Low Prussian
Region
EthnicityGermans
(Prussian and Saxon subgroups)
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-2nds for Low German
ISO 639-3nds for Low German
Glottologlowe1387

Low Prussian (German: Niederpreußisch),[1] sometimes known simply as Prussian (Preußisch), is a moribund dialect of Northern Low German that developed in East Prussia. Low Prussian was spoken in East and West Prussia and Danzig up to 1945. In Danzig it formed the particular city dialect of Danzig German. It developed on a Baltic substrate through the influx of Dutch- and Low German-speaking immigrants. It supplanted Old Prussian, which became extinct in the 18th century.

Simon Dach's poem Anke van Tharaw was written in Low Prussian.

Classification

German dialects in 1910. The geographical spread of Low Prussian language (Niederpreußisch) can be seen in the East

Low Prussian is a Low German dialect formerly spoken in Prussia. It is separated from its only adjacent German dialect, High Prussian, by the Benrath line and the Uerdingen line, the latter dialect being Central German. This was once one of the, if not the hardest linguistic border within the German dialects.

Plautdietsch is included within Low Prussian by some observers. Excluding Plautdietsch, Low Prussian can be considered moribund due to the evacuation and forced expulsion of Germans from East Prussia after World War II. Plautdietsch, however, has several thousand speakers throughout the world, most notably in South America, Canada and Germany.

History

Before 1945

In Danzig a German settlement (besides an existing Old Prussian-Kashubian settlement) was established in the 12th century. In the later Middle Ages, Middle Low Saxon in a Low Prussian form was the written and everyday language in Danzig. At the end of the 16th century, there was a switch to High German as a written language. This led to the formation of Danziger Missingsch, which shaped the everyday language in Danzig until 1945.[2]

In Königsberg in 1924, the use of Low German as everyday language was restricted to the working class, and even among the working class Low German was more and more replaced by (a corrupted) High German.[3]

Fate after 1945

Almost all Low Prussian speakers were evacuated or expelled from Prussia after 1945. Since the expellees scattered throughout Western Germany the dialects are now moribund. Most of the Low Prussian speakers not expelled after World War II relocated from Poland to Western Germany in the 1970s and 1980s and from Russia in the 1990s as so-called late repatriates (Spätaussiedler). Today, the language is almost extinct, as its use is restricted to communication within the family and gatherings of expellees, where they are spoken out of nostalgia. In Poland, the language of the few non-displaced people was subjected to severe repression after 1945, which meant that the active use of the language was even lower than in Germany. In both countries, the High Prussian dialects were not transmitted to the next generation, therefore, few elderly speakers remain. The German minority in Poland, recognized since 1991, uses Standard German.

Common Prussian features

It shares some features with High Prussian, differentiating it from neighbouring Low German dialects.

Those Borussisms are:[4]: 79 

  • Loss of /-n/ in infinitives (High Prussian mache for Standard German machen, "to make") – according to H. Frischbier this is only the case for Low German in East Prussia but not in West Prussia;[5]
  • retention of the prefix //ge-// in the participe perfect passive (compare Meckelenburg German hei is lopen to Low Prussian he is jelopen);
  • overly open pronunciation of /ɛ/ (schnall, Ack - schnell ("fast"), Eck ("corner"))
  • delabialization (Kenig, Brieder, Fraide, Kraiter - König ("king"), Brüder ("brothers"), Freude ("friends"), Kräuter ("weed"));
  • nuscht instead of Standard German nichts ("nothing"); and
  • preference for diminutive suffixes (de lewe Gottke, and High Prussian kommche, duche, Briefchedräger, - der liebe Gott ("dear God"), kommen ("to come"), du ("you"), Briefträger ("post man")) - and diminutives without umlaut (High Prussian Hundchen, Katzchen, Mutterchen - Hündchen ("small dog"), Kätzchen ("small cat/ kitten") Mütterchen ("mother/ elderly woman")).

Vocabulary

According to one summary of Low German dialects, words very characteristic of Low Prussian are doa ('dor', there), joa ('jo', yes), goah ('goh', go) and noa ('nober', neighbor), which feature "oa" instead of the usual "o" or "a".

Words are often shortened, in a manner similar to that of the neighboring East Pomeranian dialect, giving beet (beten, little bit) and baakove ('bakåben', bake oven).

Low Prussian also has a number of words in common with Plautdietsch, such as Klemp (cow), Klopps (lump, ball of earth) and Tsoagel (tail).

Some other words[6] are:

  • Boffke - boy, lad
  • dätsch - dumb
  • Dubs - bum
  • Gnaschel - little child
  • jankere - yearn
  • Kobbel - mare
  • Pungel - pouch
  • schabbere - talk
  • Schischke - pine-cone
  • Schucke - potato(es)

Dialects

Węgorzewo and Tilsit (Sovetsk)

Low and Old Prussian

Low Prussian had patalization of /g/, /k/, which Latvian had since its contact to Low German.[10]

After the assimilation of the Old Prussians, many Old Prussian words were preserved within the Low Prussian dialect.[11]

Low Prussian Old Prussian[12] Latvian Lithuanian Standard German English
KaddigkadegiskadiķiskadagysWacholderjuniper
Kurpkurpe, -ikurpekurpėSchuhshoe
Kujelcuyliscūka, mežacūka, kuiliskuilys, šernasWildschweinboar
Margell, Marjellmerga [virgin]meitene, meičamerga, mergelė, mergaitėMagd, Mädchen, Mädelmaiden, girl
Pawirpen(from powīrps [free])algādzis, strādniekspadienisLosmannfreelancer
ZurissurissierssūrisKäsecheese

Low Prussian and Lithuanian

In addition to the words of Old Prussian origin, another source of Baltic loans was Lithuanian. After the migration of Lithuanians in the 15th century, many Lithuanian loanwords appeared in the Low Prussian dialect.[11]

Low Prussian Lithuanian Standard German English
AlusalusBierbeer, ale
BurteninkerburtininkasWahrsager, Zauberer, Besprechermagician, soothsayer, sorcerer
kalbeken [per section Common Prussian features it might rather be kalbeke]kalbėti [to speak]schwatzento palaver
Kausche, Kauszelkaušas [wooden dipper]Trinkschaledrinking bowl
Krepsch, Krepsche, Krepszekrepšys, krepšasSack, Handsack, Ranzenbasket
LorbasliurbisLümmelcheeky boy
PirschlispiršlysBrautwerbermatchmaker
Wabel, WabbelvabalasKäferbug

Sample text: Klingelschleede

The writer Erminia von Olfers-Batocki (1876-1954) from Natangia wrote the following poem in Low Prussian:[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mitzka, Walther (1921). "Niederpreuſsisch" [Lower Prussian]. Zeitschrift für deutsche Mundarten (in German). Franz Steiner Verlag. 16: 151–154. JSTOR 40498264.
  2. ↑ Viola Wilcken, Historische Umgangssprachen zwischen Sprachwirklichkeit und literarischer Gestaltung: Formen, Funktionen und Entwicklungslinien des ‚Missingsch‘ (= Deutsche Dialektgeographie 121), Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / Zürich / New York, 2015, p. 71–74 = section 2.4.6 Zur historischen Umgangssprache in Danzig, here p. 71f.
  3. ↑ Bruno Betcke, Die Königsberger Mundart: Sammlung ostpreußisch-königsbergischer Ausdrücke, Königsberg, 1924, p. 5 [a work about Königsberger High German] (, )
  4. ↑ Ziesemer, Walther (1926). "Die ostpreußischen Mundarten" [The Eastern Prussian dialects]. Ostpreußen. Land und Leute in Wort und Bild [Eastern Prussia. The land and its inhabitants in description and pictures] (3rd ed.). Königsberg (Preußen): Gräfe und Unzer o. J.
  5. ↑ Hermann Frischbier, Preußisches Wörterbuch. Ost- und westpreußische Provinzialismen in alphabetischer Folge. Erster Band. A — K. Berlin 1882, p. v: „Die plattdeutschen Infinitive haben meist ein (n); dieses gilt für die Aussprache derselben in Westpreußen, während in Ostpreußen das Schluß-n stets weggelassen wird.“ ()
  6. ↑ Found in Riemann, Erhard (ed.): Preußisches Wörterbuch, Vol. 1, Issue 1. Neumünster (Wachholtz) 1974.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Bernhart Jähnig, Peter Letkemann (eds.), Danzig in acht Jahrhunderten: Beiträge zur Geschichte eines hansischen und preßischen Mittelpunktes, Nicolaus-Copernicus-Verlag, Münster (Westf.), 1985, p. 317 (cp. p. 313) [for the terms]
  8. 1 2 Harry Grieger, edited by Jürgen Pinnow, Schtoothööwa Plaut -Stutthöfer Platt: Kurze Einführung in einen erlöschenden westniederpreußischen Dialekt (series: LINCOM Studien zur Deutschen Dialektologie (LStDD) 01), 2006, p. 33
  9. 1 2 Mitzka (1922), pp. 117–135, here p. 117f..
  10. ↑ Siemens, Heinrich (2012). Plautdietsch: Grammatik, Geschichte, Perspektiven (in German). Bonn: Tweeback Verlag. ISBN 9783981197853. p. 94
  11. 1 2 Bauer, Gerhard (2005). "Baltismen im ostpreußischen Deutsch: Hermann Frischbiers „Preussisches Wörterbuch" als volkskundliche Quelle" [Baltisms in Eastern Prussian German: Hermann Frischbier's "Prussian Dictionary" as ethnological source]. Annaberger Annalen (PDF) (in German). pp. 5–82.
  12. ↑ G. H. F. Nesselmann, Thesaurus linguae prussicae. Der preussische Vocabelvorrath, soweit derselbe bis jetzt ermittelt worden ist, nebst Zugabe einer Sammlung urkundlich beglaubigter Localnamen, Berlin, 1873 (attesting the Old Prussian terms, but not the relation to German terms)
    • p. 60 kadegis
    • p. 85 kurpe
    • p. 82 cuylis
    • p. 103 merga
    • p. 140 po-wîrp-s
    • p. 181 suris
  13. ↑ Wir Ostpreußen, Folge 04 vom 20. Februar 1950

Bibliography

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