Plautdietsch

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A language of Canada

ISO 639-3
pdt
Alternate Names
Low German, Mennonite German, Mennoniten Platt
Population

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

Location

Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia. Also in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Paraguay, Russian Federation, United States, Uruguay.

Language Maps
Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
Indo-European, Germanic, West, Low Saxon-Low Franconian, Low Saxon
Dialects

50% intelligible of other Low German languages, Standard German [deu], Pennsylvania German [pdc], and Hutterite German [geh]. 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).

Typology

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

Language Use

Mainly older adults. 50% also speak Standard German [deu], 95% also speak English [eng].

Language Development
Literacy rate in L2: 95%. Bible: 2003.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Plautdietsch
Writing
Latin script.
Other Comments

Christian.

Also spoken in:

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