'Low German' (also called 'Niederdeutsch', 'Plattdeutsch' or 'Plattdüütsch') is a name for the
regional language varieties of the
West Germanic languages spoken mainly in Northern
Germany where it is officially called ''Niederdeutsch'' ('Low German'), and in Eastern
Netherlands where it is officially called ''Nedersaksisch'' ('Low Saxon'). "Low" refers to the flat sea coasts and plains of north Germany,
Denmark and the
Netherlands, as opposed to
High German and the mountainous areas of central and southern Germany (including
Alsatian spoken by most German-French residents of
Alsace,
France in addition to
French), and the Alps (
Switzerland and
Austria).
Variants of Low German were widely (and are still to a far lesser extent) spoken in most parts of
Northern Germany, for instance in the states of
Lower Saxony,
North Rhine-Westphalia,
Hamburg,
Bremen,
Schleswig-Holstein and
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Historically, Low German was also spoken in the formerly German parts of
Poland as well as in
East Prussia and the
Baltic States Estonia and
Latvia.
Today, there are still speakers outside of Germany to be found in the coastal areas of present
Poland (minority of
ethnic German Pommersch speakers who were not
expelled from
Pomerania, as well as the regions around
Braunsberg). There are also immigrant communities in several places of the world, such as
Canada, the
US,
South Africa,
Argentina,
Brazil and the small German immigrant community of
Uruguay, where Low German is still spoken. In the Southern
Jutland region of Denmark there may still be some Low German speakers in some
German minority communities, but the Low German and
North Frisian dialects of
Denmark can be considered moribund 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 varieties that have neither taken part in the
High German consonant shift nor classify as
Low Franconian or
Anglo-Frisian; this is the scope discussed in this article.
#A broader term for the closely-related, continental
West Germanic language family unaffected by the High German consonant shift, nor classifying as
Anglo-Frisian, and thus including
Low Franconian varieties such as
Dutch.
#A non-specific term for any non-
standard variety of
German; this use is only found in Germany and is considered not to be
linguistic.
Many people in Northern
Germany are unaware that Low German does not abruptly stop at the German-Dutch border but continues on into the Eastern
Netherlands. Among those who ''are'' aware of it, a measure of estrangement (especially
Dutch versus
German influences and
Dutch versus
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 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 Dutch people have won prizes in Low German literature contests in
Germany.
Status with respect to German and Dutch
The question of whether Low German should be considered an independent language of its own, or merely a dialect (or a group of closely related dialects) of
German or
Dutch, has been a point of contention.
Linguistics offer no simple, generally accepted criteria to decide this question, as it is of little academic interest. However, scholarly arguments have been put forward in favour of classifying Low German as a German dialect
[1][2].
Some such arguments are:
★ Low German lacks any meaningful standard form regarding grammar, orthography, or other aspects, that would bridge the immense regional differences within Low German and form an equivalent to the standard forms of German, French, or other generally accepted independent languages (although
Northern Low Saxon serves as a common intelligible language in
TV and
Wireless programmes);
★ Low German is not used widely anywhere, and especially not outside of colloquial oral communication. It is spoken on a daily basis by a small minority in Northern Germany. Use in the media is limited to small columns or segments that typically are specifically intended to foster and promote the language;
★ Written Low German is used almost exclusively for
belletristic literature, but not for technical documents, administrative or legal texts, etc.
In contrast, Old Saxon and Middle High German may have met enough of these criteria to be considered separate languages in their own rights.
Claims to the contrary have also been made, ascribing to Low German the status of an independent language on par with German, Dutch, Danish, etc. They are often motivated by efforts to paint an uplifiting, positive picture to combat the perceived image of Low German as a dying and irrelevant idiom
[3], and show comparatively little interest in establishing objective criteria and measuring Low German by these. Instead, they focus on different points such as:
★ The great differences between High and Low German; these are examined as absolutes and not compared to the differences between High German and other extreme, but established dialects (such as
Swiss German), or between Low German and Dutch.
★ The ostensible successes of very recent efforts (in the 1980s and 1990s) to revive Low German in the media, the schools, and in language societies.
Low German has been recognised by the Netherlands and by Germany (since
1999) as a
regional language according to the
European 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 1 (a)), 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.)
[4].
Classification and related languages
Low German is a part of the
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 German 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 the expulsion of nearly all Germans from
Pomerania following the Second World War, also by the
Polish language. The Low German dialects of Pomerania are included in the
Pommersch group.
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 is the only remnant of East Frisian language and is, outside
East Frisia surrounded by Low German, as are the few remaining
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,
Scots and
Frisian as the ''
North Sea Germanic'' or ''
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 ''Kees'' or ''Kaise'', Dutch ''kaas'', German ''Käse'').
Varieties of Low German
In Germany
★
West Low German
★
★
East Frisian Low Saxon
★
★
Northern Low Saxon
★
★
Westphalian language
★
★
Eastphalian language
★
East Low German
★
★
Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch
★
★
Brandenburgisch
★
★
East Pomeranian
★
★
Low Prussian
★
★
Plautdietsch (
Mennonite Low German, used also in many other countries)
In the Netherlands
The
Dutch Low Saxon varieties, which are also defined as Dutch dialects, consist of:
★
Gronings
★
★
Hogelandsters
★
★
Stadsgronings
★
★
Westerkwartiers
★
★
Oldambtsters
★
★
Westerwolds
★
★
Veenkoloniaals
★
★
Kollumerpomps
★
★
Noordenvelds (Sometimes seen as Drents)
★
Stellingwerfs
★
Drents
★
★
Midden-Drents
★
★
Zuid-Drents
★
Twents
★
Twents-Graafschaps
★
Gelders-Overijssels
★
★
Achterhoeks
★
★
Sallands
★
★
Urkers
★
Veluws
★
★
Oost-Veluws
★
★
West-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,
South Africa,
Malaysia,
Indonesia,
Australia and the
Americas (i.e. the Mennonite colonies in
Paraguay,
South America, or
Chihuahua,
Mexico, are said to have made Low German a "co-official language" of the community, in addition to the country's official language,
Spanish). 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. However, the survival of Low German in the
United States is uncertain or has died out in the mid 20th century, as the country's highly numerous
German-American communities were further assimilated to lost much of their ancestral culture, including fluency in Low German and other German dialects/languages. 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
Main articles: History of Low German
Old Saxon
Main articles: Old Saxon
'Old Saxon', also known as 'Old Low German', is a
West Germanic language. It is documented from the
9th century until the
12th century, when it evolved into
Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in
Denmark by
Saxon peoples. It is closely related to Old
Anglo-Frisian (
Old Frisian,
Old English), partially participating in the
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law.
Only a few texts survive, predominantly in baptismal vows the Saxons were required to perform at the behest of
Charlemagne. The only literary text preserved is ''
Heliand''.
Middle Low German
Main articles: Middle Low German
The Middle Low German language is an ancestor of modern Low German. It was spoken from about
1100 to
1500, splitting into
West Low German and
East Low German. The neighbour languages within the
dialect continuum of the
West Germanic languages were
Middle Dutch in the West and
Middle High German in the South, later substituted by
Early New High German. Middle Low German was the
lingua franca of the
Hanseatic League, spoken all around the
North Sea and the
Baltic Sea. Based on the language of
Lübeck, a standardized written language was developing, though it was never codified.
Contemporary
After mass education in
Germany in the 19th and 20th century the slow decline which Low German was experiencing since the end of the
Hanseatic league turned into a free fall. Today efforts are made in Germany and in the Netherlands to protect Low German as a
regional language. Various Low German dialects are understood by 10 million people, and
native to about 3 million people all around northern Germany. Most of these speakers are located in
rural villages and are often senior
citizens.
Sound Change
Low German has commonality with the
English language, the
Scandinavian languages and
Frisian in that it has not been influenced by the High German consonant shift except for old 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 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.)
For instance: ''water'' , ''later'' , ''bit'' , ''dish'' , ''ship'' , ''pull'' , ''good'' , ''clock'' , ''sail'' , ''he'' , ''storm'' , ''wind'' , ''grass'' , ''hold'' , ''old'' .
Low German is a West Germanic language of the lowlands and as such did not experience the
High German consonant shift. The table below shows the relationship between English and Low German consonants which were unaffected by this
chain shift and gives the modern
German counterparts, which were affected by the sound shift.
| 'Proto-Germanic' | 'High German' | 'Low German' | 'Dutch' | 'English' | 'German' |
|---|
| k | ch | maken, moaken, maaken | maken | to make | machen |
| k | kch | Karl, Korl | Karel | Carl | Karl |
| d | t | Dag, Dach | dag | day | Tag |
| t | ss | eten, äten | eten | eat | essen |
| t | z (/ts/) | teihn, tian | tien | ten | zehn |
| t | tz, z (/ts/) | sitten | zitten | sit | sitzen |
| p | f, ff | Schipp, Schepp | schip | ship, skiff | Schiff |
| p | pf | Peper, Päpa | peper | pepper | Pfeffer |
| β | b | Wief, Wiewer | wijf, wijven
★ | wife, wives | Weib, Weiber
★ |
''Note'': The correct translation for "wife" in Dutch and German is ''vrouw'' and ''Frau'' respectively; using ''wijf'' or ''Weib'' for a human is considered archaic in German and derogatory in Dutch, comparable to "
bitch". The English equivalent to ''Frau/vrouw'' does not exist.
Grammar
Generally speaking, Low German
grammar shows similarities with the
grammars of
Dutch,
Frisian,
English and
Scots, but the
dialects of Northern
Germany share some features (especially
lexical and
syntactic features) with
German dialects.
Nouns
Low German
declension has only three morphologically marked
noun cases, where
accusative and
dative together constitute an
objective case.
Example case marking: ''Boom'' (tree), ''Bloom'' (flower), ''Land'' (land)| | Masculine | Feminine | 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 |
|---|---|
| Objective | een Boom, 'den' Boom | Bööm, de Bööm | een Bloom, de Bloom | Blomen, de Blomen | een Land, dat Land | Lannen, de Lannen |
|---|---|
Dative
dan
In most modern dialects, the
nominative and the
objective cases are primarily distinguished only in the
singular of
masculine nouns. In some Low German dialects, the genitive case is distinguished as well (e.g. varieties of Mennonite Low German.) It is marked in the masculine gender by changing the masculine definite determiner 'de' from de to dän. By contrast, German distinguishes four cases; nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative. So, for example, the definite article of the masculine singular has the forms: der (nom), den (acc), des (gen), and dem (dat.) Thus case marking in Low German is simpler than
German's.
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, and
Pluperfect and in Mennonite Low German a tense whose name I don't know but it signals 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 coming there.
Example verb conjugation: slapen - to sleep| | Present | Preterite | 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,
German and southern Low German, the northern dialects form the participle without the prefix ''ge-'', like the
Scandinavian languages and
English. Compare to the German past
participle 'ge'schlafen. This past
participle 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
Mecklenburg and further east use -en. The -en suffix is of Dutch influence.
In Mennonite Low German, some verbs inflect into two moods: Declarative and Imperative.For the verb 'jäwen'-to give,for example, the Imperative form is 'jefs'.
There are 26 verb affixes.
Phonology
Here are some phonemes from some Low German dialects:
===
Vowels===
★ a- the tongue is put right between the mouth's bottom and mouth's top and right behind the mouth's teeth and mouth's bach, and hum
★ a- just below and behind the sound just mentioned, and hum
★ ä- like in date,plain,ray
★ air- like in fairy
★ e- like in death
★ e- a
schwa
★ e- the tongue is put a little further forward than right in the center, and hum
★ ie- like in heat, teeth, she
★ i- like in hit
★ o- like in story
★ o- like in boat
★ oo- like in tooth
★ ur- like in hurry
★ u- like in book
★ u- like in pluck
★ ü- the tongue is put between the teeth and right behind them and hum
===
Consonants===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" class="wikitable"
!
IPA !! Description !! word
|-
! colspan="3" style="text-align:left; background:#dedede"|
monophthongs
|-
| ||
Close front unrounded vowel || ha
|-
| ||
Near-close near-front unrounded vowel || Kjnt
|-
| ||
Open-mid front unrounded vowel || mt
|-
| ||
Near-open front unrounded vowel || Kjokj
|-
| ||
Open back rounded vowel || Gtt
|-
|-
| ||
Near-close near-back rounded vowel || Bck
|-
| ||
Close front rounded vowel || Hs
|-
| ||
Open-mid back unrounded vowel,
Near-open central vowel || Lst
|-
| ||
Open-mid central unrounded vowel || fhäa
|-
| ||
Schwa || schmäar
|-
| ||
Close front unrounded vowel || Tn
|-
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 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 (
allophonic) output rather than underlying (
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 (specifically German ''Platt'') 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.
[1]
See also
★
Meuse-Rhenish
★
Moin
★
1614 Low German Bible
Resources
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:'
★
Mennonite Low German-English Dictionary
★
Ethnologue report for Low German (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! International 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
★
Building Blocks of Low Saxon (Low German), an introductory grammar in English and German
'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)
★
Diesel - dat oostfreeske Bladdje (Eastern Friesland, 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/
★ http://www.radiobremen.de/nachrichten/platt/
★ http://www.deutsch-plattdeutsch.de/
References
1. Sanders, W: "Sachsensprache — Hansesprache — Plattdeutsch. Sprachgeschichtliche Grundzüge des Niederdeutschen, Göttingen 1982
2. J. Goossens: Niederdeutsche Sprache. Versuch einer Defintion, in: J. Goossens (ed.), Niederdeutsch. Sprache und Literatur, I, Neumünster 1973
3. Examples here (in English) or here (German)
4. http://www.ins-bremen.de/Geschichte/charta.htm
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