LL-L: "Plautdietsch" 08.JUL.2000 (01) [E]

Sat Jul 8 21:09:24 UTC 2000

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 08.JUL.2000 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Plautdietsch at aol.com
Subject: LL-L: "Plautdietsch" 07.JUL.2000 (01) [E]

Dear Lowlanders,

> While "High" German apparently is not considered a sacred
> language among traditional Mennonites, it seems to enjoy the
> status of a mode for "higher" purposes, including religious ones.

what Ron said about the prestige of Plautdietsch is absolutely right. I
grew
up in a quite religious Mennonite family and I don't remember a single
church
meeting that was held in Plautdietsch, neither when we lived in Russia nor
in
Estonia (1970-75), even though almost 100 % of the people in our Mennonite
(or "Baptist") congregation were native Plautdietsch speakers. The whole
meeting was in a (sometimes funny) "Hochdietsch", the sermon, the scripture

reading, the songs, and the prayers. But, as soon as the last "High" German

"Amen" was said, you could only hear Plautdietsch!

Here in Bielefeld (100 km from Hannover) are about 20 churches with
Mennonite
origins, all of them founded in the last years or decades. In many of these

congregations the situation is still similar to the one I discribed above.
But, in most of them all the younger people don't speak Plautdietsch
anymore,
eventhough they still could. Seems to be a "normal" process of
assimilation...

About 100 of 200 people that are involved in our "Plautdietsch-Freunde
e.V."
don't regard themselves as religious and don't belong to any Mennonite
church. The easiest way to find many Plautdietsch speakers in one place
surely is to visit a Russian Mennonite church. Still, there are many
Plautdietsch speakers scatterd all over Germany without any church
relation,
just "ethnic Mennonites".

Ron wrote:
> As far as I know, the rise of secular literature in Yiddish, Ladino
> and Plautdietsch, and indeed in all Low Saxon, is a result of more
> recent movements one of whose aims it has been to allow people
> to write in their own, natural languages rather than in a "elevated"
> modes using "superior" studied languages.

Exactly this was one of our motivations to found an association for
Plautdietsch here in Germany. This fall, for example,  the
"Plautdietsch-Freunde e.V." (together with the "Volkshochschule") will
offer
a course for reading and writing in Plautdietsch. The more the Russian
Mennonites here become aware of losing their mother tongue the more they
seem
to appreciate it and reconsider it. But, this is a slow process, not (yet?)

really reaching the "whole group"...

Regards,
Peter Wiens

----------

From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Plautdietsch

Dear Peter, Reuben and other Lowlanders,

Thank you for the corroboration of the accuracy of my description regarding
the status of Plautdietsch vis-à-vis "High" German.

Of course, the situation among Plautdietsch speakers in Germany is
"atypical" when seen within a global context.  While in most of the world's
Mennonite communities Plautdietsch and German are both minority languages
that are "surrounded" by other power languages, such as Russian, English or
Spanish, the more recently established communities in Germany now find
their "high" language having "gone home," thus coinciding with the power
language (leaving aside the fact that the High German traditionally used by
Mennonites in isolation is archaic and Mennonite-specific).  In theory at
least, this puts Plautdietsch among them in an even more precarious
situation, i.e., under pressure from German.  Of course, the situations of
most Low Saxon (Low German) dialects in Germany are similarly precarious.
However, in the case of remigrated Mennonites and Mennonite-descended
persons from the former Soviet Union we also need to consider that many of
the younger ones who arrived knowing neither Plautdietsch nor German have
their hands full learning German just for the sake of survival.  It is hard
enough to adapt to a new country, learn its language and "succeed."
Learning one's ancestral language on top of it would be an additional
burden, unless there is a clear incentive to do so.  So it is quite
encouraging to hear that Peter and others are doing so much and have had
some positive response.

The question of incentives for young people to bother about a minority
language is very important in my opinion.  Unfortunately, most of the
published material presented in minority languages such as Low Saxon are in
traditional modes with parochial themes, oftentimes about the "good" old
days or with folksy humor, thus mostly relegating the language to some
assigned topics and modes that do not appeal to most younger people.

Many publishers and TV or radio station managers -- usually because they
are obligated to present some Low Saxon contents -- actually expect that
type of material.  "But it must be of local interest," "Just make it folksy
and funny" etc. tend to be the conditions, be they spelled out or not.
Sure there is a place for that type of material and there always will be.
But you can't expect that it will help to attract many young people to the
language.  We need are greater range of  types of material, including
material to which younger people can relate.  Is there such material?  I
believe there is, and I also believe that hardly any of it, is ever
published, probably because of preconceived ideas among publishers that Low
Saxon is by definition the language of the older crowd.

There is an astonishing range of publications in Sorbian, also a minority
language in Germany, at least as severely threatened as is Low Saxon.
There is for instance a series of poetry volumes and of short stories, some
of which is "avant-garde" and experimental.  Why not in Low Saxon?  Does no
one create such material?  Apparently there are quite a lot of Low Saxon
writers that dare depart from the traditional.  I am currently serving on
the selection jury for the annual Freudenthal Low Saxon literature prize,
which stands out in that it actually aims at promoting all types of Low
Saxon literature, including innovative types.  A few of the submissions I
read nearly blew me away because they are so refreshingingly daring, and
some of them very good.  (Sorry; I can't say more about this at this
point.)  Maybe it is time to see to it that more of this type of stuff gets
published and that there are more Low Saxon radio and TV programs, bands,
etc., that appeal to the younger crowd, as there are in the Eastern
Netherlands.

Georg Deutsch wrote:

> I think, if not yet done (at the time I have no possibility to check)
there
> should be a reference in the Lowlands-L website to
> www.plautdietsch-freunde.de

There is now, Georg, at
http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/links_neddersassisch.htm.
I always link to sites from the language-specific lists at
http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/lowlands-links.htm if I
consider them relevant and appropriate and their owners agree.  But, of
course, first I must become aware of them, and I can't locate all sites
single-handedly but need others to make me aware of newly discovered ones
or of changes to already linked sites.

I have also updated the information for Plautdietsch-Freunde e.V. on the
Europe page of "Nu is de Welt platt!"
(http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/low-saxon/plattewelt.htm).  I
could do with some help with those indices also, especially with those for
the Americas and Australia/New Zealand.

Best wishes with Plautdietsch-Freunde e.V., Peter, and thanks for sharing
some of your information!

Friendly regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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