Low saxon

The Lower Saxon or Low West German (in German Niedersächsisch or Westniederdeutsch, in Low Saxon Nedersaksisch or Neddersassisch) is a variety of the Low German language known to 5 million Germans; co-official regional language of eight federal states. It is the language of the Saxon population of the northern part of Germany: Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt.

The population of what is now Saxony does not speak this variety of Low German, but rather a dialect of High German. This is because this area received that name from the 12th century, when the second Duchy of Saxony incorporated territories very al southeast of original Saxony; since it subsequently lost sovereignty over the ethnically Saxon territories, the name of the territory lost correspondence with that of its population.

Low Saxon is also spoken by about 1.5 million people in the northeastern provinces of the Netherlands, albeit with its own lexicon and grammar, which is why it is called Low Saxon Dutch.

The largest non-European enclaves of the Lower Saxon are found in North America, primarily in the Midwestern states of the United States.

History

Low Saxon is the descendant of Old Saxon, which is also one of the ancestral languages of English and Scots.

After Christianization and subjugation by Charlemagne, the Saxon nation found wealth and power through trade, especially maritime trade. The commercial extension of the Saxon Hanseatic League around the Baltic Sea and on the Norwegian coast, with diplomatic representations in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Russia, fostered a spread of the Saxon language throughout most of the Middle Ages. Half. Middle Saxon was used as an international lingua franca during this period, and its influences transformed the Scandinavian languages. Furthermore, during and after that period Middle Saxon influenced Kashubian, Estonian and Baltic languages.

Extension

The Low Saxon language area comprises the states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia (the Westphalian part), Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt (the areas north-west of Magdeburg) as well as the northeastern Netherlands (Low Saxon Dutch, spoken in Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel, and northern Gelderland) and southern Denmark (Schleswigsch, spoken by North Schleswig Germans).

To the south, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines form the border with the language zone of the West Central German dialects, belonging to High German.

Classification

Extension of modern low-saxon and Dutch dialects. The low sajón described in this article includes the following dialects: Nordniedersächsisch (3), Holsteinisch (2), Schleswigisch (1), Ostfriesisch (4), Ostfälisch (7), Westfälisch (6) and the dialects under Dutch Saxons (5).

Westfälisch (Westphalian)

Westphalian (Westfälisch) is spoken in Westphalia and in the Osnabrück region of Germany.

The main cities where it is spoken are Dortmund (in Westphalian Düörpm), Essen, Bochum, Bielefeld, Gelsenkirchen (in Westphalian Gelsenkiärken) and Münster (in Westphalian Monster). Outside of German-speaking Europe, Westphalian has been the co-official language of the Brazilian municipality of Westfália (Rio Grande do Sul) since 2016.

It is one of the most widely spoken German dialects and has greatly influenced the standard German spoken in Westphalia: the use of the term plästern for &# 39;rain' and dat as a neuter article. Another element of Low Saxon is the pronunciation of the final g in a manner analogous to the German ch, for example, in the words König and Tag (in Spanish 'king' and 'día' respectively).

Westphalian can be divided into the following dialect varieties:

• the Mönsterlänner Plattwhich is spoken in Münster, Steinfurt and other neighbouring municipalities;
• the Westmönsterlänner Plattspoken in Bocholt, Borken and other neighbouring municipalities;
• the Ostwestfälschspoken by a small number of people in Bielefeld and other surrounding municipalities;
• the Südwestfälsch, spoken in Westphalia, in the Sauerland, in the Ruhr region, in Gelsenkirchen and Kirchhellen. Until the nineteenth century it was also spoken in the cities of Essen, Wuppertal and Radevormwald, in Renania.

Ostfälisch (Ostphalian)

Ostphalian (Ostfälisch) is spoken in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt (Germany).

The largest cities where it is spoken are Magdeburg and Hannover.

Ostphalian can be divided into the following dialectal varieties, all of which are rarely used:

• the Heideostfälischspoken mainly in the center of Baja Saxony;
• the Elbostfälischspoken mainly in the north of Saxony-Anhalt;
• the Göttingisch-Grubenhagenschspoken mainly in the south of Lower Saxony;
• the Kernostfälischspoken mainly in the south of Baja Saxony and more specifically since the centuryXIX in the area of Gifhorn, Oschersleben, Hildesheim, Seesen and Halberstadt.

Nordniedersächsisch (lower North Saxon)

The Nordniedersächsisch (in Low Saxon Noordneddersassisch) is the largest variety of the Low-Saxon dialect. It is spoken in Lower Saxony, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg (Germany). A variety of it is spoken in Jutland (Denmark).

The writers Klaus Groth and Fritz Reuter published their writings in this dialect.

The Nordniedersächsisch can be divided into the following dialect varieties:

• the Dithmarsch;
• the Ollnborger Plattspoken in Bremen and Baja Saxony;
• the Sleswigschspoken in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) and in Jutland (Denmark);
• the Holsteener Platt, spoken in Schleswig-Holstein;
  • the Hamburger Plattspeaks of the city of Hamburg;
• the Nordhannoverschspoken in Baja Saxony;
• the Ostfräisk platspoken in Lower Saxony by the Frisian people;
• the Emslänner Platt.

Nederlands Nedersaksisch (Low Saxon Dutch)

Dutch bass sage

Dutch Low Saxon (Nederlands Nedersaksisch) is a derivative of Low Saxon spoken in the Netherlands. Since 1998 it has been protected as a regional language of the European Union.

The main cities where it is spoken are Enschede, Zwolle, Apeldoorn and Emmen.

Dutch Low Saxon has many varieties, almost all of them specific to the city after which they are named:

• Gronings (gronning)
• Westerwolds
• Midden-Drents
• Zuid-Drents
• Twentsch
• Twents-Graafschaps
• Stellingwarfs
• Veenkoloniaals
• Gelders-Overijssels, Urks
• Achterhoeks
• Sallands
• Noord-Veluws
• Oost-Veluws
• Kollumerlands

Missingsch

The Missingsch is not a variant of Low Saxon in the strict sense, but a mixture of Low Saxon and Standard German. It is spoken in Bielefeld, Bremen, Hamburg and other German cities.

Current situation

Low Saxon is a highly fragmented language, and since 1994 it has been recognized and protected by the European Union. Currently, it can even be used as an administrative language in several of the federated states in which it enjoys greater diffusion. Its ISO code according to ISO 639-2 is nds.

Despite its official status and due to the dominance of High German (in Germany) and Dutch (in the Netherlands), Low Saxon is dying out and today survives almost exclusively in rural areas.

Number of speakers

In Germany, the number of Low German speakers is estimated at six million, of whom around four million actually speak the language. The number of passive speakers, i.e. those who understand Low German, it rises according to various sources to more than ten million in Germany. In the Netherlands, a 2003 survey by the University of Groningen showed that approximately 1.5 million people spoke the Low German dialect.

In Denmark, only a part of the German minority (approx. 20,000 people) speak Nordschleswigsch (or Nordschleswiger Platt). In short, the number of speakers in Europe who are reasonably fluent in Low German does not exceed 8 million.

Comparison