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Description:
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The purpose of this alphabetically-arranged Plautdietsch-English,
English-Plautdietsch word finder is to provide a handy reference tool for
people who are looking for a word to use, for which they already know its
equivalent in either one or the other of the two languages. The mother
tongue of the compiler is Plautdietsch, and he has long been occupied with
collecting lists of words in the dialect. He has especially looked for
words not totally common in the daily speech of the speakers of the
dialect. He has, nevertheless, relied heavily on the work of other
Plautdietsch writers, and especially on compilers of Plautdietsch
dictionaries. There is in existence a variety of such dictionaries, each
with its own system of orthography. The system chosen for this work is the
same as that used in the author's earlier publications, based closely on
Reuben Epp's 1996 publication "The Spelling of Low German and
Plautdietsch." Minor departures from that system will not be noticeable,
although they are outlined in the Introduction.
A notable feature of this word finder is the addition of a special section
of neologisms, words not formerly found in Plautdietsch vocabularies; for
example, words in the fields (among others) of medicine, the law, the arts,
sports, the military, modern technology, etc. Traditional, conservative
opinion will probably object to the inclusion of this type of thinking, but
if the dialect is to show its capability of dealing with contemporary life
and adapting to it, serious consideration may have to be given to it.
Plautdietsch is spoken by ca. 410,000 people (Canada 50,000; Germany
100,000; Kazakhstan 50,000; Latin America 140,000; USA 20,000).
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