Editing Plautdietsch (section)

===Nouns===
Mennonite Low German nouns inflect into two numbers: [[Grammatical number|singular]] and [[plural]], three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter, but only two cases, [[nominative]] and [[oblique case|oblique]]. The historical [[Dative case|dative]] and [[Accusative case|accusative]] have merged, even though some writers try to maintain a three cases distinction, which has been lost for most speakers, perhaps centuries ago. The oblique case is distinct from the nominative only in 1) personal pronouns: '''ekj''' froag '''am''', '''hee''' auntwuat '''mie''' (I ask him, he answers me) 2) articles and demonstrative and possessive adjectives in the singular masculine gender: '''de''' Voda halpt '''dän''' Sän (the father helps the son) (observe: nouns are not inflected themselves) and 3) proper names, i. e. traditional Mennonite names: Peeta frajcht Marie'''-en''', Marie auntwuat Peet'''ren''' (Peter asks Mary, Mary answers Peter)
 {| class="wikitable"
|-
! || colspan="3" | '''Singular'''
! colspan="3" | '''Plural'''
|-
|  || Masculine || Feminine || Neuter ||Masculine || Feminine || Neuter
|-
|Nominative|| '''de Mensch''' ||de Sonn ||daut Hüs||de Menschen ||de Sonnen ||de Hiesa
|-
| Oblique  ||'''dän Mensch''' ||de Sonn ||daut Hüs||de Menschen ||de Sonnen ||de Hiesa
|}

====Plurals====
Plural formation is comparatively complex. Three major procedures can be established: 1) through an ending, -a, -en, -s, -sch or none at all; 2) voicing the final devoiced consonant and 3) fronting (and maybe lowering) a back vowel, which might require palatalization of a velar consonant. A given word could have one or two, all or none of these characteristics.

=====Examples=====
'''No ending''', no voicing, no vowel fronting: de Fesch de Fesch, daut Schop, de Schop, daut Been, de Been (fish, fishes; sheep, sheep; leg, legs)

Voicing, no ending, no vowel fronting: Frint, Friend; Boajch, Boaj (friend/s, mountain/s)

No ending, no voicing, vowel fronting: Foot, Feet (foot, feet)

Voicing and vowel fronting, no ending: Hoot, Heed (hat/s)

'''-a ending:'''

only: Licht, Lichta (light/s)

with voicing: {{lang|de|Bilt, Bilda}} (picture/s)

with vowel fronting: Maun, Mana (man, men)

with voicing, vowel fronting and palatalization: Kaulf, Kjalwa (calf, calves)

'''-en ending''' (the -en, -s and -sch endings have no vowel fronting)

only: Näs Näsen, (nose/s)

with voicing: de Tiet, de Tieden, de Erfoarunk, de Erfoarungen (time/s, experience/s)

Words where a historical r is dropped require it to be reinserted: Däa, Däaren (door/s)
Polysyllabic words with a vocalized r drop the final a: Sesta, Sestren (sister/s)

An unstressed [[schwa]] also is dropped: Gaufel, Gauflen (fork/s)

'''-s ending'''

This class consists mainly of 1) short masculine and neuter nouns: Baul -s, Oarm -s (ball/s, arm/s)

2) words related with family members: Sän -s, Fru -es, (son/s, woman, women)

and 3) masculine and neuter nouns ending in -el and -en (the latter may drop the n): Läpel, Läpels; Goaden, Goades (spoon/s; garden/s)

'''-sch ending'''

This class consists of masculine and neuter polysyllabic nouns ending with -a: de Voda, de Vodasch; daut Massa, de Massasch (father/s, knife, knives)

For someone knowing (High) German, pluralizing is a fairly predictable process, with some exceptions: the '''-en''' ending covers pretty much the same words in both languages; the '''-a''' ending is the equivalent for the German '''-er''' plural, where German has [[Germanic umlaut|Umlaut]], Plautdietsch will have vowel fronting in most cases. The '''-s''' and '''-sch''' groups are made almost entirely of polysyllabic nouns which in German have no plural ending.

The most problematic words are those with an '''-e''' plural ending in German. Although the entire class with no ending is made out of them, many other words are treated differently. For example, the plurals for '''Stool''' and '''Stock''' (chair and stick) are '''Steela''' and '''Stakja''' (compare German Stuhl, Stühle; Stock, Stöcke). Since they have their vowels fronted there seems to be no reason for the '''-a''' ending. Many others have been moved into the '''-en''' class: '''Jeboot, Jebooten''' (commandment/s, German: Gebot, Gebote). With some not so common words, there is no certainty about the correct plural, different speakers create them in different ways: the plural of '''Jesaz''' (law) could be '''Jesaza''' or '''Jesazen''' (German: Gesetz, Gesetze).

====Possession====
The classical [[genitive]] is no longer used except in a few relic expressions.{{Citation needed|reason=This actually varies by speaker and by location/education. Also, there is another possessive construction which is used that is not cited here: the "of" construction. It is not as common as the "his" construction, but it can be found.|date=August 2012}} Instead, possession is expressed as in many German dialects with the [[his genitive]], i.e. naming the possessor in the [[oblique case]] with the possessive adjective and the possessed object: Dän Maun sien Hus (the man's house). With proper nouns, and when the possessor is determined by a possessive adjective, the possessor is in the [[nominative case]] instead: Peeta sien Hus (Peter's house); mien Voda sien Hus (my father's house). Very long possessive clauses can be created: Mien Voda seine Mutta äare Mutta es miene Uagrootmutta (my father's mother's mother is my great grandmother).

For inanimate or generalized constructions, the preposition ''von'' or a composition are used instead: De Lichta von de Staut/ de Stautslichta (the lights of the city).

====Diminutive====
The diminutive is formed adding by '''-kje''' to the noun: de Jung, daut Jungkje; de Mejal, daut Mejalkje (the boy, the little boy; the girl, the little girl). All diminutive nouns take the neuter gender, with two exceptions: de Oomkje, de Mumkje, two forms used very commonly for mister/man/husband and mistress/woman/wife. These seem to have been created originally as diminutive forms of, respectively, Oom and Mumm (uncle and aunt; cf. German: Oheim/Ohm, Öhmchen/Öhmlein and Muhme, Mühmchen/Mühmlein). Today, they are no longer seen as diminutives and therefore retain their respective masculine and feminine genders.

With nouns ending in '''t''' or '''k''', only '''-je''' is added; a few nouns ending in '''kj''', an additional '''s''' is inserted: de Staut, daut Stautje, daut Buak, daut Buakje; daut Stekj, daut Stekjsje (the (little) city, the (little) book, the (little) piece).

Plural diminished nouns take -s ending: Jungkjes, Mejalkjes; however, if the original plural requires fronting of a back vowel or has an '''-a''' ending, these features are retained before adding the diminutive suffix: de Stool, de Steela → daut Stoolkje, de Steelakjes (chair/s, little chair/s)