<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">I forwarded your questions to a friend of mine who has studied my kind of Plautdietsch or Low German. I am Ccing this to Chris so the two of you can communicate directly.<div class="">Jack</div><div class="">````````````````````````<br class=""><div><div class="">On Oct 8, 2017, at 4:31 PM, Lowlands Languages & Cultures <<a href="mailto:lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org" class="">lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><p style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Hello dear Jack Driedger, can you tell us whether the Plautdietsch community is rapidly dwindling just like the Low German community is? Or does it maintain some low-level stability? Is there any deliberate and organized support of young speakers? This is just emerging in the Low German community, most probably too late for the language.</p><p style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">By the way, I live near Bad Oldesloe, a place where the historic Menno Simons has lived and worked for a considerable time. This<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.plattpartu.de/gott/erinn/wernecke_menno.htm">http://www.plattpartu.de/gott/erinn/wernecke_menno.htm</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Text about the place where he lived is written in Low German, you will have no problems reading it.</p><p style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Hartlich!</p><p style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Marlou<br class=""></p><br style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><div class="moz-cite-prefix" style="margin: 0px; font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Am 08.10.2017 um 22:41 schrieb Lowlands Languages & Cultures:<br class=""></div><blockquote cite="mid:mailman.1778.1507495325.1573.lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org" type="cite" style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Very interesting. I grew up speaking Plautdietsch. I have written a book Enn Bloomenheim Oppjewossen. If you Google Jack Driedger Plautdietsch you my run across some Plautdietsch reading I have done. I am a 91 year old retired teacher in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. My grandfather Johann Driedger arrived in Canada from Ukrain in 1875 at age 15. <div class="" style="margin: 0px;"><div class="" style="margin: 0px;">Jack Driedger<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div class="" style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div class="" style="margin: 0px;">``````````````````````````````````````<br class=""><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><div class="" style="margin: 0px;">On Oct 8, 2017, at 2:03 PM, Lowlands Languages & Cultures <<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org" class="">lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="" style="margin: 0px;"><div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="" style="margin: 0px;"><p class=""><br class=""></p><br class=""><div class="moz-cite-prefix" style="margin: 0px;">On 10/8/2017 2:46 PM, Lowlands Languages & Cultures wrote:<br class=""></div><blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:mailman.1760.1507488404.1573.lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org" class=""><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">This article was on the front page of our local newspaper yesterday. I hope it opens.<br class=""></div></blockquote>I received my undergraduate degree from Middlebury in 1967. Years after I left the state of Vermont, I hung out with Mennonites in Ontario most of whom spoke or at least still understood the Plautdietsch they or their prents brought with them from Russia after WWII. This dialect was absorbed by them during the century or so that they lived in the Danziger Bucht after fleeing persecution in Holland. The founder, Menno Simons (right, you ask, why aren't they called Simonites?), was Friesian. The Rhineland Amish were there after fleeing from persecution in Austria and Switzerland (hence the name Yoder). I have a former brother-in-law named Yoder, and his son Kevin is a Congressman from Kansas. There are perhaps half a million speakers of Plautdietsch mostly in South America, but substantial numbers remain in Ontario and especially Manitoba. They are the only remaining speakers of the language which was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League.<br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:mailman.1760.1507488404.1573.lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org" class=""><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br class=""><br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">>LOWLANDS-L mailing list<br class="">><a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:LOWLANDS-L@listserv.linguistlist.org">LOWLANDS-L@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br class="">><a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lowlands-l">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lowlands-l</a><br class=""></div><br class=""><fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset><br class=""><pre class="" wrap="">_______________________________________________
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