Jack Thiessen


Jack Thiessen is a Russian Mennonite teacher, translator, and writer from Manitoba, Canada. Alongside Arnold Dyck and Reuben Epp, he is an important contributor to the development of Mennonite Low German literature as well as one of the language's most prominent lexicographers.

Early life and education

Thiessen was born in Gnadenfeld, near Grunthal.
Thiessen graduated from the University of Manitoba and received his PhD at the University of Marburg.

Career

In addition to Plautdietsch writing, he has also written about Yiddish and has translated numerous works, including Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince into Plautdietsch. Thiessen is perhaps most well known for his influential Plautdietsch language dictionary. The 1977 edition of Thiessen's dictionary, published two years before Herman Rempel's dictionary, was the first published Plautdietsch dictionary, a language that had until then been primarily a spoken language. The dictionary has been expanded considerably in editions since then and been utilized by writers, such as Rudy Wiebe wishing to write, not just speak, in Plautdietsch.
According to John Consadine, co-editor of Refractions of Germany in Canadian Literature and Culture, Thiessen's dedication to the study of Plautdietsch grew out of his desire to be a creative writer in the small language that was his mother tongue. Thiessen was a professor of German Studies at the University of Winnipeg for many years.

Publications