STEINBACH, MB

As Steinbach has grown, it has become more diverse, and some might even say, “metropolitan.” Long gone are the days when elderly Mennonite men would greet young women at the Clearspring Mall with, “ .” Today, such tactics would be greeted with shrugs.

In fact, a new study has shown that Plautdietsch has slipped out of the top ten most spoken languages in Steinbach homes after English, French, High German, Russian, Tagalog, Cebuano, Spanish, Korean, Icelandic, and, surprisingly, Pig Latin.

“The sign welcoming visitors to town is in English and French, not English and Plautdietsch,” notes linguistic environmentalist Peter Plett. “Decades ago this would never have been tolerated. I mean, sign-making was a sin in those days, but that’s not the point.”

As a result of this decl

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