Epp, Reuben (1920-2009)

Reuben Epp (1920-2009)

Reuben Epp: master mechanic, educator, and lexicographer of Plautdietsch (Low German): born in Langham, Saskatchewan, Canada on 1 March 1920 to Cormelius P. Epp (20 July 1887, Lushton, Nebraska, USA – 5 July 1971, Borden, Saskatchewan) and Elisabeth (Boldt) Epp (13 April 1896, Mountain Lake, Minnesota, USA – 2 October 1978, Langham, Saskatchewan). His parents were immigrants to Canada from the United States and had 1870s roots in the Molotschna Mennonite Settlement. Reuben was their first born of four sons, one who died in infancy. On 12 April 1946 Reuben married Irmgard Lena Epp (17 May 1927, Hafford, Saskatchewan – 18 July 2015, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada), daughter of Cornelius Epp (1897-1956) and Helena (Redekopp) Epp (1908-2013) and together they had two daughters and two sons before adopting into their family two more daughters and two more sons with the family name Nichols. Reuben died on 20 June 2009 in Kelowna, British Columbia, and is buried in Kelowna Memorial Cemetery. He was a member of the First Mennonite Church of Kelowna, BC.

After training as a mechanic, Epp became a vocational schoolteacher and later vice-principal of the Northern Lights College, a technical college in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. Throughout his life Epp had great curiosity and many diverse interests and hobbies: woodcraft, all things mechanical, hunting, fishing, boating and even preparing foods. He held a lifelong profound interest in the Plautdietsch language and sought out speakers and information on it throughout his travels with his wife in northern Europe, and the Americas. Beginning in Dawson Creek he led a group of performers that brought his language to communities of British Columbia. He found speakers who had a variety of forms of Low German and who were from many different religious denominations and locations, often Dutch and Germanic Europeans dispersed throughout the world.

Though never formally trained as a linguistic scholar, Epp exhibited an impressive display of careful research and knowledge of Plautdietsch. One of his important contributions was to revise the spelling system of Plautdietsch to make it more compatible with the wider and diverse community of Plautdietsch speakers. Reuben Epp’s writing and recitations reflect his unquestioning acceptance of Plautdietsch – Mennonite Low German, as the mother tongue of Mennonite settlers from Prussia and Russia.

Though Plautdietsch has no connection to the Mennonite belief system, it plays a tremendous role in identity and sense of belonging for many. Under the stimulus of Arnold Dyck’s writings, he began writing poems and stories, some in an earthy Plautdietsch humour but also works that display a serious tone as he relates hope and tragedy in the lives of prairie settlers. He was a tireless promoter of the language in both orations and in his many writings. In its great humour and its flexibility, he sought to recover it as a common and current written language thus stimulating other to prize and to write in this language. Most collections of Plautdietsch publications contain writings by Reuben Epp.

Bibliography

Cox, Christipher Douglas. Quantitative perspectives on variation in Mennonite Plautdietsch. Ph.D. thesis, U. Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta. 2015.

Epp, Ernie. Epp, Reuben and Irmgard (Epp). Langham & district history, 1907-2007. Langham, Sask. Langham and District History Book Committee, 2007: 191-192.

Epp, Reuben. "Plautieisch: Origins, Development and State of the Mennonite Low German Language." Journal of Mennonites Studies (1987): 61-72.

Epp, Reuben. "Victor Peters and Jack Thiessen, Plautdietsche Jeschichten, Gespräche-Interviews- Elzählungen [Book review]." Journal of Mennonite Studies (1992): 238-239.

GRanDMA = GRanDMA (The Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry) Database, GM24-09. Fresno, CA: Mennonite Genealogy Inc., 1 September 2024: Reuben Epp #421074.

Harms, Alvin. "Reuben Epp: Plautdietsche Schreftsteckja. [Book Review]." Canadian Ethnic Studies (1975): 67-68.

Reimer, Al. "Reuben Epp. The Story of Low German & Plautdietsch [Book Review]." Journal of Mennonite Studies (1994): 234-236.

Works by Reuben Epp

Biem Aunsiedle: When the settlers came; plautdietsche Jechichte een Resse ut'e Vergangenheit. Winnipeg, Manitoba. 1972. OCLC 884829175. Also issued as a vinal LP, by R.E.C. Recordings, Winnipeg, Manitoba. E-172-LG. Epp narrates ten poems and stories.

Plautdietsche Schreftsteckja: Jedichta, Jeschichte, Leeda, Spelkjes. Steinbach, Manitoba. Derksen Printers. 1972. OCLC 48531751

Onse Lied Vetahle: Stories our people tell; plautdietsche Jeschichte enn Riemsels [Vinal LP, Sound Recoding]. Winnipeg, Manitoba. Redikop Electric. E-273-L.G. 1973. Epp narrates seven stories.

Five Dialects of Low German. [Place and publisher not identified]. 1987. OCLC 1055436143

161 Plautdietsch verbs fully conjugated in all tenses with a new venture in writing system. [Place and publisher not identified]. 1991. OCLC 1055422394

The Story of Low German and Plautdietsch: Tracing a Language Across the Globe. Hillsboro, Kansas. Readers Press. 1993. ISBN 0-9638494-0-9

The Spelling of Low German & Plautdietsch: Towards an Official Plautdietsch Orthography. Hillsboro, Kansas. Readers Press. 1996. ISBN 0-9638494-1-7

Dit un jant opp Plautdietsch: This and that in Mennonite Low German. Hillsboro, Kansas. The Readers Press. 1997. ISBN 0-9638494-2-5

Dit un Jant opp Plautdietsch [CD, 17 pieces of which eight are by Reuben Epp, the others by Low German authors or rendered into Plautdietsch by Epp, recording of a live performance on 7 October 2000 in Lage/Lippe, Germany], published by Plautdietsch-Freunde e. V. (Detmold 2006)

Archives

The personal papers of Reuben and Irmgard Epp are held in the Mennonite Historical Society of Sasaktchewan Archives. Epp, Reuben (1920-2009), Volumes 3.132 - 3.142, 3.153, and 3.175; Epp, Reuben & Irmgard, Volume 3.169 - 3.174

Additional Information

Plautdietsch Dictionary © 2024 Loren Koehler and Ed Zacharias®; is available online at: https://www.webonary.org/plautdietsch/

Author(s)	Victor G. Wiebe
Date Published	September 2024

Cite This Article

MLA style

Wiebe, Victor G.. "Epp, Reuben (1920-2009)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. September 2024. Web. 27 Sep 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Epp,_Reuben_(1920-2009)&oldid=179713.

APA style

Wiebe, Victor G.. (September 2024). Epp, Reuben (1920-2009). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 27 September 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Epp,_Reuben_(1920-2009)&oldid=179713.

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