Pomeranian (German dialect group)

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Pomeranian (German: Pommersch) is a group of East Low German dialects named after Pomerania (Pommern). It is also known as pommersch Platt, or "Pomeranian Low German". It should not be confused with the West Slavic Pomeranian language (known as Pomoranisch in German).

[edit] History

By the early Middle Ages, Pomerania was largely populated by West Slavic Pomeranians who spoke the Pomeranian language. During the Middle Ages, German colonists from western parts of the Holy Roman Empire began settling in Pomerania as part of the medieval Ostsiedlung. Most native Pomeranians gradually became Germanized. The Low German language of the Hanseatic League was used throughout the territories surrounding the Baltic Sea. The East Low German language of the colonists were influenced by the local Pomeranian and Polabian languages, creating the Pomeranian dialects.

Beginning in 1945, Germans east of the Oder-Neisse line were expelled to western Germany after World War II. Most of the Pomeranian dialects have largely died out in the following decades as the expellees were assimilated into their new homes, although Pomeranian dialects are still spoken in Hither Pomerania, part of the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

As a result of German immigration to Brazil, there are still some communities speaking Pomeranian in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Espírito Santo.^[1]

[edit] Dialects

Pomeranian dialects formerly or currently spoken in Pomerania include:

• Westpommersch or Mecklenburgisch-Pommersch, a dialect of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
• Westmittelpommersch and Ostmittelpommersch, dialects of Mark-Brandenburgisch
• East Pomeranian (Ostpommersch, now extinct)
  • Westpreußisch (in West Prussia)
  • Westhinterpommersch (in western Further Pomerania)
  • Osthinterpommersch (in eastern Further Pomerania)
  • Bublitzisch (in Bublitz, now Bobolice, Poland)
  • Pommerellisch (in Pomerelia)

The German dialects of Pomerania are compiled in the Pommersche Wörterbuch ("Pomeranian Dictionary"), a dictionary of the German dialects spoken within the Province of Pomerania's borders in 1936.

Pomeranian dialects of East Low German are also spoken in Brazil (see Pomerode, Santa Catarina, and Santa Maria de Jetibá, Espírito Santo).

[edit] References

This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of September 28, 2006.