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Interlanguage link for the language itself: Plattdüütsch
Low Saxon (in Low Saxon, Nedersaksisch, Neddersassisch, "Plattdüütsch" or
"Nedderdüütsch") is any of a variety of Low German dialects spoken in northern Germany and the
Netherlands. Plattdüütsch is the name for both the Low Saxon and the East Low German language.
Since 1994 Low Saxon has been recognised by the European Union as an independent regional language. Since 1999 Low
Saxon is under protection of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The ISO 639-2 language code is nds since May 2000. The Northern Low Saxon language serves as a common
intelligible language in TV and Wireless programms.
Although often considered a variation of German, in many respects
it is more like Dutch, which is based on closely related Low Franconian dialects. Low Saxon, East Low German and Low
Franconian are classified together as Low German. The distinction between Low
Saxon, East Low German and Low Franconian (on one side) or High German (on
the other side) is not precisely defined; there are several clines that vary smoothly from one dialect to another.
The Low Saxon language has commonality with the English
language, the Scandinavian languages and Frisian in that it has not been influenced by the High German sound shift. Therefore a lot of Low Saxon words sound similar to their English
counterparts. For instance: Water/water, later, bit, Disch/dish, Schipp/ship,
pull/pull, good/good, Klock/clock, Seil/sail, he/he, Storm/storm.
The grammar also shows similarities to the English language. Low Saxon declination has only three cases. In the northern
dialects the participle is formed without the prefix ge-, like the Scandinavian languages and English, but unlike Dutch
and German. The syntax on the other hand is more like German syntax, though there are some differences.
Low Saxon was once much more widespread than today, being used as a lingua
franca throughout the Baltic Sea region, under the
influence of the Hanseatic League. It served as a standard language in many regions of northern Germany until it was
replaced for that purpose by Standard German (a High German dialect) during the unification of Germany under Otto von
Bismarck in 1871.
A Low Saxon Wikipedia has recently been started at http://nds.wikipedia.org.
The Low Saxon 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 lower German in order to translate Desktop environments such as KDE and GNOME. [1]
List of dialects
Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent
dialects being mutually intelligible and more distantly separated ones being less so.
However, most Low Saxon dialects are thought to be descended from, or to have been strongly influenced by Old Saxon.
Dialects of Lower German in northern Germany:
- Northern (Standard) Low Saxon
- Northern Low Saxon (on frisian substrate)
- Standard East Frisian, or Emslandic (in western
Lower Saxony)
- Brookmer Platt (in the Brookmerland and Aurich area in East Frisia)
- Rheiderländer Platt (in East Frisia)
- Southern Low Saxon (Eastphalian) (around
Hannover)
- Heide Eastphalian
- Main Eastphalian
- Götting-Grubenhagen
- Elbe Eastphalian
- Southern Low Saxon (Westphalian) (in Westphalia)
- East Low German
Dialects in the eastern Netherlands:
- Northern Low Saxon (on frisian
substrate)
- Noord-Gronings (in Groningen)
- Westerwolds (in eastern Groningen)
- Stad-Gronings/Noordenvelds (in Groningen and Northern Drenthe)
- Veenkoloniaals (in eastern Groningen and Drenthe)
- Kollumerlands (a Frisian/Low Saxon mixture dialect in Groningen and Fryslân)
- Southern Low Saxon ("Westphalian")
- Twents (in eastern Overijssel)
- Achterhoeks (in Gelderland)
- Midden-, Zuid- and Zand-Drenths (in
Drenthe)
- Stelingwerfs/Stienwiekerlands/West-Drenths (in Ooststellingwerf and Weststellingwerf, in
Fryslân and in parts of Drenthe)
- Sallands/North
Veluws/Zuidoost-Drenths (in central Overijssel, in Gelderland and in Drenthe, resp.)
- East Veluws (a Dutch/Low Saxon mixture
dialect spoken in Gelderland)
- Urks (in Flevoland)
Dialects in Canada and the United States:
This list is not complete.
See also: Common phrases
in different languages.
- Unse Vadder in d'n Himmel!
- Laat hilligt waren dienen Namen.
- Laat kamen dien Riek.
- Laat waren dienen Willen so as in d'n Himmel,
- so ook op de Eerd.
- Uns' dääglich Brood giv uns vundaag.
- Un vergiv uns unse Schuld,
- as wi de vergeven hebt,
- de an uns schüllig sünd.
- Un laat uns nich versöcht waren.
- Maak uns vrie vun dat Böse.
The Lord's Prayer in Old Saxon (Heliand, 9. jh./eew n.Kr.)
- Fadar ûsa firiho barno,
- thu bist an them hôhon himila rîkea,
- geuuîhid sî thîn namo uuordo gehuuilico.
- Cuma thîn craftag rîki.
- Uuerða thîn uuilleo obar thesa uuerold alla,
- sô sama an erðo, sô thar uppa ist
- an them hôhon himilo rîkea.
- Gef ûs dago gehuuilikes râd, drohtin the gôdo,
- thîna hêlaga helpa, endi alât ûs, hebenes uuard,
- managoro mênsculdio, al sô uue ôðrum mannum dôan.
- Ne lât ûs farlêdean lêða uuihti
- sô forð an iro uuilleon, sô uui uuirðige sind,
- ac help ûs uuiðar allun ubilon dâdiun.
External links
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