And not having too much trouble reading it, once I sounded it out. So there I was, reading along in a big book about the Hanseatic League, and coming across Low German quotations. Dutch is guttural where English is not so much anymore, and Dutch grammar has a few moments that make German grammar appear well-organized and absolutely, well, Germanic in its strict adherence to the rules.* The spoken versions are far more different, because the pronunciations have shifted over the years. They came from close roots, and especially when reading Dutch and Middle Low German, I can see and hear the links.

Which sounds like “flat.”īecause of the constant trade and migrations around the North Sea, Low German, Dutch, and English remained relatively close for quite a while. The Low German dialect spoken the most in the US is Plattdeutsch, sometimes written as Plaat. Stand-on-a-can and see the Ural Mountains flat. Low German, when written, looks a bit like Dutch, and there was a lot of cross-fertilization because the area from the mouths of the Rhine to Jutland (the Denmark Peninsula) was settled partly by Dutch speakers who moved into the region by invitation to drain the low, marshy ground. Those Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came from what would become the Low German and Friesian language areas. If you go back in the history of English to when the Germanic part moved into the British Isles, you may recall something about Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, with the occasional Viking just for excitement. My accent and closest dialect are Bavarian-Austrian, in case anyone was curious. And the High German dialects are spoken south, or upstream, of Low German. Think how the rivers in Northern Europe flow: from south to north. Nor is it related to topography, although you could make an argument for it, indirectly. The first edition of hisĭictionary in Plautdietsch appeared in 1979.High is not the top of the map, in this case. Has in the past several years done extensive reference work in PlautdietschĪnd its vocabulary, pronunciation and orthography. Herman Rempel is a third generation Canadian, born in 1915. The guide includes nouns diminutives adjectives personal pronouns ordinal numbers abbreviations used in this dictionary Rempel's new and expanded revision, the culmination of eleven additional years of diligent research and writing in his mother tongue, promises to extend the accumulated additional information to readers in an understandable and easy-to-read written form. The Plautdietsch-English/English-Plautdietsch dictionary is repeatedly quoted in Preussisches Wörterbuch currently being compiled at the University of Kiel, Germany. Rempel's Kjenn Jie Noch Plautdietsch of 1984 has proven to be a mine of information for lay people and scholars interested in Plautdietsch. The word stock of this dictionary was compiled from oral and written information obtained from a host of sources. The majority of words in this version have been in basic use for over two and a half centuries. This Low German dictionary is offered as an encouragement towards the preservation of a much-loved Mennonite language. Plautdietsch Dictionary Index Kjenn Jie Noch Plautdietsch? A Mennonite Low German Dictionary By Herman Rempel Enter a Plautdietsch word: Enter an English word:Ī BC D E A B C D E F G H I J F G H I J K L M N O K L M N O PQ R S T P Q R S T UV WX Y U V WX YZ Z

Low german grammar