Low German

For other uses, see Low German (disambiguation) and Low Saxon (disambiguation).
Low German
Low Saxon
Plattdütsch, Plattdüütsch, Plattdütsk, Plattdüütsk, Plattduitsk (South-Westphalian), Plattduitsch (Eastphalian), Plattdietsch (Low Prussian); Neddersassisch; Nedderdüütsch
Native toNorthern and western Germany
Eastern Netherlands
Southern Denmark
EthnicityDutch
Germans
Frisians
Russian Mennonites
Historically Saxons
Native speakers
Estimated 4.35–7.15 million[a][1][2][3]
Up to 10 million second-language speakers (2001)[4]
Early forms
Dialects
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-2nds
ISO 639-3nds (Dutch varieties and Westphalian have separate codes)
Glottologlowg1239  Low German
Linguasphere52-ACB
Present-day Low German language area in Europe
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Low German[b] is a West Germanic language[12][13] spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide.

Low German is most closely related to Frisian and English, with which it forms the North Sea Germanic group of the West Germanic languages. Like Dutch, it has historically been spoken north of the Benrath and Uerdingen isoglosses, while forms of High German (of which Standard German is a standardized example) have historically been spoken south of those lines. Like Frisian, English, Dutch and the North Germanic languages, Low German has not undergone the High German consonant shift, as opposed to Standard High German, which is based on High German dialects. Low German evolved from Old Saxon (Old Low German), which is most closely related to Old Frisian and Old English (Anglo-Saxon).

The Low German dialects spoken in the Netherlands are mostly referred to as Low Saxon, those spoken in northwestern Germany (Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, and Saxony-Anhalt west of the Elbe) 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 the Saxons (Old Saxony), while Low German spread to northeastern Germany through eastward migration of Low German speakers into areas with an originally Slavic-speaking population. This area is known as Germania 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).[15]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Taaltelling Nedersaksisch, H. Bloemhoff. (2005). p88.
  2. ^ Status und Gebrauch des Niederdeutschen 2016 Archived 16 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine, A. Adler, C. Ehlers, R. Goltz, A. Kleene, A. Plewnia (2016)
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference TOLoE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Saxon, Low Ethnologue.
  5. ^ Maas, Sabine (2014). Twents op sterven na dood? : een sociolinguïstisch onderzoek naar dialectgebruik in Borne. Münster New York: Waxmann. p. 19. ISBN 978-3830980339.
  6. ^ German: § 23 Absatz 1 Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz (Bund).
    Die Frage, ob unter deutsch rechtlich ausschließlich die hochdeutsche oder auch die niederdeutsche Sprache subsumiert wird, wird juristisch uneinheitlich beantwortet: Während der BGH in einer Entscheidung zu Gebrauchsmustereinreichung beim Deutschen Patent- und Markenamt in plattdeutscher Sprache das Niederdeutsche einer Fremdsprache gleichstellt („Niederdeutsche (plattdeutsche) Anmeldeunterlagen sind im Sinn des § 4a Abs. 1 Satz 1 GebrMG 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.
  7. ^ Unterschiedliche Rechtsauffassungen, ob Niederdeutsch in Deutschland insgesamt Amtssprache ist – siehe dazu: Amtssprache (Deutschland); zumindest aber in Schleswig-Holstein und Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
  8. ^ Verein für niederdeutsche Sprachen in Brandenburg
  9. ^ Bundesrat für niederdeutsche Sprache, Neuigkeiten aus Brandenburg
  10. ^ Los Menonitas en Bolivia Archived 3 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine CNN en Español
  11. ^ "El Comercio: Menonitas cumplen 85 años en Paraguay con prosperidad sin precedentes". Archived from the original on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  12. ^ "Regionalsprache Niederdeutsch". Beauftragte für Aussiedlerfragen und nationale Minderheiten (in German). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ "Status und Gebrauch des Niederdeutschen 2016" (PDF). ins-bremen.de. p. 40. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  15. ^ Bloemhoff, H. (2005). Taaltelling Nedersaksisch. Een enquête naar het gebruik en de beheersing van het Nedersaksisch in Nederland. p88. Groningen: Sasland.