Low Prussian

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Low Prussian is a dialect of East Low German that was spoken in East Prussia , West Prussia and Danzig until 1945 .

On the Baltic substrate, Lower Prussian replaced the Old Prussian language , which died out in the 17th century.

classification

In terms of linguistics, Low Prussian is in contrast to the dialects of Central German immigrants (especially from Silesia), mainly to Warmia, whose dialects are called High Prussian . The subsequent immigration of Salzburg exiles in the 18th century left hardly any dialect traces - apart from a few vocabulary. After 1945, when the so-called experience generation died out, Lower Prussian was doomed, as most of the Lower Prussian speakers fled East Prussia at the end of the war or were expelled from there until 1948. The following generations partially adopted the dialect of their new homeland (or speak regionally colored High German), and the few who remained in East Prussia could hardly speak their native dialect, as otherwise they would have been subjected to repression because of their origin.

The Russian mennonites , who live scattered around the world, refer to their Low Prussian Low German as Plautdietsch . Today it is still spoken by half a million people. At the end of the 18th century, the Russian mennonites emigrated from the Vistula estuary to southern Russia (to today's Ukraine) and from there all over the world.

Linguistic features

This article or section needs to be revised: "Hundche" is High Prussian and not Low Prussian; In Lower Prussia it is called "Hundke". The examples therefore require at least one linguistic identification.
Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

Low Prussian differs from the other East Low German dialects mainly in terms of many similarities in phonetics, grammar and vocabulary with High Prussian.

The most important "Borussozisms" are:

Structure of Lower Prussian (from west to east)

  1. Transitional dialect to East Pomeranian (west of the Vistula )
  2. Dialect of the Vistula estuary ( Danzig )
  3. Dialect of the Fresh Spit and the Danzig Spit (Inner Spit)
  4. Dialect of the Elbinger Höhe
  5. Dialect of the reduction area (on the Frischen Haff around Braunsberg and Frauenburg )
  6. Westkäslausch (around Mehlsack , north of the High Prussian dialect island )
  7. Ostkäslausch (around Rössel and Bischofstein , east of the High Prussian dialect island )
  8. Natangisch bar table (between Pregeltal , Fresh Haff and Warmian Northeast limit, s. A. Natangen )
  9. West Samland dialect (western half of the Samland peninsula )
  10. Eastern Samland dialect (Eastern Samland between Pregel and Curonian Lagoon )
  11. Dialect of the eastern region (between the Memel River , the Lithuanian border and Masuria )

From the East Prussian vocabulary

This article or section needs to be revised: * "Krät, der / die / das" - the article is high German, not Low German (is the word actually Low German?)
Please help to improve it and then remove this marking.

  • Alus - beer (only a few; old Prussian , Prussian origin)
  • Bowke - wanton cheeky fellow (bowa: games, entertainment, amusement)
  • dätsch - stupid, inexperienced (dečios: nesting clutch)
  • Dubs - buttocks (dubris: deep point)
  • Flins - pancakes (plinxne: flatbread)
  • Gnaschel - small, insignificant person, also a child (gnaužos: retarded, to speak voiced, like the second g in garage)
  • jankere - having an appetite for something; languish (janka: wish something with pleasure)
  • Kobbel - mare (kobele)
  • kopskiekel - see Kopskiekelwein
  • Krät, der / die / das - actually the toad, as a (nice) swear word, an indispensable part of East Prussian linguistic usage
  • Kujel - male pig (kuilis, tuilis: boar)
  • Lorbas - hulking, boorish person, but also loving lout, naughty cheeky boy (lorbe: wedge hewn into the earth to support a scaffolding, chopping block)
  • Marjell - girl (mērgan, margellu: girl, virgin, maid, 'j' is a voiced throat sound here)
  • Panewka - (frying) pan
  • Pungel pouch (pungulis: bundle)
  • scrabble - talk (žaberoti: babble, chat, 'sh' like the second g in the garage)
  • Schischke - fir or pine cones (šiške, singular)
  • Schucke - Kartoffel (n) (šukenes: club mushroom, singular and plural)
  • Wittine - flat, roughly built river boat

Klingelschleede

The writer Erminia von Olfers-Batocki (1876–1954), rooted in Natangen , wrote the popular poem about the children and the bell sledge:

Ek häbb e kleen Perdke, ek häbb ok e Pitsch,
Un e jrinlachtje Schleede, each dat e Jejlitsch!
If snow falls, hurry, Schimmelke vor!
Now drive like Schleede, de kriez and de quer!
De Mitz uppe Kopp un de Feet mangket straw,
Fief Klingere am Schleede, that's how you ring!
De Pitsch inner Fust and de Lien hold hands,
Jingling! Doa kome en children will come.
Everyone scours that they can jump up!
Hey, boy! Marjelles! Now kick eener!
Min Schemmel jait funny with "Hussa" and "Hopp!"
Yeah! Schneeballkes suse em äwere Kopp.
Just funny, young children, inne Schleede briskly,
De Winder comes to the guest, who wi in.
I have a little horse, I also have a whip,
And a green-lacquered (?) Sledge, does that slip!
First snow fell, fast, mold (there) ahead!
Now we're going tobogganing, all over the place!
The cap on the head and the feet in the straw
Five bells on the sledge, that's just ringing!
Whip in fist and leash in hand,
Jingling! The children come running.
And everyone trudges so that he can jump up!
Hey guys! Girl! Now look at one!
My gray horse goes funny with "Hussa" and "Hopp!"
Ouch! Snowballs rush over his head.
Well fun, you children, crawl into the sledge,
Winter comes as a guest, we ring the bell.

Dictionaries

Several dictionaries from the 18th to the 21st century are referred to as the Prussian dictionary

Low German authors from the language area

See also

literature

  • Walther Mitzka : Basic features of northeast German language history. (= DDG 59), Elwert, Marburg 1959
  • Erhard Riemann : The Prussian language landscape. In: Festschrift for Friedrich von Zahn. Vol. 2, Cologne / Vienna 1971, pp. 1–34
  • Erhard Riemann (ed.): Prussian dictionary. Vol. 1, Lf. 1, Wachholtz, Neumünster 1974
  • Walther Ziesemer : The East Prussian dialects. Rehearsals and representation. Hirt, Breslau 1924. Digitized
  • Walther Ziesemer: The East Prussian dialects. In: East Prussia. Country and people in words and pictures. With 87 illustrations. Third edition, Graefe and Unzer, Königsberg (Prussia) undated [around 1926], pages 78–81. Digitized

Individual evidence

  1. ^ After Ziesemer 1926, page 79.
  2. ^ Hermann Frischbier : Prussian dictionary. East and West Prussian provincialisms in alphabetical order. First volume. Berlin 1882, p. V: “The Low German infinitives usually have a ( n ); this applies to the pronunciation of the same in West Prussia, while in East Prussia the ending n is always left out. "
  3. ^ Robert Albinus: Königsberg Lexicon (2002)
  4. ^ We East Prussia, Volume 04 of February 20, 1950