Jim,

Mennonite Lowlands Saxon (Low German) -- widely referred to as
"Plautdietsch" -- is not influenced by "Nether Prussian" but in fact *is*
Low(lands) Prussian, a.k.a. "Nether-Prussian."  This label refers to all
Lowlands Saxon dialects that were used in the area known as "Prussia," now
in Northern Poland and Kaliningrad, Russia, an area whose now extinct
indigenous Baltic language is "Prussian."

Plautdietsch, in all its varieties, belongs to the Saxon-based varieties of
that area.  It has Baltic and Slavonic influences as do all Saxon and German
dialects of the east, typical being the unrounding of rounded front vowels
(/ü/ > <i>, /üü/ > <ie>, /ö/ > <e>, /öö/ > <ee>, /öü/ > /ei/ <ee>, hence
_düütsch_ > _dietsch_ 'German') and palatalization of velars (/g/ > <j>, /k/
> <kj> > <tj>), and they have lots of Baltic and Slavonic loanwords.  These
features are common to all Vistula Delta varieties, are not specific to
Plautdietsch.  In fact, it looks as though the West Prussian ancestors of
the Mennonites spoke pretty much the same language as the non-Mennonites of
the area.  Baltic Prussia was already extinct, and there were contacts with
Poles and occasionally with Kashubians, besides ("High") German speakers.
However, Mennonites may have been using a few Dutch and Frisian loans as
heritage of some of their ancestors.

The fact that Plautdietsch seems so different from other Lowlands Saxon
dialects is that it is pretty much the only survivor of that eastern dialect
range, having been preserved in Mennonite language enclaves thanks to export
to Ukraine and other eastern locations, while the remaining sister dialects
of "Prussia" became pretty much extinct and are mostly known from written
records.  There are some Ukrainian, Russian and Central Asian loanwords that
were absorbed after eastward migration, later English, Spanish and
Portuguese loans in the Americas, but they did not significantly change the
language.

Knowing German and (western) Northern Lowlands Saxon I have no problem
whatsoever understanding Plautdietsch.  What helps greatly is that I am
aware of the sound shifts.  Plautdietsch speakers, too, would have a much
easier time understand the western sister dialects if they understood the
basic sound shifts and the distortions due to "silly" orthographic
conventions.  Take our Reuben Epp as an example of someone having figured it
all out a long time ago.  I think what is needed is a conversion guide.
Perhaps I will work on one sometime.

> European Low German/Low Saxon: ja
> Mennonite Low German/Low Saxon: jo

This is an example of the distortions of the "silly" orthographies.  We are
talking about the same phoneme here: the long "a" (/aa/) which in many
dialects, including Plautdietsch, sounds like "o" *from a German
perspective* and thus gets (erroneously) written in the *German* manner.
This applies not only in Plautdietsch but also in many western dialects,
like those of the Lower Elbe region, including the Hamburg dialects (which
also write <jo>).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

P.S.: Kenneth Rohde Christiansen and I are working on a write-up about the
orthography you mentioned, and our working title for the system is now
something like _Algemeyne Sassische Schryvwys'_.

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