Plautdietsch Grammar

The stimulus for this project arises out of the realization that the Nether Saxon Low German dialect, Plautdietsch (a dialect, among others, of Niederdeutsch), is in dire danger of extinction. In the author's childhood (in the 1930s and 40s) the dialect was still widly spoken in Central Kansas and in various areas of Canada. Today there is a great need for help for many people whose parents spoke the dialect but did not pass it down to the next generation. This brief grammar seeks to help fill that need. The work consists of 15 lessons, beginning with the smallest units of language, the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, moving from there to words, individual lessons on each of the parts of speech and their uses. Next come lessons on the combination of words in their proper relationships in the construction of sentences, and finally the combinations of sentences into texts as the largest unit of language. The final two lessons cover the areas of times and numbers. Each lesson consists of 1) grammatical material, 2) a vocabulary, 3) a brief narrative to be read, and 4) two sets of exercises, one in English and one in Plautdietsch.