Nordostniederdeutsch is a Low German dialect group used predominantly in the

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label= Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schweri ...

area of today’s North German state of

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

. There is no sharp dividing line between its western dialects and adjacent

Northern Low Saxon Northern Low Saxon (in High German: ', in Standard Dutch: ') is a subgroup of Low Saxon dialects of Low German. As such, it covers a great part of the West Low German-speaking areas of northern Germany, with the exception of the border regio ...

dialects on the one hand and between its eastern dialects including those of

Western Pomerania Historical Western Pomerania, also called Cispomerania, Fore Pomerania, Front Pomerania or Hither Pomerania (german: Vorpommern), is the western extremity of the historic region of Pomerania forming the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, Weste ...

on the other hand. Its

Western Slavic The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic languages, Slavic language group. They include Polish language, Polish, Czech language, Czech, Slovak language, Slovak, Kashubian language, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian language, Upper Sorbia ...

substrata do not seem to be as strong as those of dialects spoken farther east. A striking eastern characteristic is the use of the diminutive suffix ''-ing'' (e.g. ''Poot'' ‘paw’ > ''Pöting'' ‘little paw’, ''Änning'' ‘Annie’, ''lies’'' ‘quietly’, ‘softly’, ‘slowly’ > ''liesing'' ‘very quietly’, ‘very softly’, ‘very carefully’, ‘nice and easy’). This suffix first appears in modern Low German variations (early 19th century onwards), and is of Germanic origin¹, being attested in several other Germanic-speaking areas, such as Westphalian family names Arning, Smeding and Janning.

External links

*^1: , Mirjam Schmuck, https://www.germanistik.uni-mainz.de/files/2015/01/Schmuck-2009.pdf. Low German German dialects Languages of Germany Mecklenburg {{Germanic-lang-stub