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Diminutives are formed by the addition of the suffix kje and are always neuter.If the noun ends in t or k then the diminutive is formed by adding the suffix je. Examples are: Schwienkje, Me'jalkje, Kautje, Krietje, Büakje.
A married woman is disignated by adding the suffix sche to the married surname. Examples are: Pannasche, Wiebsche.
Most adjectives have three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. The comparative is formed by adding a to the positive word and the superlative is formed by adding ste to the postive word; Examples are: heet, heeta, heetste.
dee Grope es heet
dee Grope es heeta
dee Grope es aum heetste
Following are example of changes that occur in comparing adjectives in the different genders:
Masculine Feminine neuter
en schmock a Jung ne schmocke Me'jal en schmocket Bilt
en schmockra Jung ne schmockre Me'jal en schmockret Bilt
en schmocksta Jung ne schmockste Me'jal en schmockstet Bilt
Personal pronouns and their related possessive adjectives:
ekj mien
dü dien
hee sien
see äa
wie ons
jie jün
see (M) äa
Ordinal numbers designate the rank of an item in a series; fractions are used as adjectives or nouns:
cardinal ordinal fractions
eent easchta
twee tweeda haulf (de halft)
dree dredda en dreddel
fea feada en feadel
fiew (fief) fefta en feftel
sass sassta en sasstel
säwen säwenda en säwendel
acht achta en achtel
näajen näajenda en näajendel
tian tianda en tiendel
The ordinals listed are masculine; substituting an e for the last a changes these ordinals to the feminine; substituting et for the last a makes them neuter. The cardinal numbers are all feminine.
pers. pron. = personal pronoun.
poss. adj. = possessive adjective.
pl. = plural.
m= masculine.
f= feminine.
n= neuter.
M= Molotschna dialect variant.
prep.= preposition.
conj. = conjunction.
pref. = prefix.
suff. = suffix.
sep. = separable.
insep. = inseparable
lit. = literally.
vulg. = vulgar.
adv. = adverb
comp. = comparative.
sup. = superlative.
refl. = reflexive.
coll. = colloquial.
letters in brackets () can be used optionally.
As pronounced and heard As pronounced and heard
by the Old Colony Mennonites by the Molotschna Mennonites
Winkjla Winkler Wintjla
Kjoasch cherry Tjoasch
Kjikjel chick(s) Tjitjel
kjnette to knit tjnette
Migj mosquito Midj
trigj back tridj
Pligj (shoe) tack Plidj
Frü wife, woman Fru
Lüss louse Luss
jün your jun
je'neiw fussy, particular je'nau
Meiw sleeve Mau
moake* to make moake*
foake* often foake*
Loake* (bed) sheet Loake*
Ssoll inch Tsoll
Ssoagel* tail Tsoagel*
ssettre tremble tsettre
ssinjre vibrate tsinjre
Sselt tent Tselt
* The pronunciation of the diphthong oa is quite different between the
Old Colony Mennnites and the Molotschna Mennonites. This difference in the pronunciation is extremely difficult to explain and practically impossible to put into type. It must be heard to get the full significance of this difference. It is close to the diphthong in the English word roar or boar when pronounced by the Molotschna Mennnites. The Old Colony Mennonites bring the tongue forward in the mouth when they pronounce this diphthong.
Another somewhat controversial consonant is the hard s. The Old Colony Mennonites pronounced a number of words beginning with the hard s such as Ssoagel, Ssoll, while the same words are pronounced as Tsoagel, Tsoll by the Molotschna Mennonites. This dictionary will use the ss where words begin with the hard s.
Examples:
As pronounced by the As pronounced by the
Old Colony Mennonites Molotschna Mennonites
Ssoll inch Tsoll
Ssoagel tail Tsoagel
ssettre tremble tsettre
ssinjre vibrate tsinjre
Sselt tent tselt
short i is like i in it e.g. Schilt
ie is like ie in field e.g. hiele, Biel
long i is like i in machine e.g. Tia
short e is like e in met e.g. Dell, stell
long ee is like ey in they e.g. hee, breet
long a is like a in father e.g. Fater, hab
ä is like a in gate e.g. bäde, fäl
äa is like ai in air e.g. äajde, mäajlijch
au is like ow in gown e.g. Faut, Launt
short o is like o in top e.g. Spott, bott
long o is like o in open e.g. op, Rot
oo is like ou in out e.g. Hoot, Foot
short u is like u in put e.g. mucht, Luck
ü is like u in Yule e.g. Tün, jün*
* The ü, as shown in the above example, relates to the Molotschna pronunciation. The Old Colony Mennonites push their tongue forward when pronouncing this vowel.
In some Mennonite communities verbs and nouns that end in e are closed with a final n. In general terms the Old Colony Mennonites, on which style this dictionary is based, do not use the n after these words.
Examples are: scheete(n), rane(n), Woage(n). Letters in brackets can be used optionally.
Articles
en is a masculine and neuter article: en Maun, en Kjint
ne is a femnine article: ne Frü
det is a neuter article means the: det Kjint
et is another article in Low German which has the English
equivelant of it or the. Examples are: Es et aul däjch; is it dry already? Es et Kjint aul je'sunt; is the child well already?
Care must be taken to distinguish det from dit and daut
The following words belong in a class of their own because they do not conform to the general rules that apply to the o and the s:
Bos, Hos, Blos are examples where we have the long o like in pole. The
s remains soft.
Drosel, Schosel, tose, Kos, Fos are examples where we have a short o
like in pot; the s remains soft.
Fros, Os, Oshacka, Osodla, Nätklos are examples where we have the long
o like in pole but here we have the hard s like the s in boss.
Contractions
In Low German a number of contractions have evolved that may look
strange but have nevertheless become an idiomatic part of the language.
regular expression English contraction
woat daut will it woat't
kaun ekj can I kaun'kj
met däm with the met'm
woa ekj will I woa'kj
There are many others and it may take some time before writers in LG
accept the above in written form.
The duplication of information contained in parts of this section is deliberate.