Northern Low Saxon
Encyclopedia
Northern Low Saxon is a West Low German dialect.
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. However, Northern Low Saxon is easily understood by speakers of these dialects.
Northern Low Saxon can be divided into Holsteinisch
, Schleswigsch
, East Frisian Low Saxon
, Dithmarsch, North Hanoveranian, Emsländisch and Oldenburgisch.
, Danish
, Swedish, Norse and Frisian, but unlike standard German
, Dutch
and some dialects of Westphalian
and Eastphalian
Low Saxon:
The diminutive
(-je) (Dutch and Eastern Frisian
-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.:
As such, it covers a great part of the West Low-German-speaking areas of northern Germany
Northern Germany
- Geography :The key terrain features of North Germany are the marshes along the coastline of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and the geest and heaths inland. Also prominent are the low hills of the Baltic Uplands, the ground moraines, end moraines, sandur, glacial valleys, bogs, and Luch...
, with the exception of the border regions where Eastphalian
Eastphalian language
Eastphalian, or Eastfalian , is a West Low German dialect spoken east of the Weser river in southern parts of Lower Saxony and western parts of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, including Hanover, Braunschweig, Hildesheim, Göttingen and Magdeburg, an area that roughly corresponds with the historic region...
and Westphalian
Westphalian language
Westphalian is one of the major dialect groups of West Low German. Its most salient feature is the diphthongization . For example, speakers say iEten instead of Eːten for eat...
are spoken. However, Northern Low Saxon is easily understood by speakers of these dialects.
Northern Low Saxon can be divided into Holsteinisch
Holsteinisch
Holsteinisch is a Northern Low Saxon dialect spoken in Holstein, the southern part of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany.Today it is spoken in Dithmarschen, around Neumünster, Rendsburg, Kiel and Lübeck....
, Schleswigsch
Schleswigsch
Schleswigsch, , is a Northern Low Saxon dialect spoken in Schleswig, in Germany and Denmark.Schleswigsch mainly is based on an South Jutlandic substrate. Therefore it has some notable differences in pronounciation an grammar to it's southern neighbour dialects. The dialects on the west coast of...
, East Frisian Low Saxon
East Frisian Low Saxon
East Frisian Low Saxon is a West Low German dialect spoken in the East Frisian peninsula of northwestern Lower Saxony. It is used quite frequently in everyday speech there. About half of the East Frisian population in the coastal region uses Platdüütsk. A number of individuals, despite not being...
, Dithmarsch, North Hanoveranian, Emsländisch and Oldenburgisch.
Characteristics
The most obvious common character in grammar is the forming of the perfect participle. It is formed without a prefix, as in EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Swedish, Norse and Frisian, but unlike standard German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and some dialects of Westphalian
Westphalian language
Westphalian is one of the major dialect groups of West Low German. Its most salient feature is the diphthongization . For example, speakers say iEten instead of Eːten for eat...
and Eastphalian
Eastphalian language
Eastphalian, or Eastfalian , is a West Low German dialect spoken east of the Weser river in southern parts of Lower Saxony and western parts of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, including Hanover, Braunschweig, Hildesheim, Göttingen and Magdeburg, an area that roughly corresponds with the historic region...
Low Saxon:
- gahn [ɡɒːn] (to go): Ik bün gahn [ʔɪkbʏnˈɡɒːn] (I have gone/I went)
- seilen [zaˑɪln] (to sail): He hett seilt [hɛɪhɛtˈzaˑɪlt] (He (has) sailed)
- kopen [ˈkʰoʊpm] (to buy): Wi harrn köfft [vihaːŋˈkɶft] (We had bought)
- kamen [kɒːmˑ] (to come): Ji sünd kamen [ɟizʏŋˈkɒːmˑ] (You (all) have come/You came)
- eten [ˈʔeːtn] (to eat): Se hebbt eten [zɛɪhɛptˈʔeːtn] (They have eaten/They ate)
The diminutive
Diminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
(-je) (Dutch and Eastern Frisian
East Frisian Low Saxon
East Frisian Low Saxon is a West Low German dialect spoken in the East Frisian peninsula of northwestern Lower Saxony. It is used quite frequently in everyday speech there. About half of the East Frisian population in the coastal region uses Platdüütsk. A number of individuals, despite not being...
-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 [ʔɪk] (like Dutch), du [du] (like German), he [hɛɪ] (like English), se [zɛɪ], dat [dat], wi [vi], ji [ɟi] (similar to English), se [zɛɪ].
- Interrogatives (English/High German): wo [voʊ], woans [voʊˈʔaˑns] (how/wie), wo laat [voʊˈlɒːt] (how late/wie spät), wokeen [voʊˈkʰɛˑɪn] (who/wer), [voʊˈneːm] woneem (where/wo), wokeen sien [voʊˈkʰɛˑɪnziːn] / wen sien [vɛˑnziːn] (whose/wessen)
- Adverbs (English/High German): laat [lɒːt] (late/spät), gau [ɡaˑʊ] (fast/schnell), suutje [ˈzutɕe] (slowly, carefully/langsam, vorsichtig, from Dutch zoetjes [ˈzutɕəs] ‘nice and easy’, adverbial diminutive of zoet [ˈzut] ‘sweet’), vigeliensch [fiɡeˈliːnʃ] (difficult, tricky/schwierig)
- Prepositions (English/High German): bi [biː] (by, at/bei), achter [ˈʔaxtɝ] (behind/hinter), vör [fɶɝ] (before, in front of/vor), blangen [blaˑŋˑ] (beside, next to, alongside/neben), twüschen [ˈtvʏʃn] (betwixt, between/zwischen), mang, mank [maˑŋk] (among/unter)