Pommersch

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Pommersch is a group of East Low German dialects. It is named after Pommern, the German name for Pomerania, and is therefore sometimes known in English as Pomeranian. However, it should not be confused with the West Slavic Pomeranian language (known as Pomoranisch in German). Pommersch is also sometimes known as pommersch Platt in German.

[edit] History

Pomerania was originally populated by the West Slavic Pomeranians who spoke the Pomeranian language. During the Middle Ages, German colonists began settling in Pomerania as part of the medieval Ostsiedlung. Most native Pomeranians gradually became Germanized. The East Low German dialects of the colonists were influenced by the local Pomeranian and Polabian languages, creating Pommersch.

Beginning in 1945, Germans east of the Oder-Neisse Line were expelled to western Germany after World War II. Most of the Pommersch dialects have largely died out in the following decades as the expellees were assimilated into their new homes, although Pommersch dialects are still spoken in Hither Pomerania, part of the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

[edit] Dialects

Pommersch dialects formerly or currently spoken in Pomerania include:

Westpommersch or Mecklenburgisch-Pommersch, a dialect of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Westmittelpommersch and Ostmittelpommersch, dialects of Mark-Brandenburgisch
East Pomeranian (Ostpommersch, now extinct)
- Westpreußisch (in West Prussia)
- Westhinterpommersch (in western Further Pomerania)
- Osthinterpommersch (in eastern Further Pomerania)
- Bublitzisch (in Bublitz, now Bobolice, Poland)
- Pommerellisch (in Pomerelia)

The German dialects of Pomerania are compiled in the Pommersche Wörterbuch ("Pomeranian Dictionary"), a dictionary of the German dialects spoken within the Province of Pomerania's borders in 1936.

Pomeranian dialects of East Low German are also spoken in Brazil (see Pomerode, Santa Catarina), and Santa Maria de Jetibá, Espírito Santo).