Plautdietsch language

Status

Plautdietsch is primarily a spoken language and does not have an official orthography. But there have been attempts to create a written form of the language. One of the main difficulties facing is the variation in pronunciation among speech communities. Another hindrance to the unification of the language is that Plautdietsch-speaking people are not found in one geographical region, being spread across North America (Canada, the United States, Mexico), Central America, and South America. Noteworthy attempts at an orthography include those by Fast (1982), Reimer (1982), Reimer et al. (1983), Epp (1996), Loewen (1996, 1998), and Heinrichs et al. (2001). Despite the absence of an official orthography, there are quite a few written texts in the Plautdietsch language. A significant example is the Bible, whose New Testament was published in 1987 and complete version in 2005. It shares grammatical and lexical similarities with other varieties of Low German, and is largely intelligible to other Low German speakers after some acquaintance. On the other hand, it has several developments and sound shifts not found in any other Low German dialect.