German Dialect
Does anyone know what regional German dialect was used by this Mennonite community?
shareThe dialect is the Plattduits/Plattdeutsch dialect.
shareYes and no. It's “Plautdietsch”, a Prussian/German dialect (the area is now part of Poland). Since most Mennonites immigrated from that area in the 18th century, the dialect is not common in modern-day Germany (usually, speakers are descendents of those who emigrated to Russia in the 18th century).
shareYes, it is a peculiar German dialect of Germans from then-North Eastern Germany (now Poland) who, in th 18th or 19th cebtury, moved in most cases to the Ukraine or Russia after being invited to do so by Catherine the Great. Most of the Plautdietsch speakers were Mennonites. In the 1920s, due to political, social and economic changes in the Soviet Union, many members of the community achieved to move to the Americas (e.g. Canada, USA, Paraguay, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil). In the 1930s and 1940s many were forcedly migrated from the Ukraine and Russia West of the Urals to Siberia or Kazakhstan (a few had already moved there in the 1920s). In the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, many moved from their exile in Siberia to Germany. Today Plautdietsch speakers can be found in North and South America, Germany, Russia (mainly Siberia), and Kazakhstan.
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