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Plautdietch is a dialect of Low German spoken by Mennonites in the former Soviet Union, parts of Canada and the U.S., Mexico, Brazil and Paraguay. In Canada, there are about 100,000 mennonites for whom Plautdietch is a first language.

German Immigrants in California
• Census data reveals that Germans were the largest ethnic immigrant group in California in 1910
• Strong influx from Russian Germans between the late 1880‟s and 1930
=> Some direct immigration from Russia or via China
=> More frequently: internal migration from other states such as KS, SD, NB, OK; also Canada
• Major settlement area of Russian Germans in CA: San Joaquin Valley
=> By 1920: 1st and 2nd generation numbers reached 11,500
=> 1917: Fresno had ten Russian German churches

Dan Gott haft dise Welt so Leef jehaut, daut hee sien eentsje Saen jeef, daut aula, dee aun am jleewe, nich feloare gone, oba daut eewje Laewe habe. Dan Gott schekjt sien Saen nich enn dise Welt enenn omm dee to rechte, oba daut dee Welt derch am kunn seelich woare. Jehaun 3:16-17

Plautdietsch: Russian German Mennonites Around the World
Join Efforts in the Web to Save their Mother Tongue
by Peter Wiens

„Plautdietsch“ belongs to the group of Low Saxon languages and is often also called „Mennonite Low German“. In the northern parts of Germany and in the eastern parts of the Netherlands Low Saxon is used as a minority language. Until the end of World War II its area extended into Eastern Pomerania and Eastern Prussia, areas that are now administered by Poland and Russia. So what then has Low Saxon or Low German to do with the Mennonites? The Mennonites were part of the Anabaptist movement belonging to the left wing of reformation. Many of them fled the Netherlands in the 1500‘s to settle in the Vistula River delta were Prussian Low German was spoken.