16 Facts About Plautdietsch

Plautdietsch was a German dialect like others until it was taken by Mennonite settlers to the southwest of the Russian Empire starting in 1789.

Plautdietsch is spoken by about 400,000 Russian Mennonites, most notably in the Latin American countries of Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Belize, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, along with the United States and Canada.

Today, Plautdietsch is spoken in two major dialects that trace their division to what is Ukraine.

In 1922, Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from Canada started to settle in Mexico, and in 1927 in Paraguay.

Soon, conservative Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from Canada, Mexico, and Belize relocated to Bolivia, settling together.

Related searches

Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites have recently begun colonies in the jungle of Peru.

Plautdietsch-speaking communities in Latin America have mostly maintained their language, while learning Standard German and local languages.

Plautdietsch is primarily a spoken language, and does not have an official orthography.

Plautdietsch has a Low German base, and as such, it does not show the effects of the High German consonant shift.

Not only has Plautdietsch undergone vowel shift, various dialects of Plautdietsch have had their own shifts.

Also where German has a palatalization, Plautdietsch retains the palatalization even after lowering a front vowel.

Plautdietsch speakers living in Spanish-speaking countries use many Spanish words in daily speech, especially in business and communication vocabulary.

Plautdietsch's developments are a basis for the various spellings used today.

The latter two claim to write in the Old Colony dialect, as seen in their verb endings, while the other three use the Plautdietsch as spoken by the descendants of the Bergthal Colony, i e the Old Colony dialect with a loss of -n endings.

Vowel inventory of Plautdietsch is large, with 13 simple vowels, 10 diphthongs and one triphthong.

Some Plautdietsch writers try to use a three case system with the definite articles, without much consistency.