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 regions where Eastphalian and Westphalian are spoken, and Gronings dialect in the Netherlands.

Dialects

Northern Low Saxon can be divided into Holsteinian (), Schleswigian (), East Frisian Low Saxon, Dithmarsch (), North Hanoveranian (), Emslandish (), and Oldenburgish () in Germany, with additional dialects in the Netherlands such as Gronings.

' is spoken in Holstein, the southern part of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, in Dithmarschen, around Neumünster, Rendsburg, Kiel and Lübeck.

' () is spoken in Schleswig, which is divided between Germany and Denmark. It is mainly based on a South Jutlandic substrate. Therefore, it has some notable differences in pronunciation and grammar with its southern neighbour dialects. The dialects on the west coast of Schleswig (Nordfriesland district) and some islands show some North Frisian influences.

' is spoken around the city of Oldenburg. It is limited to Germany. The main difference between it and East Frisian Low Saxon, which is spoken in the Frisian parts of Lower Saxony, is the lack of an East Frisian substrate. ''Oldenburgisch'' is spoken in the city of Bremen as ''"Bremian"'', which is the only capital where ''Oldenburgisch'' is spoken. Minden in Westphalia, where ''Oldenburgisch'' is not spoken, possibly borders to the area.

Characteristics

The most obvious common character in grammar is the forming of the perfect participle. It is formed without a prefix, as in all North Germanic languages, as well as English and Frisian, but unlike standard German, Dutch and some dialects of Westphalian and Eastphalian Low Saxon:
*''gahn'' (to go): ''Ik bün'' ''gahn'' (I have gone/I went)
*''seilen'' (to sail): ''He hett'' ''seilt'' (He (has) sailed)
*''kopen'' (to buy): ''Wi harrn'' ''köfft'' (We had bought)
*''kamen'' (to come): ''Ji sünd'' ''kamen'' (You (all) have come/You came)
*''eten'' (to eat): ''Se hebbt'' ''eten'' (They have eaten/They ate)

The diminutive (''-je'') (Dutch and East Frisian Low Saxon ''-tje'', Eastphalian ''-ke'', High German ''-chen'', Alemannic ''-le'', ''li'') is hardly used. Some examples are ''Buscherumpje'', a fisherman's shirt, or ''lüttje'', a diminutive of ''lütt'', little. Instead the adjective ''lütt'' is used, e.g. ''dat lütte Huus'', ''de lütte Deern'', ''de lütte Jung''.

There are a lot of special characteristics in the vocabulary, too, but they are shared partly with other languages and dialects, e.g.:
*Personal pronouns: ''ik'' (like Dutch ik), ''du'' (like German Du), ''he'' (like Dutch hij), ''se'' (like Dutch zij), ''dat'' (Dutch dat), ''wi'' , ''ji'' (similar to English ye, Dutch jij), ''se'' .
*Interrogatives (English/High German): ''wo'' , ''woans'' (how/''wie''), ''wo laat'' (how late/''wie spät''), ''wokeen'' (who/''wer''), ''woneem'' (where/''wo''), ''wokeen sien'' / ''wen sien'' (whose/''wessen'')
*Adverbs (English/High German): ''laat'' (late/''spät''), ''gau'' (fast/''schnell''), ''suutje'' (slowly, carefully/''langsam'', ''vorsichtig'', from Dutch ''zoetjes'' ‘nice and easy’, adverbial diminutive of ''zoet'' ‘sweet’), ''vigeliensch'' (difficult, tricky/''schwierig'')
*Prepositions (English/High German): ''bi'' (by, at/''bei''), ''achter'' (behind/''hinter''), ''vör'' (before, in front of/''vor''), ''blangen'' (beside, next to, alongside/''neben''), ''twüschen'' (betwixt, between/''zwischen''), ''mang'', ''mank'' (among/''unter'')

See also

* Languages of Germany
* Middle Low German

References

External links

Plattmakers' Northern Low Saxon dictionary

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Dutch dialects
German dialects
Northern Low Saxon dialects
Low German