Well, I was doing some research yet about the language of my people and such and I found out that the great Mennonite novelist Armin Wiebe has an excellent section of his website called “Gutenthal Speaks” where you can hear Armin read various Mennonite expressions, such as “holem de gruel”, “chinga freow met sukka bestreit”, and “schludenz”, as well as some traditional (if rather dark) Plautdietsch poetry such as:
Schuckel schuckel Scheia / Oostre ate wie Eia
Pinjkste ate wie wittet Broot / Stoaw’ wie nijch
Dann woa wie groot.
which translates to:
Schuckel schuckel scissor legs / At Easter we eat eggs
At Pentecost we eat white bread / Die we not
We won’t be dead.
Nah junges! You have to hear Armin read it!
What a goldmine! I spent all afternoon playing audio recordings and getting my frintschoft to try to figure out what it means. Great fun.
And buy one of his hilarious books while you’re at it!
