Early Modern & the Imperial Age: What kind of German dialect was spoken in Prussia?

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What kind of German dialect was spoken in Prussia?

Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: Early Modern & the Imperial Age
Forum Discription: World History from 1500 to the end of WW1
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=27862
Printed Date: 13-May-2024 at 20:45
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Topic: What kind of German dialect was spoken in Prussia?

Posted By: Guests
Subject: What kind of German dialect was spoken in Prussia?
Date Posted: 26-Oct-2009 at 10:10

I've tried to find this out by myself, but the source material tends to be, well, let's say "comprehensive", and as I am no linguist it's very hard to find the details from the jungle of information. Furthermore I am not a native speaker of neither English nor German, and there isn't that much of stuff available in my mother tongue. I've studied German for six years and I am somewhat interested in the history of Prussia, so this is why I ended up here asking you. My teacher wasn't capable to give a satisfying answer.

Here's the question(s): what kind of German was spoken in Prussia during the 19th century? Were there great differences between the dialects of people of East Prussia and the Mark Brandenburg? How did it sound like? Did the spoken language differ a lot from the one used today, or was it relatively the same? How many Germans are there still remaining in the nowadays Polish territories, and does their dialect have anything in common with the language of the old days?

Thanks in advance.

Replies:

Posted By: beorna
Date Posted: 17-Dec-2009 at 15:31

the language is Low-Prussian and it is placed among the Low-German, it is spoken from the north of the netherlands to Prussia and reaches from the coast south to the so-called "Mittelgebirge"-mountains. It is influenced by Baltic languages. Within the Low-Prussian there are a lot of different dialects.

so in Brandenburg and East Prussia there was a common language even if there were some differencences. Low Prussia is today sometimes spoken by older people who were expelled after the war. Nowadays the greatest group of speakers in Germany of these language is from the former Soviet Union. It is known sometimes as Mennonite Low German. I don't know how many people in East Prussia are still able to speak the Low Prussian and it is even difficult to fix the amount of not expelled Germans.

Posted By: Cryptic
Date Posted: 18-Dec-2009 at 11:58

Originally posted by Tellmeaboutthat

I've studied German for six years and I am somewhat interested in the history of Prussia,

As side note, there was a Prussian language. As the area Germanicized, Prussian became extinct. Prussian was part of the Baltic language family and was related to Lithuanian and Latvian. Though there are Bibles printed in the Prussian language, it seems to have gone extinct around 1770.

Posted By: beorna
Date Posted: 18-Dec-2009 at 14:50

I don't know if there is a difference in English. In German the Old Baltic language is called Pruzzisch, while the German dialect is called Preußisch. Pruzzisch had an influence on the vocabulary of Preußisch.

Posted By: opuslola
Date Posted: 04-May-2010 at 13:18

I could suggest that Germanic has enough variety to encompass a lot of languages! For example there exists a famous automobile company known to us as "Porsche'" But, unless I am totally wrong, this company is or was controlled by the "Piesch" / "Piech", family (sorry if I mis-spelled the name!) which is but the "Porsche'" name in a different German dialect! E.g. "high" v "low" or maybe "East" v "West?"

As far as I know they are all cousins! But, of course the very word German means the same!

I would suggest that you look here for more?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Prussian

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