Plautdietsch

Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) is a West Germanic Low German language descended from the West Prussian Vistula dialects spoken by Anabaptist Mennonites who migrated from the Netherlands to the Vistula Delta in the 16th century. It is now spoken by around 400,000 Mennonites scattered across Russia, Germany, Canada, the USA, Mexico, Paraguay, Brazil, and Bolivia, all descended from the original Vistula Mennonites who migrated to Catherine the Great's Russia in the 1780s and then to the Americas after 1874 when the Russian government revoked their military exemption. Plautdietsch is unusual among Low German varieties for having maintained vibrant intergenerational transmission entirely through religious-community isolation, despite the lack of any homeland country. The largest contemporary Plautdietsch communities are in Bolivia (~70K Santa Cruz Old Colony settlements) and Mexico (~50K Chihuahua), where Mennonites maintain agricultural colonies and reject most modern technology.