Low Saxon

For other uses, see Low Saxon (disambiguation).

Low Saxon (Dutch: Nedersaksisch), also known as West Low German (German: Westniederdeutsch^[2]) are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of the German-speaking minority). It is one of two dialect groups, the other being East Low German.

West Low German
Native to	Germany, Netherlands, Southern Denmark
Speakers	Native: 300,000 (2016)[1] L2: 2.2 million[1]
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Low German West Low German
Language codes
ISO 639-2	nds for Low German
ISO 639-3	Variously: nds – (partial) wep – Westphalian frs – Eastern Frisian gos – Gronings stl – Stellingwerfs drt – Drents twd – Twents act – Achterhoeks sdz – Sallands vel – Veluws
Glottolog	west2357
West Low German area in yellow.

Extent

The language area comprises the North German states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia (the Westphalian part), Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt (the northwestern areas around Magdeburg) as well as the northeast of the Netherlands (i.e. Dutch Low Saxon, spoken in Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel and northern Gelderland) and the Schleswigsch dialect spoken by the North Schleswig Germans in the southernmost part of Denmark.^[3]

In the south the Benrath line and Uerdingen line isoglosses form the border with the area, where West Central German variants of High German are spoken.

List of dialects

Germany

• West Low German
  • Westphalian, including the region around Münster and the Osnabrück region of Lower Saxony
  • Eastphalian, spoken in southeastern Lower Saxony (Hanover, Braunschweig, Göttingen) and in the Magdeburg Börde region
  • Northern Low Saxon
    • East Frisian Low Saxon in East Frisia^[4]
    • Dithmarsisch^[4]
    • Schleswig[i]sch^[4]
    • Holsteinisch^[4]
      • Hamburgisch
    • Nordhannoversch^[4]
    • Emsländisch^[4]
    • Oldenburgisch in the Oldenburg region^[4]

Low Saxon language area in the Netherlands

Netherlands

Main article: Dutch Low Saxon

While Dutch is a Low Franconian language, the Dutch Low Saxon varieties form a dialect continuum with Westphalian. They consist of:

• West Low German, divided into:^[5]
  • Gronings
  • Drents
  • Stellingwerfs
  • Sallands
  • West-Overijssels
  • Twents
  • Achterhoeks
  • Veluws

Denmark

• West Low German
  • Northern Low Saxon
    • Schleswigsch dialect spoken in former South Jutland County (the northern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig) around Aabenraa (Apenrade)

Poland

• West Low German
  • Westphalian
    • Koschneiderian - exinct dialect possibly related to Westphalian, used by settlers from around Osnabrück in the Koschneiderei region (Polish: Kosznajderia)

Situation in the Netherlands

A 2005 study found that there were approximately 1.8 million "daily speakers" of Low Saxon in the Netherlands. 53% spoke Low Saxon or Low Saxon and Dutch at home and 71% could speak it.^{[6][page needed]} According to another study the percentage of speakers among parents dropped from 34% in 1995 to 15% in 2011. The percentage of speakers among their children dropped from 8% to 2% in the same period.^[7]

References

1. (partial) at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Westphalian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Eastern Frisian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Gronings at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Stellingwerfs at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Drents at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   (Additional references under 'Language codes' in the information box)
2. Peter Wiesinger, Die Einteilung der deutschen Dialekte, in: Werner Besch, Ulrich Knoop, Wolfgang Putschke, Herbert Ernst Wiegand (eds.), Dialektologie. Ein Handbuch zur deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung. Zweiter Halbband (series: Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (HSK), 1.2), 1983, p. 828
3. Sanders, Willy (1982). Sachsensprache, Hansesprache, Plattdeutsch : sprachgeschichtliche Grundzüge des Niederdeutschen [Language of the Saxons, the language of the Hanseatic League, Plattdeutsch: basics of the historical linugistics of Low German] (in German). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 9783525012130.
4. Noble, Cecil Arthur M. (1983). Modern German dialects. New York: P. Lang. pp. 103–104. ISBN 9780820400259.
5. Bloemhoff, Henk (2005). Taaltelling Nedersaksisch: Een enquête naar het gebruik en de beheersing van het Nedersaksisch in Nederland (in Dutch). Groningen: Sasland., p. 9: "Zoals gebruikelijk is, wordt de aanduiding Nedersaksisch hier gehanteerd als overkoepelende term voor het Gronings, Drents, Stellingwerfs, Sallands, West-Overijssels, Twents, Achterhoeks en Veluws."
6. Bloemhoff, Henk (2005). Taaltelling Nedersaksisch - Een enquête naar het gebruik en de beheersing van het Nedersaksisch in Nederland (in Dutch). Groningen: Sasland.
7. Driessen, Geert (2012). "Ontwikkelingen in het gebruik van Fries, streektalen en dialecten in de periode 1995-2011" [Development of the use of Frisian, regional languages and dialects from 1995 to 2011] (PDF). Radboud University Nijmegen (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-04-29.