The Main Data about the Consonant System of the Low German Dialect of the Mennonite Germans of the Simferopol Region of the Crimean Peninsula

The article describes the consonant system of the Low German dialect of the Mennonite Germans of the Simferopol region of Crimea. Mennonites are followers of the Reformation movement that emerged in the 16th century in the Netherlands. The founder of this religious teaching was former Frisian Catholic priest Menno Simons (1496–1561), who united small, disjointed congregations of Anabaptists based on his doctrine. Since 1789, at the invitation of Catherine II, Mennonites began to migrate to Russia. The study is based on an analysis of the oral speech of representatives of an ethnic religious community who retained their native language in a foreign-speaking environment. The authors identify 25 consonant phonemes and describe in detail their classification according to articulatory and acoustic characteristics, as well as the functional load based on frequency of use. Special attention is paid to the specific features of consonantism, including the preservation of archaic features characteristic of the Low German dialect Plattdeutsch, as well as the influence of Russian and High German dialects. Such phenomena as palatalization before the vowels of the front row, spirantization of the consonants, velarization [l], vocalization [r], the presence of voiced consonants at the absolute end of the word. The analysis shows that the dialect under study retains a significant degree of archaism, while simultaneously being influenced by the contact Russian language. Despite the numerical reduction of native speakers, the consonant system demonstrates stability and internal logic, which makes it an important object for linguistic and ethnolinguistic research

• Notes on the Dialects of the Crimean Mennonite Settlements (Based on the V. M. Zhirmunsky’s Archives)

  Open Access•Larisa E Naiditch, Ekaterina A Libert•Vestnik NSU Series History and…•2020

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