Low German
| Low German Nedersaksisch Plattdüütsch | |
| Spoken in: | Germany, Netherlands, Denamrk (Norddütschland) |
| Conworld: | Real world |
| Total speakers: | unknown |
| Genealogical classification: | Indo-European
|
| Basic word order: | SVO, OVS/V2 |
| Morphological type: | inflecting |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | nominative-accusative |
| Writing system: | |
| Created by: | |
| unknown | 1800-Present C.E. |
History and Stages
- Stages of Low German
- Old Saxon
- Middle Low Saxon
- Low Saxon aka Low German
Difference between High and Low German
High German differs from other West German languages such as Low German, English, and Dutch in that High German when through the High German Consonant Shift. The High German Consonant Shift (or HGCS) is the sound shift where;
- Non-geminated voicless stops became fricatives,
- Geminated, nasal-adjacent and liquid-adjacent voiceless stops became affricates,
- Voiced stops became voiceless stops, and finally
- All interdental fricatives (/ð/ and /θ/) became the dental stop and/or Alveolar stop /d̻/ and /d/.
The last stage was shared by Low German and Dutch as well as High German.
Orthography
Because there is no standard dialect of Low German, there is no standard orthography. It can often differ by region.
Grammar
Gender and Number
There are three genders in Low German: Neuter, Masculine, and Feminine. There are two numbers as well: Singular and Plural.
Articles
The Masculine and Feminine genders take the definite article de. The Neuter form takes the article dat. The plural for all this is de. This makes it very close to its cousin of Dutch which has a similar pattern (save het instead of dat.)
The Indefinite article is the same for all, it is een, en, and 'n.
Compare these with the German Articles]:
| Cases | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural (all Genders) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | de | de | dat | de |
| Genitive | den (-s)(sien)† | de (ehr) | dat (sien) | de (ehr) |
| Dative | den | de | dat | de |
| Accusative | den | de | dat | de |
† sien or ehr appear after the noun in Genitive.
Nouns
There are 4 cases, although the dative and accusative are often collapsed together in Low German. This is reflected in the articles as well. The most common form of the plural is found in the ending -s but there are others, similar to those found in Dutch or High German.
Here are examples for all three genders:
Masculine:
| Cases | Macker 'Guy' | Mackers'Guys' | Appel 'Apple' | Appeln 'Apples' |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | De Macker | De Mackers | De Appel | De Appeln |
| Genitive | Den Macker(s) (sien) | De Mackers (ehr) | Den Appels (sien) | De Appeln (ehr) |
| Dative | Den Macker | De Mackers | Den Appel | De Appeln |
| Accusative | Den Macker | De Mackers | Den Appel | De Appeln |
Feminine:
| Cases | Hand 'Hand' | Hände 'Hands' | Fru 'Woman' | Fruuslü 'Women' |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | De Hann | De Hannen | De Fru | De Fruuslü |
| Genitive | De Hann (ehr) | De Hannen (ehr) | De Fru (ehr) | De Fruuslü (ehr) |
| Dative | De Hann | De Hannen | De Fru | De Fruuslü |
| Accusative | De Hann | De Hannen | De Fru | De Fruuslü |
Neuter:
| Cases | Schiff 'Ship' | Schiffe 'Ships' | Wief'Wife' | Wiefer'Wives' |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Dat Schipp | De Schipps | Dat Wief | De Wiever |
| Genitive | Dat Schipp (sien) | De Schipps (ehr) | Dat Wief (sien) | De Wiever (ehr) |
| Dative | Dat Schipp | De Schipps | Dat Wief | De Wiever |
| Accusative | Dat Schipp | De Schipps | Dat Wief | De Wiever |
Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Conjunctions
Preposition
Verbs
Present
Future
Past
Present Perfect
Imperative
Low German Conlangs
Below are conlangs that are mainly based on Old Saxon, Middle Low German, and modern Low German dialects:
Sources and Further Readings
| This article is one of quite a few pages about Natlangs. Indo-european natlangs:
Uralic Natlangs: Finnish * Khanty * Mansi * Mordvinic * Proto-Uralic
Isolate Natlangs: Basque * * |
