Article

Name: Consonantism of Plautdietsch, the language of the German Mennonites of Siberia: the problem of identifying labial phonemes

Authors: Ye. A. Libert , K. V. Shindrova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation)

In the section Фонетика

Abstract: This work aims at identifying and describing the articulatory characteristics of the labial-labial and labial-dental consonant phonemes of the language of the Mennonite Germans of Siberia by distributive analysis and magnetic resonance imaging. The language of German Mennonites, referred to as Plautdietsch (self-designation Plotdich), or Mennonitenplatt, has a complex mixed character due to the history of its speakers. Through the centuries changing their place of residence, Mennonites, representatives of a special ethno-confessional community, now live in various countries of North and South America, European countries, and Russia. Of particular interest is the phonetic appearance of this language. For the first time, the description of its phonemic composition is carried out using the methods of experimental phonetics. The research material was collected from two native speakers (Neudachino, Novosibirsk region). Twenty tomograms were described and analyzed using the methodology of the Laboratory of Experimental Phonetic Research named after V. M. Nadelyaev, Institute of Philology, SB RAS. The tomography program comprised eleven word forms, with the target sound in the initial and final positions. The paper provides language material, with series of words in different phonetic contexts, a summary distribution table, and three tables describing the tomograms. Following N. S. Trubetskoy’s rules of phoneme selection, sound analysis identified five labial phonemes: noisy labial-labial mouth-bowed / p/ and / b/, noisy labial-dental mouth-slotted /v/ and /f/ and sonorous nasal-bowed /m/. Also, the analysis of MRI images determined the constitutive-differential features characteristic of the phonetic subsystem of labial consonantism of Plautdietsch.

Keywords: Plautdietsch, language of Mennonites, consonantism, labial consonants, articulation, MRI, experimental phonetics

Bibliography:

Avdeev I. E. Foneticheskaya sistema nizhnenemetskogo govora Altayskogo kraya v yeye istoricheskom razvitii [Phonetic system of Low German dialect of Altai region in its historical development]. In: Germanskiye yazyki: Sb. st. [Germanic languages. Coll. of art.]. V. Ya. Plotkin (Ed.). Novosibirsk, Zap.-Sib. kn. izd., 1967, pp. 84–118. (In Russ.).

Jedig H. Laut und Formenbestand der Niederdeutschen Mundart des Altai-Gebites. Akademieverlag, Berlin, 1966, 106 p.

Kаnakin I., Wall M. Das Plautdietsch in Westsibirien. Groningen, 1994, 58 p.

Moskalyuk L. I. Nizhnenemetskiye govory v Altayskom kraye [Low German dialects in the Altai Region]. Philology and Man. 2016, no. 1, pp. 41–50 (In. Russ.).

Nadelyaev V. M. Artikulyatsionnaya klassifikatsiya glasnykh [Articulation classification of vowels]. In: Foneticheskie issledovaniya po sibirskim yazykam [Phonetic research on Siberian languages]. Novosibirsk, 1980, рр. 3–91. (In Russ.).

Naiditch L. On the development of the consonant system in Mennonite Low German (Plautdietsch). In: Dialects Across Borders. Selected papers from the 11th International Conference on Methods in Dialectology. (Methods XI), Joensuu, August 2002. Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola, Marjatta Palander and Esa Penttilä (Eds). Amsterdam, Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 2005, pp. 73–86. (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory. Vol. 273).

Nieuweboer R. The Altai dialect of Plautdiitsh (West-Siberian Mennonite Low German) . Groningen, 1998, 380 p.

Rempel H. Kjenntjienoch Plautdietsch? A Mennonite Low German Diction-ary. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1984, 295 p.

Siemens H. Plautdietsch. Tweeverlag. Bonn, 2012, 268 p.

Trubetskoy N. S. Osnovy fonologii [Principles of phonology]. A. A. Kholodovich (Transl. from German), S. D. Katsnel’sona (Ed.). Moscow, Izd. inostr. lit., 1960, 372 p. (In Russ.).

Urtegeshev N. S., Selyutina I. Ya., Esenbayeva G. A., Ryzhikova T. R., Dobrinina A. A. Foneticheskiye transkriptsionnyye standarty UUFT i MFA: sistema sootvetstviy [UUPT and IPA phonetic transcription systems: the system of correlations]. Journal of Philology. Ural-Altaic Studies. 2009, no. 1/UA (1), pp. 100– 115. (In Russ.).

Wall H., Wendel S., Jedig H. Niederdeutsch-Deutsches Wörterbuch. Omsk, 1979, 66 p.