LL-L: "Frisian" LOWLANDS-L, 04.FEB.2001 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

 ======================================================================
  L O W L A N D S - L * 04.FEB.2001 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
  Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
  Web Site: <http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/>
  User's Manual: <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html>
  Archive: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html>
  =======================================================================
  A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
  LS=Low Saxon (Low German), S=Scots, Sh=Shetlandic, Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
  =======================================================================

From: Reuben Epp [repp at silk.net]
Subject: LL-L: "Frisian" LOWLANDS-L, 04.FEB.2001 (02) [E]

> From: Catherine Buma [cpunzy at hotmail.com]
> Subject: Frisian Language
>
> All
>
> My second query is a bit of a curiosity.  I am aware that during the late

> 1940's and 1950's many Frisians emigrated to Canada, the US, New Zealand,

> and Australia, (my parents were among this number, Canada being their
> choice).  However, my mother mentioned that there was a region somewhere
in
> Russia, she wasn't sure where, that spoke fluent Frisian.  Growing up she

> was always told to remember to pray for their fellow Frisians in the
> Netherlands and Russia.  In fact, she mentioned that a close family
friend,
> who speaks Frisian himself, claims that his great-grandparents were
Frisian
> speakers from Russia. Has anyone heard anything about this?  Was this
> merely a group of Frisians who moved to Russia during the 1950's
> emigration or does it predate this time?
>
> If anyone knows anything about this, please drop a line.  I am very
> curious.
> Thanks
> Catherine Buma

Dear Catherine and Lowlanders,

Your comments re Frisian in Russia sound like they are related to
Netherlandic Mennonites (Doopsgezinde) in Russia.

During the latter half of the 1500's many Anabaptists (Mennonites) left
the Frisian provinces of West Friesland, Groningen and East Friesland
to seek greater religious freedom for their unpopular Anabaptist beliefs.
They then spoke a mixture of Frisian, Low Franconian, Low Saxon
and Dutch dialects.

At that time, they settled in the Vistula/Nogat delta and Danziger
Werder of  West Prussia/Poland, where their dyke-building and
land-drainage skills and expertise were much in demand for reclamation
of the delta swamps for agriculture. They sojourned there for about
250 years, during which time their western Low Saxon/Low Franconian
dialects were replaced by the West Prussian Low Saxon dialect spoken
by their surrounding neighbours, a dialect that later came to be known
as Plautdietsch.

Before and after 1800, large numbers of them emigrated from Prussia
to the New Russia of Catherine the Great; sparsely populated, fertile
lands recently conquered from the Ottoman Empire. In these new
lands, the Mennonites were allowed to establish themselves in closed
villages where everyone spoke Plautdietsch.

Since then, those Mennonites have moved willingly or under
compulsion into various other regions of the former USSR (Russia),
including villages and settlements near Novosibirsk in Siberia, and
elsewhere. In those villages, Plautdietsch continued to be their daily
language. A few of those villages continue to exist today, although
greatly reduced in population numbers by emigration to Germany
of large numbers of them (100,000?) in recent decades. In Germany,
they are/were looked upon as German returnees (Heimkehrer)
because of their lengthy sojurn in Prussia, during which they had
adopted (in Prussia and Russia) the German language for worship
and written communication, while retaining their Prussian Low
Saxon dialect in daily speech.

Dr. Tjeerd de Graaf and student Rogier Nieuweboer, of the
University of Groningen, have written quite extensively about these
Mennonites since visiting and researching them in Siberia. Both
emphasize that appearances, customs and spoken word of the
Siberian Mennonites remind of their Frisian origins. De Graaf is
Frisian himself.

Perhaps these are the *Frisian* people that you have heard about
in Russia?
Cheers!
Reuben Epp

==================================END===================================
  You have received this because your account has been subscribed upon
  request. To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l"
  as message text from the same account to
  <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or sign off at
  <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
  =======================================================================
  * Please submit contributions to <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>.
  * Contributions will be displayed unedited in digest form.
  * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
  * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
    to be sent to <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or at
    <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
  * Please use only Plain Text format, not Rich Text (HTML) or any other
    type of format, in your submissions
  =====================================================================