Plautdietsch

PDT

developing

Alternate Names: Low German, Mennonite German, Mennoniten Platt

Dialects: 50% intelligible of other Low German languages, Standard German ,, Pennsylvania German ,, and Hutterite German ,. Plautdietsch has major differences from European Low German dialects still spoken along the North Sea and Baltic Ocean due to the various places where Mennonites lived during the past 150 years (Epp 1993).

Genealogy:

Indo-European
Germanic
West
Low Saxon-Low Franconian
Low Saxon

Demographics: 80,000 in Canada (Salminen 2007). Population total all countries: 394,900.

Language Use: Mainly older adults. 95% also use English [eng]. 50% also use Standard German [deu].

Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: 95%. Bible: 2003.

Typology: SVO; prepositions; genitives after noun heads; question word initial; 5 prefixes; 2 suffixes; nontonal.

Writing System: Latin

Nation of Origin: Canada

Other Comments: Christian.