PLAUTDIETSCH DICTIONARY.

August 5, 2003 by 9 Comments

An online version of Herman Rempel’s Kjenn Jie Noch Plautdietsch? A Mennonite Low German Dictionary; the introduction goes into the history of the language, and the guide to use gives some basic grammar and pronunciation, highlighting the differences between the Old Colony and Molotschna Mennonites. A useful resource for a little-known dialect. (Via Scott Martens, whose ancestors spoke it.)

Comments

  1. Scott Martens says
    August 5, 2003 at 3:41 pm

    I’m glad Rempel stuck to the Old Colony spelling since that’s the version my parents spoke. The “kj” spellings are a lot more obvious to me than the “tj” ones.
    Actually, maybe you can help me with something Grandpa and I could never figure out: The etymological origin of the word “uzhent”, meaning “especially”. We figured it must have been an imported Slavic word. None of the words with the “zh” sound in them seem very Germanic. “Bezhuj”, for example, clearly comes from the French “bourgeois”, and “düzhe” from “douche.” “Prazhnikj” for “party” certainly sounds slavic, although I have never identified the source language. I have only been able to identify “Kruzhel”, which must come from the Russian “kruzhevo” or its Ukranian counterpart.
    But “uzhent” is a fairly common word, not a substantive that might have been borrowed from a contact language. It’s unlike any Germanic cognate I can think of. I’ve never managed to identify a Russian, Ukranian or Polish word that it might have come from. The only other Slavic language they might have had any contact with was Old Prussian.

  2. language hat says
    August 5, 2003 at 3:52 pm

    Prazhnikj is clearly Russian prazdnik ‘holiday, feast, festival; festive occasion.’ Uzhent sounds like it might be connected with Russian uzhe ‘already’ and uzh ‘to be sure, indeed, &c.’ (emphatic particle), but the -ent part sounds Polish; alas, I don’t know Polish, so can’t be of help there. (By the way, Old Prussian was a Baltic, not a Slavic, language.)

  3. languagehat says
    February 27, 2022 at 3:15 pm

    Posting a comment to bring this thread back into the light in the hopes that somebody might have an idea about “uzhent” — I’ve done some googling and found nothing.

  4. PlasticPaddy says
    February 27, 2022 at 5:58 pm

    From:
    https://ereimer.net/plautdietsch/pddefns.htm

    kuzhle – to snuggle in, to nestle. = Ger. kuscheln
    muzhrijch – grimy, soiled. = ex Fr. mouche? (Ger. Musche was used for a “beauty spot”, and this is transparently flyspeck)
    Puzhel – m. (pl: s) lock of hair, pom-pom, tuft. = Puschel
    The rijch in muzhrijch is a suffiix corresponding to (e)rig or perhaps (e)risch in standard German
    hungrijch – hungry.
    kjlämrijch – inept, awkward, clumsy.
    kjlätrijch – lumpy, like in soup.
    hielrijch – weepy, maudlin, (=*heulerig)

    note also
    rüzhe – the sound of water falling, like a water fall. = German Rauschen

    For a cognate to uzhent I would then look for something like *uschend. The closest phonetically in Std German is huschend; heischend is besser semantically (eisend also means “demanding” in Dutch).

    Re the -ent part there is
    ütjetäkjent – first rate, excellent, outstanding.
    which could be *aussteckend (Dutch uitstekend) crossed with ausgezeichnet.
    trigjtrakjent – reticent, coy, taciturn, aloof, reluctant
    this would be terugtrekkend (same verb) in Dutch or *zurückziehend in German (different verb)

  5. languagehat says
    February 27, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    Interesting, thanks!

  6. David Marjanović says
    February 27, 2022 at 7:27 pm

    *aussteckend (Dutch uitstekend)

    *ausstechend, rather. Hervorstechend even exists.

  7. V says
    March 6, 2022 at 5:14 am

    Prazhnikj is clearly Russian prazdnik ‘holiday, feast, festival; festive occasion.’

    “prazdnik” is pre-Soviet-invasion Bulgarian. After the Soviet invasion it got changed to “praznik”. Same with “sardtse” vs. “sartse”.

  8. PlasticPaddy says
    March 6, 2022 at 7:04 am

    There is also
    Banje – f. a steambath.

  9. V says
    March 6, 2022 at 8:06 am

    [‘ba.nɪ̯ɐ] is what I need, now; [‘ba.nɪ̯ɐ] is what I need, now.

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