Plattdütsch: A Dying Language

My grand-mother Erna Boldewahn spoke German and English. My mother remembers sitting at the kitchen table with her mother and her mother’s cousin, Mary Schoblaski listening to them speak German.

  • The dialect was most likely a variation of Platt Deutsch (Low German)
  • Wikipedia says that the inhabitants of Pommern (Northern Prussia)  spoke the Ostpommersch (East Pomeranian) dialect
  • which is a variation of  East Low German
The language has mostly died out, but is still spoken in Brazil where many Prussians emigrated to in the 1800s.

Listen to someone talking about potatoes in Plattdütsch

Plattdütsch Underwegens: Das Kartoffeljahr

A woman singing a love song in Plattdütsch

Dat du mien Leevsen büst

 

A grandchild videotaped their grandparents talking in Plattdütsch.   If you go to the YouTube page there is an English transcript.

Oma un Opa snacken up Plattdüütsch