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Low Saxon language

Low German
Low Saxon

Plattdüütsch

German: Niederdeutsch,
Dutch: Nederduits
Native to Germany
(Primarily North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein)
Denmark
(Primarily Southern Denmark)
Netherlands
(Primarily Overijssel, Drenthe, Groningen)
Ethnicity Today the Dutch and Germans;
Historically Saxons
(Germanic peoples and modern regional subgroup of Germans)
Native speakers
Unknown number of native speakers
c. 301,000 active users
Up to 10 million second-language speakers (1996)
Early forms
Dialects
Official status
Official language in

 Germany

 Schleswig-Holstein
 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
 Netherlands
Recognised minority
language in
Mexico (100,000)

Bolivia (70,000)

Paraguay (30,000)
Language codes
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3 (Dutch varieties and Westphalian have separate codes)
Glottolog lowg1239  (Low German)
Linguasphere 52-ACB
Low Saxon Dialects.svg
Approximate area in which Low German/Low Saxon dialects are spoken in Europe.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Plattdüütsch

 Germany

Bolivia (70,000)

Low German or Low Saxon (Low German Plattdüütsch, Nedderdüütsch, Platduuts, Nedderduuts; German: Plattdeutsch, Niederdeutsche Dialekte; Dutch: Nedersaksisch, or Nederduits in the wider sense) is a West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is descended from Old Saxon in its earliest form.

As an Ingvaeonic language, Low German is quite distinct from the Irminonic (High German) languages like Standard German, and closely related to Dutch, Frisian and English. This difference resulted from the High German consonant shift, with the Uerdingen and Benrath lines being two notable linguistic borders.

Dialects of Low German are spoken in the northeastern area of the Netherlands (Dutch Low Saxon) and are written there with an unstandardised orthography based on Standard Dutch orthography. The position of the language is according to UNESCO vulnerable. Between 1995 and 2011 the numbers of speakers of parents dropped from 34% in 1995 to 15% in 2011. Numbers of speakers of their children dropped in the same period from 8% to 2%.


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