New World Mennonite Low German: An Investigating of Changes in Progress

268 Pages·2016·8.36 MB·English

by  Roslyn Burns

UC Berkeley
Dissertations, Department of Linguistics
Title
New World Mennonite Low German: An Investigating of Changes in Progress
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9d3428sk
Author
Burns, Roslyn C.
Publication Date
2016-04-01

Peer reviewed
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University of California
New World Mennonite Low German
An Investigating of Changes in Progress
By
Roslyn Cherie Burns
A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctorate in Philosophy
in
Linguistics
in the Graduate Division
of the
University of California, Berkeley
Committee in Charge:
Gary B. Holland
Keith Johnson
Thomas F. Shannon
Spring 2016

1
Abstract
This dissertation explores dialect diversification in the long-distance New World Plautdietsch speech
community. Plautdietsch dialects are traditionally classified as belonging to one of two types: either
Chortitza or Molotschna. The traditional dialect classification has recently come under scrutiny because
speakers rarely use features exclusive to either type. I propose that variation in vowel production is an
alternative way of classifying dialect affiliation. In this project, I analyze both the production of vowels
and the production of traditional dialect features used by native Plautdietsch speakers living in North
America. This work finds that both the traditional dialect features and the innovations in the vowel
system are linked to information about a community's migration history, but the two systems represent
different aspects of a community's history.
i
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Problem and Definition 1
1.1 Plautdietsch Background 2
1.1.1 The History of Low German 2
Plautdietsch as a Written Language 10
1.1.2 Plautdietsch Speaking Populations in North America 11
1.2 Defining Mennonites 13
1.2.1 Prussian Mennonites 14
1.3 North America Data Collection Sites 20
1.3.1 Campeche, Mexico 20
1.3.2 Wichita, Kansas, USA 22
1.3.3 Fresno, California, USA 23
1.3.4 Seminole, Texas, USA 23
1.4 Social Variation in North America 25
1.4.1 Physical Community Structure 26
1.4.2 Gender Community Structure 26
1.4.3 Technology in the Community 28
1.4.4 Bible Study 29
1.4.5 Education System 29
1.4.6 Language Use 30
1.5 Linguistic Change in Long-Distance Speech Communities 31
1.6 Summary 36
Chapter 2: Vowel Shift Methodology 38
2.1 Traditional Plautdietsch Dialectology 38
2.2 Comparative Vowel Inventories 42
2.2.1 Long Vowels and Closing Diphthongs 43
2.2.2 Opening Diphthongs 46
2.2.3 Short Stressed Monophthongs 49
2.2.4 Summary 51
2.3 Theory of Vowel Shifts 51
2.3.1 Vowel Shift Typology 52
Principles of Chain Shifts 52
Patterns of Vowel Shifts 53
Other Changes 55
2.3.2 Formalization of Vowel Shifts: The Mechanisms of Perception and Production 55
Vowel Perception and Perceptual Distance 56
Auditory Perceptability Feeds Raising 56
Raising Production and Fronting as Raising 57
Dissimilation 58
2.3.3 History of the Plautdietsch Vowel Shift 59
Long Vowels and Closing Diphthongs 59
Opening Diphthongs 60
Short Vowels 63
2.4 Contextual Changes 64
Dorsal Obstruents 64
ii
Dialect OA class Off-glide 64
Non-Initial Plosives 65
2.5 Summary 66
Chapter 3: Experimental Methodology 67
3.1 Data Elicitation 67
3.2 Participant Sampling 68
3.2.1 Population Gender Sample 70
3.2.2 Population Age Sample 71
3.2.3 Population Region Sample 72
3.2.4 Population Dialect Sample 74
3.2.5 Correlations in the Sample Population 75
3.3 Data Processing 76
3.4 Data Analysis 79
3.4.1 Normalization 79
Dialect Features 79
Vowel Data 80
3.4.2 Statistical Tests 81
Chapter 4: Individual Findings 83
4.1 Summer Elicitation 2012, 2013 (Southern Mexico) 83
4.1.1 ES01 83
4.1.2 Herman Rempel 85
4.1.3 HPC01 88
4.1.4 HPC02 91
4.1.5 HPC03 92
4.1.6 MT01 95
4.1.7 NE01 97
4.1.8 NE02 99
4.1.9 SF01 101
4.1.10 SF03 103
4.1.11 SF04 105
4.1.12 TMP01 107
4.2 Winter, Spring Elicitation 2014 (Southern Mexico) 110
4.2.1 HPC04 110
4.2.2 SF05 112
4.2.3 SF06 114
4.2.4 SF07 116
4.2.5 SF08 118
4.2.6 SF09 120
4.2.7 SF10 122
4.2.8 SF11 124
4.2.9 SF12 126
4.2.10 SF13 128
4.2.11 SF14 130
4.2.12 SF15 132
4.3 Summer Elicitation 2014 (Kansas) 134
iii
4.3.1 KS01 134
4.3.2 KS02 137
4.3.3 KS03 139
4.3.4 KS04 142
4.3.5 KS05 144
4.3.6 KS06 146
4.3.7 KS07 148
4.3.8 KS08 151
4.3.9 KS09 153
4.3.10 KS10 155
4.3.11 KS11 157
4.3.12 KS12 160
4.3.13 KS13 161
4.4 Summer Elicitation 2015 (California and Texas) 164
4.4.1 CA01 164
4.4.2 CA02 167
4.4.3 TX01 170
4.4.4 TX02 173
4.4.5 TX03 175
4.4.6 TX04 177
4.4.7 TX05 179
4.4.8 TX06 181
4.4.9 TX07 183
4.4.10 TX08 186
4.4.11 TX09 188
4.4.12 TX10 190
4.4.13 TX11 193
4.5 Individual Findings Summary 196
Chapter 5: Group Results 198
5.1 Group Vowel Analysis 198
5.5.1 Vowel Summary Statistics 198
5.1.2 Hierarchical Clustering of Vowel Categories: All Speakers 203
5.1.3 Hierarchical Clustering of Vowel Categories: All Vowel Classes 207
5.1.4 Summary of Vowel Clustering 210
5.2 Traditional Dialect Features 210
5.2.1 Traditional Dialect Features Summary Statistics 210
5.2.2 Traditional Dialect Feature Clustering 211
5.3 Group Result Summary 215
Chapter 6: Conclusion 217
6.1 Quantifying Linguistic Variation in Plautdietsch 217
6.2 Linguistic Change Across Speech Islands 218
6.3 Actuation of Linguistic Innovation 219
6.4 Closing 220
References 222
iv
Appendix A: Migration Chart 233
Appendix B: Vowel Correspondence Chart 236
Appendix C: Word List Elicitation Material 254
1
Chapter 1
Problem and Definitions
Plautdietsch, also known as Mennonite Low German, is a West Germanic (WGmc) language spoken by
Mennonites who fled the Netherlands in the the 16th century during the Protestant Reformation.
Members of the speech community are now spread across four continents, but in spite of the distance,
they view themselves as a global speech community. The goal of this dissertation is to analyze
linguistic variation in the pronunciation of Plautdietsch across different Mennonite speech islands in
North America in order to define three aspects of its linguistic development:
(1) The nature of phonetic variation in Plautdietsch-speaking communities
(2) The role of distance in the diffusion of innovations though the long-distance speech community
(3) The factors that mediate the development of linguistic innovation in the long-distance speech
community
The Plautdietsch community is known for its frequent migrations and has been called “trans-statal” by
Cañas-Botos 2008 and “semi-nomadic” by its own members. Currently, Plautdietsch is spoken in over
10 countries spread across Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. By the time Plautdietsch
was first documented in 1928, there was a two-way dialect division between the Russian Chortitza and
Molotschna Mennonite settlements (Quiring 1928). Table 1.1 presents the features of the traditional
dialect divide associated with these settlements (Epp 1993, Rempel 1995, and Tolksdorf 1985).
Feature Chortitza Molotschna
1. Long /u/ Very front like Not as far forward.
Standard German <ü> Sometimes modified to English <oo>
2. WGmc *aaw <eiw> <au>, sometimes <eiw>
3. <oa> Diphthong1 Front Back
4. Palatal Oral Stops <kj>, <gj> <tj>, <dj>
5. Verbal infinitives, Plural Suffix End in –n End in –e
Table 1.1 Traditional Plautdietsch Dialect Variants
A two-way dialect distinction has been maintained in many communities, but there is considerable
variation with respect to which features are used by which group within present-day Mennonite
communities (Brandt 1992, Moelleken 1987).
Variation studies on Plautdietsch have mostly focused on syntactic variation (Kaufman 2007,
2011). These studies indicate that syntactic variation is not related to region and can differ considerably
from village to village within a region. There has been considerably less focus on the role of phonetic
variation within Mennonite communities. Many different documentary records of Plautdietsch indicate
that there is, in fact, phonetic variation, but few scholars have attempted to systematically analyze the
geographical and social distribution of the phonetic variation aside from Burns (2016).2 Currently, there
are three main views of the dialect variation in Plautdietsch:
1 The front – back variation is only found in words which developed <oa> before Middle Low German velars. It is not
found in words where the <oa> diphthong developed from Middle Low German er.
2 Asian groups have mostly gone undocumented.
2
(A) Variation is dependent on membership in one of two traditional dialect groups
(B) Variation is only linked to low-level individual interactions and cannot be linked to
traditional group membership or region (Moelleken 1987, Kaufmann 2007)
(C) Variation may be linked to broader social categories such as region (Burns 2016)
This present work provides evidence that while some phonetic variation in Plautdietsch communities is
associated with traditional dialect categories, other variation is independent of membership in
traditional categories. The variation that is not grounded in traditional dialect affiliation tends to be
linked to regionally defined linguistic norms. I provide evidence that through the history of Mennonite
settlement, distance has played an important role in the development of regional norms, and that social
distance more than geographical distance has a profound role in the development and maintenance of
regional norms. Regional norms have developed quickly within the Plautdietsch speech community of
North America in part due to different groups attempting to differentiate themselves from their
predecessors, but also due to the social structure of certain communities that amplifies the dispersal rate
of linguistic change throughout a speech island.
This investigation surveyed Plautdietsch speakers from Central Canada, the Central US, the
Southern US, Northern Mexico, Southern Mexico, Belize, and Bolivia; all of whom were living in
North America at the time of the study (see Chapter 3 for more information about the population
represented in this study). Not all Mennonite denominations are represented in this work. Notably
missing is the Holdeman Mennonite community, also known as the Church of God in Christ.
Additionally, Beachy Amish Mennonites are not represented in this survey (few can actually speak
Plautdietsch).3
The rest of this investigation is structured as follows. The remaining part of Chapter 1 surveys
the linguistic history of the Low German language with an emphasis on Plautdietsch. §§1.2, 1.3, and
1.4 also include background information to the communities which speak Plautdietsch, both historically
and in the communities surveyed in the present study. Finally, §1.5 provides a summary of known
information about linguistic change in long-distance speech communities. Chapter 2 provides a more
in-depth analysis of phonetic variation in Plautdietsch communities based on previous sources. Chapter
2 focuses on establishing correspondences of phonetic variation reported in different communities and
the traditional dialect variants reported across different communities. Chapter 3 presents the
methodology for the acoustic investigation, data processing, and data analysis. Chapters 4 and 5 present
the findings of the acoustic investigation. Chapter 4 presents the individual results of all 50 participants
and Chapter 5 presents a group analysis of all speakers. Chapter 6 concludes with a discussion of the
results of Chapters 4 and 5 and the overall findings of the study and areas of future research.
1.1. Plautdietsch Background
1.1.1 The History of Low German
Plautdietsch is a Prussian variety of Eastern Low German (Epp 1994, Lehn 1952). Its oldest attested
predecessor in West Germanic is Old Saxon (9 – 12th c.). During the Old Saxon period, Low German
was spoken in a territory which covers most of northwestern Germany and the northern Netherlands
(Holthausen 1899:4-5). Old Saxon was spoken to the west of the Elbe River and to the east of the
Rhine. The southern border of Old Saxon was to the south of Magdeburg and to the north of Cologne.
The northern border of Old Saxon was the North Sea. Map 1 provides the approximate spread of Low
German shortly after the Old Saxon period.4 Low German is marked in green.
3 Most of the Beachy Amish Mennonites that I encountered while conducting this study spoke English and a variety of
High German (i.e., Standard German or Pennsylvania Dutch).
4 The geographical spread of Low German in this map is identical to the geographical spread of Low German presented in