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The Low German dialects spoken in the Netherlands are mostly referred to asLow Saxon, those spoken in northwestern Germany (Lower Saxony,Westphalia,Schleswig-Holstein,Hamburg,Bremen, andSaxony-Anhalt west of theElbe) as either Low German or Low Saxon, and those spoken in northeastern Germany (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,Brandenburg, and Saxony-Anhalt east of the Elbe) mostly as Low German, not being part of Low Saxon. This is because northwestern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands were the area of settlement of theSaxons (Old Saxony), while Low German spread to northeastern Germany througheastward migration of Low German speakers into areas with an originallySlavic-speaking population. This area is known asGermania Slavica, where the former Slavic influence is still visible in the names of settlements and physiogeographical features.[c]
It has been estimated that Low German has approximately 2–5 million speakers in Germany, primarily Northern Germany (ranging from well to very well),[14] and 2.15 million in the Netherlands (ranging from reasonable to very well).[1]: 88
City limit sign in Lower Saxony showing that Low German is closer to English forAltenbruch (meaning'old bog/swamp'), an incorporated village ofCuxhaven. The name in Low German isOlenbrook.
It has been estimated that Low German has approximately two to five million speakers (depending on the definition of 'native speaker') in Germany, primarily in Northern Germany.[15]
Variants of Low German are spoken in most parts ofNorthern Germany, for instance in the states ofLower Saxony,North Rhine-Westphalia,Hamburg,Bremen,Schleswig-Holstein,Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,Saxony-Anhalt, andBrandenburg. Small portions of northernHesse and northernThuringia are traditionally Low Saxon-speaking too. Historically, Low German was also spoken in formerly German parts ofPoland (e.g., Pomerania andSilesia), as well as inEast Prussia and the Baltic provinces (modernEstonia andLatvia). TheBaltic Germans spoke a distinct Low German dialect, which has influenced the vocabulary and phonetics of both Estonian and Latvian. The historicalsprachraum of Low German also included contemporary northern Poland, East Prussia (the modernKaliningrad Oblast of Russia), a part of westernLithuania, and the German communities in Estonia and Latvia, most notably their Hanseatic cities. German speakers in this area fled the Red Army or were forcibly expelled after the border changes at the end of World War II.
The language was also formerly spoken in the outer areas of what is now the city-state ofBerlin, but in the course of urbanisation and national centralisation in that city, the language has vanished (the Berlin dialect itself is a northern outpost ofHigh German, though it has some Low German features).
Dialects of Low German are spoken in the northeastern area of the Netherlands (Dutch Low Saxon) by approximately 1.6 million speakers.[1] These dialects are written with an unstandardized orthography based on Standard Dutch orthography. The position of the language is, according to UNESCO, vulnerable.[17] Between 1995 and 2011 the numbers of parent speakers dropped from 34% in 1995 to 15% in 2011. Numbers of child speakers dropped from 8% to 2% in the same period.[18] According to a 2005 study 53% speak Low Saxon or Low Saxon and Dutch at home and 71% could speak it in the researched area.[1] The total number of speakers is estimated at 1.7 million speakers.[3] There are speakers in the Dutch north and eastern provinces ofGroningen,Drenthe,Stellingwerf (part ofFriesland),Overijssel,Gelderland,Utrecht andFlevoland, in several dialect groups per province.
There are also immigrant communities where Low German is spoken in the Western hemisphere, including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Belize, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. In some of these countries, the language is part of theMennonite religion and culture.[19] There are Mennonite communities inOntario,Saskatchewan,Alberta,British Columbia,Manitoba,Kansas andMinnesota which use Low German in their religious services and communities. These Mennonites are descended from primarily Dutch settlers that had initially settled in theVistula delta region ofPrussia in the 16th and 17th centuries before moving to newly acquired Russian territories in Ukraine in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and then to theAmericas in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The types of Low German spoken in these communities and in theMidwest region of the United States have diverged since emigration. The survival of the language is tenuous in many places, and has died out in many places where assimilation has occurred. Members and friends of the Historical Society of North German Settlements in western New York (Bergholz, New York), a community of Lutherans who trace their immigration from Pomerania in the 1840s, hold quarterly "Plattdeutsch lunch" events, where remaining speakers of the language gather to share and preserve the dialect. Mennonite colonies in Paraguay, Belize, andChihuahua, Mexico, have made Low German a "co-official language" of the community.[citation needed]
East Pomeranian is also spoken in parts ofsouthern andsoutheastern Brazil, in the latter especially in the state ofEspírito Santo, being official in five municipalities, and spoken among itsethnically European migrants elsewhere, primarily in the states ofRio de Janeiro andRondônia. East Pomeranian-speaking regions of Southern Brazil are often assimilated into the generalGerman Brazilian population and culture, for example celebrating theOktoberfest, and there can even be a language shift from it toRiograndenser Hunsrückisch in some areas. In Espírito Santo, nevertheless, Pomeranian Brazilians are more often proud of their language, and particular religious traditions and culture,[21] and not uncommonly inheriting the nationalism of their ancestors, being more likely to accept marriages of its members with Brazilians of origins other than a Germanic Central European one than to assimilate with Brazilians ofSwiss,Austrian,Czech, and non-East Pomeranian-speaking German and Prussian heritage[clarification needed] – that were much more numerous immigrants to both Brazilian regions (and whose language almost faded out in the latter, due to assimilation and internal migration)[clarification needed], by themselves less numerous than theItalian ones (with only Venetian communities in areas of highly Venetian presence conservingTalian, and other Italian languages and dialects fading out elsewhere).[clarification needed]
Speakers of low German outside Europe
Approximate distribution ofnative speakers ofGerman or a German variety outside Europe (according to Ethnologue 2016 unless referenced otherwise) Numbers of speakers should not be summed up per country, as they most likely overlap considerably. Table includes varieties with disputed statuses as separate language.
The language grouping of Low German is referred to, in the language itself as well as in its umbrella languages of German and Dutch, in several different ways, ranging from official names such as Niederdeutsch and Nederduits to more general characterisations such as "dialect". The proliferation of names or characterisations is due in part to the grouping stretching mainly across two different countries and to it being a collection of varieties rather than a standardised language.
There are different uses of the term "Low German":
In Germany, native speakers of Low German call their languagePlatt,Plattdütsch,Plattdüütsch,Plattdütsk,Plattdüütsk,Plattduitsk (South-Westphalian),Plattduitsch (Eastphalian),Plattdietsch (Low Prussian), orNedderdüütsch. In the Netherlands, native speakers refer to their language asdialect,plat,Nedersaksisch, or the name of their village, town or district.
Officially, Low German is calledniederdeutsche Sprache orplattdeutsche Sprache (Nether or Low German language),Niederdeutsch orPlattdeutsch (Nether or Low German) in High German by the German authorities,nedderdüütsche Spraak (Nether or Low German language),Nedderdüütsch orPlattdüütsch (Nether or Low German) in Low German by the German authorities andNedersaksisch (Nether or Low Saxon) by the Dutch authorities.Plattdeutsch,Niederdeutsch andPlatduits,Nedersaksisch are seen in linguistic texts from the German and Dutch linguistic communities respectively.
In Danish it is calledplattysk,nedertysk or, rarely,lavtysk. Mennonite Low German is calledPlautdietsch.
"Low" refers to the flat plains and coastal area of thenorthern European lowlands, contrasted with the mountainous areas of central and southern Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, whereHigh German (Highland German) is spoken.[d]
The colloquial termPlatt denotes both Low German dialects and any non-standard Western variety ofGerman; this use is chiefly found in northern and Western Germany and is not considered to belinguistically correct.[23]
TheISO 639-2 language code for Low German has beennds (Niedersächsisch orNedersaksisch,Neddersassisch) since May 2000.
Low German is a part of the continentalWest Germanicdialect continuum. To the West, it blends into theLow Franconian languages, includingDutch. A distinguishing feature between the Low Franconian varieties and Low German varieties is the plural of the verbs. Low German varieties have a common verbal plural ending, whereas Low Franconian varieties have a different form for the second person plural. This is complicated in that in most Low Franconian varieties, including standardDutch, the original second-person plural form has replaced the singular. Some dialects, including again standard Dutch, innovated a new second-person plural form in the last few centuries, using the other plural forms as the source.
To the North and Northwest, it abuts theDanish and theFrisian languages. In Germany, Low German has replaced the Danish and Frisian languages in many regions.Saterland Frisian is the only remnant of East Frisian language and is surrounded by Low German, as are the few remainingNorth Frisian varieties, and the Low German dialects of those regions have influences from Frisian substrates.
Most linguists classify the dialects of Low German together withEnglish andFrisian as theNorth Sea Germanic orIngvaeonic languages. However, most exclude Low German from the group often calledAnglo-Frisian languages because some distinctive features of that group of languages are only partially preserved in Low German, for instance theIngvaeonic nasal spirant law (some dialects haveus,os for "us" whereas others haveuns,ons), and because other distinctive features almost do not occur in Low German at all, for instance thepalatalization and assibilation of/k/ (compare palatalized forms such as Englishcheese, Frisiantsiis to non-palatalized forms such as Low GermanKees orKaise, Dutchkaas, GermanKäse but Low German Sever/Sebber while German Käfer[24]) However, since Anglo-Frisian features occur in Low German and especially in its older language stages, there is a tendency to prefer the Ingvaeonic classification instead of the Anglo-Frisian one, which also takes Low German into account. Because Old Saxon came under strong Old High German and Old Low Franconian influence early on and therefore lost many Ingvaeonic features that were to be found much more extensively in earlier language states.[25]
The question of whether today's Low German should be considered a separate language or a dialect ofGerman or evenDutch has been a point of contention. Although Low German is mostly regarded as an independent language[26]linguistics offers no simple, generally accepted criterion to decide the question.
Scholarly arguments have been put forward for classifying Low German as a German dialect.[27] As stated above, the arguments are not linguistic but rather sociopolitical and revolve mainly around the fact that Low German has no official standard form or use in sophisticated media. The situation of Low German may thus be considered a "pseudo-dialectizedabstand language" ("scheindialektisierte Abstandsprache").[28] In contrast,Old Saxon andMiddle Low German are generally considered separate languages in their own right. Since Low German has strongly declined since the 18th century, the perceived similarities with High German or Dutch may often be direct adaptations from the dominating standard language, resulting in a growing inability by speakers to speak correctly what was once Low German proper.[29]
Others have argued for the independence of today's Low German dialects, taken as continuous outflow of the Old Saxon and Middle Low German tradition.[30]Glottolog classifies six varieties of Low German as distinct languages based on a low degree ofmutual intelligibility. Eastern Low German and Plautdietsch are classified as part of Greater East Low German, while Eastphalian, Westphalic, and the North Low Saxon languages, German Northern Low Saxon and Gronings, are classified as part of West Low German.[31]
Low German has been recognized by the Netherlands and by Germany (since 1999) as aregional language according to theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Within the official terminology defined in the charter, this status would not be available to a dialect of an official language (as per article 1a), and hence not to Low German in Germany if it were considered a dialect of German. Advocates of the promotion of Low German have expressed considerable hope that this political development will at once lend legitimacy to their claim that Low German is a separate language, and help mitigate the functional limits of the language that may still be cited as objective criteria for a mere dialect (such as the virtually complete absence from legal and administrative contexts, schools, the media, etc.).[32]
At the request ofSchleswig-Holstein, the German government has declared Low German as aregional language. German offices in Schleswig-Holstein are obliged to accept and handle applications in Low German on the same footing as Standard High German applications.[33] TheBundesgerichtshof ruled in a case that this was even to be done at the patent office inMunich, in anon–Low German region, when the applicant then had to pay the charge for a translator, because applications in Low German are considered not to be written in the German language.
Only a few texts survive, predominantly in baptismal vows the Saxons were required to perform at the behest ofCharlemagne. The only literary texts preserved areHeliand and theOld Saxon Genesis.
The Middle Low German language (Mittelniederdeutsch) is an ancestor of modern Low German. It was spoken from about 1100 to 1600. At the time it was known asSassisch orde Sassische sprâke in Middle Low German and the region in which it was spokenSassenlant.[34][page needed] The neighbouring languages within thedialect continuum of theWest Germanic languages wereMiddle Dutch in the West andMiddle High German in the South; the latter developed intoEarly New High German. Middle Low German was thelingua franca of theHanseatic League, spoken all around theNorth Sea and theBaltic Sea.[35] It had a significant influence on theScandinavian languages and other languages around the Baltic Sea. Based on the language ofLübeck, a standardized written language was developing, though it was never codified.
Hanseatic main area
Reyneke de Vos is the most important Middle Low German animal epic in verse.
Inscription in Middle Low German on a house at Hameln that translated into English readsAll the world's magnificence is like a flower that grows today and vanishes tomorrow; the Lord's word remains in eternity.
After mass education inGermany in the 19th and 20th centuries, the slow decline which Low German had been experiencing since the end of theHanseatic League turned into a free fall. The decision to exclude Low German in formal education was not without controversy, however. On one hand, proponents of Low German advocated that since it had a strong cultural and historical value and was the native language of students in northern Germany, it had a place in the classroom. On the other hand, High German was considered the language of education, science, and national unity, and since schools promoted these values, High German was seen as the best candidate for the language of instruction.[36]
Initially, regional languages and dialects were thought to limit the intellectual ability of their speakers. When historical linguists illustrated the archaic character of certain features and constructions of Low German, this was seen as a sign of its "backwardness". It was not until the efforts of proponents such as Klaus Groth that this impression changed. Groth's publications demonstrated that Low German was a valuable language in its own right, and he was able to convince others that Low German was suitable for literary arts and was a national treasure worth keeping.[36]
Through the works of advocates like Groth, both proponents and opponents of Low German in formal education saw the language's innate value as the cultural and historical language of northern Germany. Nevertheless, opponents claimed that it should simply remain a spoken and informal language to be used on the street and in the home, but not in formal schooling. In their opinion, it simply did not match the nationally unifying power of High German. As a result, while Low German literature was deemed worthy of being taught in school, High German was chosen as the language of scholarly instruction. With High German the language of education and Low German the language of the home and daily life, a stable diglossia developed in Northern Germany.[36] Various Low German dialects are understood by 10 million people, but many fewer arenative speakers.
TheKDE project supports Low German (nds) as a language for its computer desktop environment,[37] as does theGNOME Desktop Project.Open-source software has been translated into Low German; this used to be coordinated via a page on SourceForge,[38] but as of 2015, the most active project is that of KDE.[39]
In the early 20th century, scholars in the Netherlands argued that speaking dialects hindered language acquisition, and it was therefore strongly discouraged. As education improved, and mass communication became more widespread, the Low Saxon dialects further declined, although decline has been greater in urban centres of the Low Saxon regions. When in 1975 dialect folk and rock bands such asNormaal andBoh Foi Toch [nl] became successful with their overt disapproval of what they experienced as "misplaced Dutch snobbery" and the Western Dutch contempt for (speakers of) Low Saxon dialects, they gained a following among the more rurally oriented inhabitants, launching Low Saxon as a sub-culture. They inspired contemporary dialect artists and rock bands, such asDaniël Lohues [nl],Mooi Wark [Nl],Jovink en de Voederbietels [Nl],Hádiejan [Nl]Nonetheless, the position of the language is vulnerable according to UNESCO.[17] Low Saxon is still spoken more widely than in Northern Germany. Efforts are made in Germany and in the Netherlands to protect Low German as aregional language.
As with theAnglo-Frisian andNorth Germanic languages, Low German has not been influenced by theHigh German consonant shift except for old/ð/ having shifted to/d/. Therefore, a lot of Low German words sound similar to their English counterparts. One feature that does distinguish Low German from English generally is final devoicing of obstruents, as exemplified by the words 'good' and 'wind' below. This is a characteristic of Dutch and German as well and involves positional neutralization of voicing contrast in the coda position for obstruents (i.e. t = d at the end of a syllable.) This is not used in English except in theYorkshire dialect, where there is a process known asYorkshire assimilation.[40]
For instance:water[wɒtɜ,ˈwatɜ,ˈwætɜ],later[ˈlɒːtɜ,ˈlaːtɜ,ˈlæːtɜ],bit[bɪt],dish[dis,diʃ],ship[ʃɪp,skɪp,sxɪp],pull[pʊl],good[ɡou̯t,ɣɑu̯t,ɣuːt],clock[klɔk],sail[sɑi̯l],he[hɛi̯,hɑi̯,hi(j)],storm[stoːrm],wind[vɪˑnt],grass[ɡras,ɣras],hold[hoˑʊl(t)],old[oˑʊl(t)].
The table below shows the relationship between Low German consonants which were unaffected by thischain shift and their equivalents in other West Germanic languages. Contemporary Swedish and Icelandic shown for comparison; Eastern and Western North Germanic languages, respectively.
Like English and Frisian, Low German is often recognized as a North Sea Germanic language and therefore has so-called Ingvaonisms. However, these are not distributed equally regionally everywhere. Some dialects have more and others fewer of these features, while some only occur in older forms of language and only leave relics in modern Low German.
In addition, there are of course numerous other changes that are not related to Ingwaonic phenomena, but that arose in exchange with other languages or something else. The table below reflects some of these developments insofar as they affect several dialects and are therefore not exceptional phenomena.
The following table tries to reflect the linguistic situation of the individual dialects as diverse as possible and to name as many case forms of the respective pronouns, but it is not able to do justice to every dialect. So the pronoun of the third person singular feminine can be pronounced as follows: se(e), sey, soi, etc. Only one of these variants can be found in the table. This also applies to all other pronouns.
In Low German verbs are conjugated for person, number, and tense. There are five tenses in Low German:[citation needed]present tense,preterite,perfect, andpluperfect, and in Mennonite Low German thepresent perfect which signifies a remaining effect from a past finished action. For example, "Ekj sie jekomen", "I am come", means that the speaker came and he is still at the place to which he came as a result of his completed action.
UnlikeDutch, High German, andsouthern Low German, the northern dialects form the past participle without the prefixge-, like theScandinavian languages,Frisian andEnglish. Compare northern Low Germanslapen to the German pastparticiplegeschlafen. This pastparticiple is used with theauxiliary verbshewwen/hebben "to have" andwesen/sin/sien "to be". When the pastparticiple ends with-en or in a few oft-used words likewest (been).
Synthetic subjunctive verb forms are mostly identical to the indicative forms of the past tense and the pluperfect tense - much like Dutch and English. It is thus only recognizable from the context of a sentence.[60] It is often formed periphrastically by using the helping verbswoor,schull,wull, anddee: "Ik woor/wöör/worr/wurr mi freuen, wenn Vader noch lang leev" (I would be glad if father still lived for a long time).[61]
Low German subjunctive 1/
English reported speech
Low German subjunctive 2
English Conditional 2
English Conditional 3
Low German
He see to mi,
he kaam nu.
He see to mi,
he harr al eten.
Weer ik riek,
deed ik ju en Pony köpen,
Harr ik de tied hat,
harr ik ju hulpen.
English
He said to me,
he came now.
He said to me,
he had already eaten.
If I were rich,
I would buy you a Pony.
If I had had the time,
I would have helped you.
There is also a progressive form of verbs in present, corresponding to the same in the Dutch language.It is formed withwesen (to be), the prepositionan (at) anddat (the/it).
Low German
Dutch
English
Main form
Ik bün an't Maken.
Ik ben aan het maken.
I am making.
Main form 2
Ikdo maken.1
–
–
Alternative form
Ik bün an'n Maken.2
Ik ben aan het maken.
–
Alternative form 2
Ik bün maken.3
Ik ben makende.
Iam making.
1 Instead ofwesen, sien (to be) Saxon usesdoon (to do) to make to present continuous.
2 Many see the'n as an old dative ending ofdat which only occurs when being shortened after prepositions. This is actually the most frequently-used form in colloquial Low German.
3 This form is archaic and mostly unknown to Low German speakers. It is the same pattern as in the English example "I am making." The present participle has the same form as the infinitive:maken is either "to make" or "making".
The forms of Low German's adjectives are distinct from other closely related languages such as German and English. These forms fall somewhere in between these two languages. As in German, the adjectives in Low German may make a distinction between singular and plural to agree with the nouns that they modify,[62] as well as between the three genders, between the nominative and oblique cases and between indefinite (weak) and definite (strong) forms.[63] However, there is a lot of variation in that respect and some or all of these distinctions may also be absent, so that a single undeclined form of the adjective can occur in all cases, as in English. This is especially common in the neuter.[63] If the adjective is declined, the pattern tends to be as follows:
Gender
Nominative
Oblique
Gloss
Masculine
indefinite singular
en starke(n) Kerl
en(en) starke(n) Kerl
'a strong man'
indefinite plural
starke Kerls
starke Kerls
'strong men'
definite singular
de starke Kerl
den starken Kerl
'the strong man'
definite plural
de starken Kerls
de starken Kerls
'the strong men'
Feminine
indefinite singular
en(e) smucke Deern
en(e) smucke Deern
'a pretty girl'
indefinite plural
smucke Deerns
smucke Deerns
'pretty girls'
definite singular
de smucke Deern
de smucke Deern
'the pretty girl'
definite plural
de smucken Deerns
de smucken Deerns
'the pretty girls'
Neuter
indefinite singular
en lütt((e)t) Land
en lütt((e)t) Land
'a little country'
indefinite plural
lütt Lannen
lütt Lannen
'little countries'
definite singular
dat lütte Land
dat lütte Land
'the little country'
definite plural
de lütten Lannen
de lütten Lannen
'the little countries'
As mentioned above, alternative undeclined forms such asdat lütt Land,de lütt Lannen,en stark Kerl,de stark Kerl,stark Kerls,de stark Kerls etc. can occur.
Low German is written using theLatin alphabet. There is no official standardorthography, though there are several locally more or less accepted orthographic guidelines. Those in theNetherlands are mostly based onDutch orthography and may vary per dialect region, and those inGermany mostly follow German orthography. To the latter group belongs the orthography devised byJohannes Sass. It is mostly used by modern official publications and internet sites, especially the Low German Wikipedia. This diversity, a result of centuries of official neglect and suppression, has a very fragmenting and thus weakening effect on the language as a whole, since it has created barriers that do not exist on the spoken level.[70] This severely hampers interregional and interdialectal written communication.[citation needed] Most of these systems aim at representing thephonetic (allophonic) output rather than underlying (phonemic) representations.[citation needed]
A commonly voiced idea on both sides of the border on the topic of spelling is 'Write it as you say it', which results in semi-phonetic spellings based on either German or Dutch spelling conventions. This seriously affects international legibility, as pronunciation can vary wildly, resulting in many different written forms of what are essentially the same words. An attempt to unify the dialects in spelling was created by Reinhard Franz Hahn, a German-American linguist. He created the Algemeyne Schryvwys on etymological principles. He however restricted his spelling's focus mostly to the northern German dialects. A group of enthusiasts from both sides of the border took his principles and expanded them for the majority of the Low German dialects in both the Netherlands and Germany. This reworked version is called theNysassiske Skryvwyse (New Saxon Spelling).[71]
As an important identity-forming element, the Low German language has been taught in schools in northern Germany for several years. In 2023, for example, the first class in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania graduated in the subject Low German.[72] The social position of Low German has improved significantly in recent years and enjoys a high level of prestige, especially in modern cities such as Hamburg and Bremen.[73]
The television moderator Yared Dibaba has been campaigning for the preservation of Low German languages for years.[75]
The internet magazineWearldspråke (alternatively also: Wearldsproake) is run by the musician and language activist Martin ter Denge.[76]
In 2020 the film "The Marriage Escape" was released, which is mostly inTweants.[77]
Linguistically, historically and culturally there are close contacts with the Netherlands, Denmark and other predominantly Protestant inhabitants of the North and Baltic Seas such as Great Britain, the rest of Scandinavia and the Baltic states. In German usage, for example on Norddeutscher Rundfunk, northern Germany is occasionally viewed as part of Northern Europe, while the remaining part of Germany is less questioned as belonging to Central Europe.[78]
Historically, close relationships also existed in the field of literature and poetry, for example the Norwegian Thidrekssaga (13th century) is based, according to its own information, on "Low German" and "Saxon" templates.[79]
However, there are numerous other cultural and historical features that are common to the entire Low German-speaking area, such as the special architectural style of the "Low German hall house".[80] These houses are often provided with traditional gable decorations, which are also known under the terms "Hengst" and "Hors".[40][81]Rudolf Simek notes that these horse-head gables can still be seen today, and says that the horse-head gables confirm that Hengist and Horsa were originally considered mythological, horse-shaped beings.[82][full citation needed]
Spread of Low German Houses
Low German House in Insernhagen
Gable jewelry
Low German House in Rastede
Since the Brothers Grimm were friends with the von Haxterhausen family, numerous fairy tales by the Grimm children and household tales come from the Westphalian and thus Low German cultural area. However, there are a remarkable number of Grimm's fairy tales that are written in Low German in their original version.[83][84]
Dat Erdmänneken (The Gnome)
Dat Wettlopen twischen den Hasen un den Swinegel up de lütje Heide bi Buxtehude (The race between the Hare and the hedgehog)
Von den Fischer und siine Fru (The Fisherman and his wife)
Oll Rinkrank (Old Rinkrank)
Van den Machandelboom (The Juniper Tree)
Sneewittchen (Snow White)(just its name stems from Low German)
^2.2–5 million in northern Germany and 2.15 million in eastern Netherlands
^"Low German" is known by the following other names in other languages. It is knownin the Low German of Germany asPlattdütsch,Plattdüütsch,Plattdütsk,Plattdüütsk,Plattduitsk (South-Westphalian),Plattduitsch (Eastphalian),Plattdietsch (Low Prussian), orNeddersassisch, orNedderdüütsch;in theLow Saxon of the Netherlands asNedersaksisch;in (Standard)High German asPlattdeutsch,Niedersächsisch,Niederdeutsch (in a stricter sense) orPlatt,pronounced[plat]ⓘ (which can also meandialect and refer to non-Low German varieties);inDutch asSaksisch,Nedersaksisch,Platduits,Nederduits[ˈneːdərdœyts]ⓘ (in a stricter sense);inDanish asPlattysk;plus, other dialectal variants exist.
^cf. the definition ofhigh in theOxford English Dictionary (Concise Edition): "[…] situated far above ground, sea level, etc; upper, inland,as […] High German".
^abcThe seriesWief–wijf, etc. arecognates, not semantic equivalents. The meanings of some of these words have shifted over time. For example, the correct equivalent term for "wife" in modern Dutch, German and Swedish isvrouw,Frau andfru respectively; usingwijf,Weib orviv for a human is considered archaic in Swedish and nowadays derogatory in Dutch and German, comparable to "wicked girl". No cognate toFrau /vrouw /fru has survived in English (compare Old Englishfrōwe "lady"; the English wordfrow "woman, lady" rather being a borrowing of the Middle Dutch word).
^abThe Other Languages of Europe: Demographic, Sociolinguistic, and Educational Perspectives by Guus Extra, Durk Gorter; Multilingual Matters, 2001 – 454; page 10.
^Maas, Sabine (2014).Twents op sterven na dood? : een sociolinguïstisch onderzoek naar dialectgebruik in Borne. Münster New York: Waxmann. p. 19.ISBN978-3830980339.
^German:§ 23 Absatz 1 Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz (Bund). Die Frage, ob unter deutsch rechtlich ausschließlich die hochdeutsche oder auch dieniederdeutsche Sprache subsumiert wird, wird juristisch uneinheitlich beantwortet: Während derBGH in einer Entscheidung zuGebrauchsmustereinreichung beimDeutschen Patent- und Markenamt in plattdeutscher Sprache das Niederdeutsche einer Fremdsprache gleichstellt („Niederdeutsche (plattdeutsche) Anmeldeunterlagen sind im Sinn des § 4a Abs. 1 Satz 1GebrMG nicht in deutscher Sprache abgefaßt.“ – BGH-Beschluss vom 19. November 2002, Az. X ZB 23/01), ist nach dem Kommentar von Foerster/Friedersen/Rohde zu § 82a des Landesverwaltungsgesetzes Schleswig-Holstein unter Verweis auf Entscheidungen höherer Gerichte zu § 184 des Gerichtsverfassungsgesetzes seit 1927 (OLG Oldenburg, 10. Oktober 1927 – K 48, HRR 1928, 392) unter dem Begriff deutsche Sprache sowohl Hochdeutsch wie auch Niederdeutsch zu verstehen.
^"Regionalsprache Niederdeutsch".Beauftragte für Aussiedlerfragen und nationale Minderheiten (in German). Retrieved25 August 2023.
^Hubertus Menke:Niederdeutsch: Eigenständige Sprache oder Varietät einer Sprache? In: Schmitsdorf et al. (Hrsgg.):Lingua Germanica. Studien zur deutschen Philologie. Jochen Splett zum 60. Geburtstag. Münster 1998, S. 171–184.
^"Niederdeutsch".www.mundart-kommission.lwl.org (in German). Retrieved5 August 2023.
^J. Goossens: "Niederdeutsche Sprache. Versuch einer Definition", in: J. Goossens (ed.),Niederdeutsch. Sprache und Literatur, vol. 1, Neumünster 1973.
^W. Sanders:Sachsensprache — Hansesprache — Plattdeutsch. Sprachgeschichtliche Grundzüge des Niederdeutschen, Göttingen 1982, p. 32, paraphrasingHeinz Kloss: "Abstandsprachen und Ausbausprachen", in: J. Göschel et al. (edd.),Zur Theorie des Dialekts, Wiesbaden 1976, pp. 301–322.
^Hubertus Menke: "Niederdeutsch: Eigenständige Sprache oder Varietät einer Sprache?", in: Eva Schmitsdorf et al. (edd.),Lingua Germanica. Studien zur deutschen Philologie. Jochen Splett zum 60. Geburtstag, Waxmann, Münster et al. 1998, pp. 171–184, in particular p. 180.
^Hubertus Menke: "Niederdeutsch: Eigenständige Sprache oder Varietät einer Sprache?", in: Eva Schmitsdorf et al. (edd.),Lingua Germanica. Studien zur deutschen Philologie. Jochen Splett zum 60. Geburtstag, Waxmann, Münster et al. 1998, pp. 171–184, in particular p. 183f.
^Biddulph, Joseph (2003).Platt and Old Saxon: Plattdeutsch (Low German) in its Modern and Historical Forms. Wales: Cyhoeddwr JOSEPH BIDDULPH Publisher.
^Lindow, Wolfgang (1998).Niederdeutsche Grammatik. Leer: Schuster. pp. 25–45.
^Dieter Stellmacher:Niederdeutsche Grammatik – Phonologie und Morphologie. In: Gerhard Cordes & Dieter Möhn:Handbuch zur niederdeutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag 1983, p.239.
Adams, Douglas Q. (1975), "The Distribution of Retracted Sibilants in Medieval Europe",Language,51 (2), Linguistic Society of America:282–292,doi:10.2307/412855,JSTOR412855
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