During a fieldwork expedition in 1991 and 1992, Mercator senior research fellow Tjeerd de Graaf visited the so-called German Region (Nemetsky Rayon) in the Russian Federation in south-western Siberia on the border with Kazakhstan, where many Mennonites lived, descendants of emigrants from north-western Europe, who had strong ties with the Netherlands. Their language, Plautdietsch is part of the Germanic language family and has many similarities with Dutch, Gronings and Frisian.

Dr Tjeerd de Graaf has recorded a large number of analogue cassettes, which not only depict this language, but also describe the history and lifestyle of the Mennonites.

Content

1. Plautdietsch in Siberia - Conversation with Boris Veer, speaker of Plautdietsch in Tomsk/Siberia
2. Plautdietsch in Siberia - Songs Plautdietsch
3. Plautdietsch in Siberia - Gronings In Siberia
4. Plautdietsch in Siberia - Bilingualism in Kazakhstan
5. Plautdietsch in Siberia - Church service in Neudachino
6. Plautdietsch in Siberia - Origin Mennonites in Holland?
7. Plautdietsch in Canada - Canadian National Anthem In PD
8. Plautdietsch in Canada - Christmas stories Plautdietsch
9. Plautdietsch in Canada - Multilingualism Canada
10. Plautdietsch in Canada - Church service in La Crete
11. Song Evening In Canada
12. Plautdietsch in Canada - Family history of Mennonites in La Crete

The complete collection of recordings is (online) available at the Frisian Film and Audio Archive (Soundcloud).