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Low German
*** Shopping-Tip: Low German
{{language
|name=Low German
|nativename=Plattdüütsch, Nedderdüütsch
|states=
Germany,
Netherlands
|speakers=understood by 10 million, native to about 3 million
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam2=
Germanic languages Germanic
|fam3=
West Germanic languages West Germanic
|iso2=nds|iso3=nds}}
'''Low German''' (also called '''Plattdeutsch''', '''Plattdüütsch''' or '''Low Saxon''') is a name for the
regional language varieties of the
Low Germanic languages spoken mainly in northern
Germany, and eastern
Netherlands. Also, there are some speakers in the coastal areas of
Poland, and immigrant communities in several places of the world, for instance in
Canada. In the Southern
Jutland region of
Denmark there may still be some Low German speakers in some
German as a minority language German minority communities, but the Low German and
North Frisian language North Frisian dialects of
Denmark ought to be considered moribund, if not extinct, at this time.
The
ISO 639-2 language code for Low German is '''nds''' since May 2000.
Disambiguation
There are three different uses of the term “Low German�:
#A specific name of any
West Germanic languages West Germanic variety (linguistics) varieties that have neither taken part in the
High German consonant shift nor classify as
Low Franconian languages Low Franconian or
Anglo-Frisian languages Anglo-Frisian; this is the scope discussed in this article.
#A broader term for the entire West Germanic
language family unaffected by the High Germanic sound shift, thus including Low Franconian varieties such as
Dutch language Dutch; for this use, see
Low Germanic languages.
#A non-specific term for any non-
standard language standard variety of
German language German; this use is only found in Germany and is considered not to be
linguistics linguistic.
Many people in Northern
Germany are unaware that Low German does not abruptly stop at the German-Netherlands border but continues on into the Eastern
Netherlands. Among those who ''are'' aware of it, a measure of estrangement (especially
Dutch language Dutch versus
German language German influences and
Dutch language Dutch versus
German language German based spelling), besides alleged sensitivities remaining from the German occupation in
World War II, is often used as an argument in favor of ignoring the dialects of the
Netherlands. The general attitude among Low German speakers in the
Netherlands, however, is that the
Dutch Low Saxon Dutch Low German varieties belong to a continuum with the Low German varieties of Northern
Germany, many Low German speakers in the
Netherlands are willing and happy to participate in activities organized on the German side of the border, and Netherlanders have won prizes in Low German literature contests in
Germany.
Official status
Since
1999, Low German has been recognised by Germany as a
regional language according to the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Low German is not standardized. In Germany, however,
Northern Low Saxon serves as a common intelligible language in
Television TV and
Wireless programmes.
Classification and related languages
Low German is a part of the
West Germanic languages West Germanic dialect continuum.
To the West, it fades to the
Low Franconian languages which distinguish two plural verbal endings, opposed to a common verbal plural ending in Low German.
To the South, it fades to the
High Germanic languages High Germanic dialects of
Central German that have been affected by the
High German consonant shift. The division is usually drawn at the
Benrath line that traces the ''maken – machen''
isogloss.
To the East, it is neighboured by the
Kashubian language (the only remnant of the
Pomeranian language) and, since increased Polonization of
Pomerania, also by the
Polish language.
To the North and Northwest, it is neighboured by the
Danish language and by the
Frisian language. Note that in Germany, Low German has replaced the Frisian in many regions. The
Saterland Frisian language Saterland Frisian is the only remnant of East Frisian language and is, outside
East Frisia surrounded by Low German, as are the few remaining
North Frisian language North Frisian varieties, and the Low German dialects of those regions have Frisian influences on account of Frisian substrates.
Some classify the northern dialects of Low German together with
English language English,
Scots language Scots and
Frisian language Frisian as the ''
North Sea Germanic'' or ''
Ingaevones Ingvaeonic'' languages. However, most exclude Low German from that group often called
Anglo-Frisian languages because some distinctive features of that group of languages are only partially observed in Low German, for instance the
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law (some dialects have ''us'', ''os'' for ‘us’ whereas others have ''uns'', ''ons''), and because other distinctive features do not occur in Low German at all, for instance the
palatalization of /k/ (compare palatalized forms such as English ''cheese'', Frisian ''tsiis'' to non-palatalized forms such as Low German ''Kaise'', Dutch ''kaas'', German ''Käse'').
Varieties of Low German
In Germany
*
West Low German
**
Northern Low Saxon
**
Westphalian language
**
Eastphalian language
*
East Low German
**
Mecklenburgisch-Pommersch
**
Brandenburgisch
**
East Pomeranian
**
Low Prussian
**
Plautdietsch (
Mennonite Low German, used also in many other countries)
In the Netherlands
The
Dutch Low Saxon Low German varieties in the Netherlands, which are also defined as Dutch dialects, consist of:
*
Kollumerlands
*
Gronings
**
Noord-Gronings
**
Stadsgronings
**
Westerwolds
*
Stellingwerfs
**
Veenkoloniaals
*
Drents
**
Noord-Drents
**
Midden-Drents
**
Zuid-Drents
*
Twents (dialect) Twents
**
Twents-Graafschaps
*
Gelderland Gelders-
Overijssels
**
Achterhoeks
**
Sallands
**
Urks
*
Veluws
**
Noord-Veluws
**
Oost-Veluws
Elsewhere
There are several Low-German-speaking communities outside
Europe.
Mennonite communities use their
Plautdietsch everywhere they live, especially in
Russia,
Ukraine,
Central Asia,
Germany and the
Americas. Furthermore, there are communities in the
Midwest of the
United States, some of them with their own
dialects that developed from
dialects imported from
Schleswig-Holstein and
Lower Saxony in the
19th century. There may be some remaining speakers or speaker communities in Northern
Poland and in Southern
Denmark, where the Low German language is at best moribund.
History
Old Saxon was the ancestor of the Low Saxon varieties of Low German, recorded from about
800 to
1100.
Middle Low German was the ancestor of Low German recorded from about
1100 to
1500. It was the
lingua franca of the
Hanseatic League, used all around the
North Sea and the
Baltic Sea, exerting strong influences on local languages, especially on the
Scandinavian languages, on
Kashubian and on
Estonian.
Like
Middle Dutch,
Middle Saxon (or “
Middle Low German�), the lingua franca of the
Hanseatic League, exerted some influence on
Middle English by way of maritime trade. Borrowed words include “trade� and “mate�. In some cases, such as “boss� (''baas'' in both Dutch and Low Saxon), it is not clear if a Low German loanword in
English language English came from
Middle Dutch or from
Middle Saxon, since many words are alike in these two closely related languages.
Sound Change
Low German has commonality with the
English language, the
North Germanic language Scandinavian languages and
Frisian language Frisian in that it has not been influenced by the High Germanic consonant shift except for old {{IPA|/ð/}} having shifted to /d/. Therefore a lot of Low German words sound similar to their English counterparts.
For instance: ''water'' {{IPA|[wÉ’tÉœ, watÉœ, wætÉœ]}}, ''later'' {{IPA|[lÉ’Ë?tÉœ, laË?tÉœ, læË?tÉœ]}}, ''bit'' {{IPA|[bɪt]}}, ''dish'' {{IPA|[dis, diʃ]}}, ''ship'' {{IPA|[ʃɪp, skɪp, sxɪp]}}, ''pull'' {{IPA|[pÊŠl]}}, ''good'' {{IPA|[gout, ɣɑut, É£uË?t]}}, ''clock'' {{IPA|[klÉ”k]}}, ''sail'' {{IPA|[sÉ‘il]}}, ''he'' {{IPA|[hÉ›i, hÉ‘i, hi(j)]}}, ''storm'' {{IPA|[stoË?rm]}}, ''wind'' {{IPA|[vɪˑnt]}}, ''grass'' {{IPA|[gras, É£ras]}}, ''hold'' {{IPA|[hoË‘ÊŠl(t)]}}, ''old'' {{IPA|[oË‘ÊŠl(t)]}}.
The table below shows the relationship between English and Low German consonants which were unaffected by the
High German consonant shift and gives the modern
German language German counterparts, which were affected by the sound shift.
{| class="wikitable"
|- bgcolor=#FFDEAD
! '''Low Germanic'''
! '''High Germanic'''
! '''Low German'''
! '''Dutch'''
! '''English'''
! '''German'''
|-
| k || ch || maken || maken || to make|| machen
|-
| d || t || Dag || dag || day || Tag
|-
| t || ss || eten || eten || eat || essen
|-
| t || z (/ts/) || teihn || tien || ten || zehn
|-
| t || tz, z (/ts/) || sitten || zitten || sit || sitzen
|-
| p || f, ff || Schipp || schip || ship || Schiff
|-
| p || pf || Peper || peper || pepper || Pfeffer
|-
| v, w, f (/v/) || b || Wief, Wiewer || wijf, wijven ¹ || wife, wives || Weib, Weiber
|}
¹The correct translation for "wife" in Dutch is "vrouw", using ''wijf'' against a human is considered derogative, and comparable to "
bitch".
Grammar
Generally speaking, Low German
grammar shows similarities with the
grammars of
Dutch language Dutch,
Frisian,
English language English and
Scots, but the
dialects of Northern
Germany share some features (especially
lexicon lexical and
syntax syntactic features) with
German language German dialects.
Nouns
Low German
declension has only three morphologically marked
noun cases, where
accusative and
dative together constitute an
objective case.
{|class="wikitable"
|+Example case marking: ''Boom'' (tree), ''Bloom'' (flower), ''Land'' (land)
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | Masculine !! colspan="2" | Feminine !! colspan="2" | Neuter
|-
! Singular !! Plural !! Singular !! Plural !! Singular !! Plural
|-
!Nominative
| een Boom, '''de''' Boom || Bööm, de Bööm || een Bloom, de Bloom || Blomen, de Blomen || een Land, dat Land || Lannen, de Lannen
|-
!Genitive
| '''vun''' een/'''den''' Boom, '''den''' Boom '''sien''' || '''vun''' (de) Bööm, (de) Bööm '''ehr''' || '''vun''' een/de Bloom, de Bloom '''ehr''' || '''vun''' (de) Blomen, (de) Blomen '''ehr''' || '''vun''' (dat) Land, (dat) Land '''sien''' || '''vun''' (de) Lannen, (de) Lannen '''ehr'''
|-
!Objective
| een Boom, '''den''' Boom || Bööm, de Bööm || een Bloom, de Bloom || Blomen, de Blomen || een Land, dat Land || Lannen, de Lannen
|}
In most modern dialects, marking differences are minimal between the
nominative case and the
objective case, and it tends to affect only
masculine nouns in the
singular.Thus case marking in Low German is simpler than in
German language German.
Verbs
In Low German verbs are conjugated for person, number and tense. Verb conjugation for person is only differentiated in the singular. There are five tenses in Low German:
Present tense,
Preterite,
Perfect tense Perfect,
Pluperfect tense Past Perfect, and
Future tense Future.
{|class="wikitable"
|+Example verb conjugation: slapen - to sleep
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | Present !! colspan="2" | Preterite !! colspan="2" | Perfect
|-
! Singular !! Plural !! Singular !! Plural !! Singular !! Plural
|-
!1st Person
| ik slaap || wi slaapt/slapen || ik sleep || wi slepen || ik hebb slapen || wi hebbt/hebben slapen
|-
!2nd Person
| du slöppst || ji slaapt/slapen || du sleepst || ji slepen || du hest slapen || ji hebbt/hebben slapen
|-
!3rd Person
| he, se, dat slöppt || se slaapt/slapen || he, se, dat sleep || se slepen ||he, se, dat hett slapen || se hebbt/hebben slapen
|}
Unlike
Dutch language Dutch,
German language German and southern Low German, the northern dialects form the participle without the prefix ''ge-'', like the
Scandinavian languages and
English language English. Compare to the German past
participle '''ge'''schlafen. This past
particple is formed with the
auxiliary verb ''hebben'' 'to have'. It should be noted that ''e-'' is used instead of ''ge-'' in most Southern (below
Groningen in the
Netherlands)
dialects, though often not when the past
participle ends with ''-en'' or in a few often used words like ''west'' (been).
The reason for the two conjugations shown in the plural is regional: dialects in the central area use -t while the dialects in
East Frisia and the dialects in
Mecklenberg and further east use -en. The -en suffix is of Dutch influence.
Syntax
The
syntax on the other hand is more like German syntax, though there are some differences.
Writing system
Low German is written using the
Latin alphabet. There is no true standard
orthography, only several locally more or less accepted orthographic guidelines, those in the
Netherlands mostly based on
Dutch language Dutch orthography, and those in
Germany mostly based on German
orthography. This diversity—being the 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. Interregional and international communication is severely hampered by this. Having been created by persons with little or no phonological understanding, most of these systems aim at representing the
phonetic (
allophone allophonic) output rather than underlying (
phoneme phonemic) representations, thus call for superfluous and confusing detail. Furthermore, many writers follow guidelines only roughly. This adds numerous idiosyncratic and often inconsistent ways of spelling to the already existing great orthographic diversity.
Trivia
The Low German greeting formula ''
Moin'' and its duplication ''
MoinMoin'' gave the name for the WikiWiki MoinMoin Project http://moin.sourceforge.net/
There are plans to create a computer vocabulary for Low German in order to translate Desktop environments such as
KDE and
GNOME. [http://platt.gnome-de.org/index.php]
See also
*
Moin
Resources
{{InterWiki|code=nds}}
There is a lot of information about Low German to be found online. A selection of these links can be found on this page, which will provide a good frame work to understand the history, current situation and features of the language.
'''Information:'''
-
What is Low Saxon? An introduction article to Low German;
-
Ethnologue report for Low Saxon (kind of unprecise, but Ethnologue are not planning an update any time soon)
-
List of links, provided by the Lowlands List;
-
Streektaal.net, information in and about various Low German dialects;
-
Nu is de Welt platt! All known resources in and about Low German;
-
Niederdeutsch/Plattdeutsch in Westfalen, by Olaf Bordasch;
-
Mönsterlänner Plat, by Klaus-Werner Kahl;
-
Tizárrio's Veluywse websyde, by Tizáriio Ilaino;
-
Plattdeutsch heute, by
'''Organizations:'''
-
Van Deinse Instituut (Twente, the Netherlands)
-
IJsselacademie (Overijssel and Veluwe, the Netherlands)
-
Staring Instituut (Achterhoek, the Netherlands)
-
Oostfreeske Taal (Eastern Friesland, Germany)
-
Drentse Taol (Drenthe, the Netherlands)
-
Stichting Stellingwarver Schrieversronte (Friesland, the Netherlands)
-
SONT (General, the Netherlands)
-
Institut für niederdeutsche Sprache e.V. (General, Germany)
If your organisation isn't listed here, feel free to add it.
'''Writers:'''
-
Gertrud Everding (Northern Low Saxon - Hamburg, Germany)
-
Marlou Lessing (Northern Low Saxon - Hamburg, Germany)
-
Clara Kramer-Freudenthal (Northern Low Saxon - Norderstedt, Germany)
-
Johan Veenstra (Stellingwarfs - Friesland, the Netherlands)
'''Musicians:'''
-
Skik (Drents/Dutch - Drenthe, the Netherlands)
-
Jan Cornelius (East Frisian - Ostfriesland, Germany)
-
Törf (Gronings - Groningen, the Netherlands)
-
Eltje Doddema (Veenkoloniaals - Groningen, the Netherlands)
-
Boh foi toch (Achterhoeks - Gelderland, the Netherlands)
'''Unorganized links:'''
-
http://www.plattmaster.de/
-
http://www.platt-online.de/
-
http://www.zfn-ratzeburg.de/
Category:Low Germanic languages
ca:Baix alemany
cs:DolnonÄ›mÄ?ina
da:Plattysk
de:Plattdeutsch
eo:Platgermana lingvo
fr:Bas-allemand
fy:Nederdútsk
he:×¡×›×¡×•× ×™×ª
hr:DonjenjemaÄ?ki jezik
hu:Alnémet nyelv
it:Lingua basso-tedesca
ja:低ザクセン語
nds:Plattdüütsch
nds-nl:Nedersaksisch
nl:Plattdüütsch
pl:Język dolnoniemiecki
pt:Plattdeutsch
ro:Germana joasă
sv:LÃ¥gtyska
zh:低地德è¯
*** Shopping-Tip: Low German
