Low Saxon - language
plattdeutsch - english
A contribution of Plattmaster on the status of the lower german language
Plattdüütsch - up and down.
It was a long discussion, whether Low Saxon (Plattdüütsch,
Platt, Nedersassisch or Nedersaksisch, in German Plattdeutsch or Niedersächsisch)
is a language for its own or only a local dialect. The reason might be,
that there are a lot of books, but no Low Saxon Duden to indicate correct
spelling and to gain and preserve uniformity. There have been some
proposals, but none has gotten an official status. (Might have been better
so, since we have no discussion like the Hochdeutsch spelling reform).
The medevial times were the age of the Hanse. Plattdüütsch (Low
Saxon) was the lingua franca of the Hanse. People trading in Norway,
Sweden, the Baltic, even Russia and England used Plattdüütsch as
a language of commerce. Also, documents of politics and other parts of the
public life were written in Platt (see medevial
But then the downfall came. Lower saxon was used more and more only by the
normal folk, and no longer by authorities. Lower saxon was used as
language of the simple people. The authorities spoke and wrote upper
german (Hochdeutsch). If the normal people tried to do so, they spoke "Missingsch",
a kind of language with High German words but Low Saxon grammar. It
sounded primitive in the ears of the upper class. People thought, to speak
Low Saxon leads to a wrong Hochdeutsch. Platt was a dialect hardly to
understand for upper german people. Parents tried to speak only
Hochdeutsch at home. Platt had been thought as poisonous for the children.
The children were supposed to become "someone better", and Platt
wouldn't fit for that purpose.
During the twentieth century there were two contradictionary trends.
- On one hand, Hochdeutsch became more and more dominant, especially in
the big cities. One reason was the high german language in schools and
universities. Radio and television spoke only high german, despite of
some songs. Even the famous lower saxon language theatre "Ohnsorg"
had specials on television only in a mild Missingsch. Furthermore,
millions of refugees came out of high german areas to the north.
Globalization does a lot to this trend today also. High german has
become the normal every day language and in the big cities Plattdüütsch
is seldom heard now.
- On the other hand, people recogniced plattdüütsch to be a
part of northern german identity. People thought about heritage, for
example in the "Jugendbewegung". The Nazi regime tried to
abuse this trend for their "blood and earth" ideology. In the
70ies, following the 68-movement, left wing folk singers prepared lower
saxon music and stories as a part of the identity of "workers and
farmers", making platt popular again within the youth. For them,
Platt was the language of the shipyard workers (Ketelklopper) and in
opposition of the upper class. Thus, quite a lot of people have used
Platt as an instrument for their very own political aims.
- But then, in the 80ies people understood the worth of Low Saxon as a
worth for its own. Plattdüüsch was a piece of homeland and
humanity in a more and more technic world. A second language for people,
a language rather for the heart than for the commerce, worth to be used
and saved. The internet has added a special aspect to it, more and more
pages and sites use lower german. Plattdüütsch has become an
At the end of the 20th century Plattdüütsch has been taken
charta of regional and minority language. Low Saxon has been
recognized a language for its own, now officially.
Why is lower saxon a separate language for its
- In Low Saxon (Plattdüütsch) the
german sound shifting has not taken place. This is common between
Low Saxon, Frisian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian (Norse), Islandic and
Faeroeric and - widely - English and Dutch. This feature separates Low
Saxon clearly from the upper German dialects and High German.
- There are a lot of words in the Low Saxon language, that are not
related to High German. But these words are related to the ancient
Anglosaxon, English, Frisian and the scandinavic languages. Round about,
it can be estimated to more than 20 percent of the words, that have no
relation to the current High German. A lot of these are old words, that
can be found in other west and north germanic languages (e.g. Steert),
but there are words (and rules of forming new words) unique to the lower
saxon language like nickkoppen, rallögen, schirrwarken,
- Futhermore, there are words related to High German, that are quite
closer related to Anglo Saxon and English (see. The
North Sea wordlist Platt-English-Deutsch-Anglo-Saxon) or the
scandinavian languages and the dutch language.
- Grammar shows some more or less fundamental differences to high
german and the upper german dialects.
- There are - like in english - only 3 casus for declination.
Dativus and accusativus are the same case (object case). Example "Ik
kiek di an" - "Ik geev di wat")
- There are only 2 genera for articles, like in Dutch: de
(m,f) und dat (n)
- In the north of the Low Saxon area, the perfect participle is
always without hte prefix ge-, just as in English and the
scandinavian languages. But in the west and south the participle is
formed with the prefix ge- often, as in Dutch and high
- In questions, the auxiliary verb "doon" is used still
in some dialects , like english "to do" Wat deist du
dor schirrwarken? = What does he work with the horses?
- There are some "ingvaeonisms", special features of the
language at the coast (Platt, Frisian, English, Dutch), for exemple:
- fief (platt)=five(engl.)=fiif(fries.)=vijf(holl.) instead of "fünf"
- he(platt)=he(engl.)=he(fries.)=hij(holl.) as 3. person
singularis instead of "er"
- is(platt)=is(engl.)=is(fries.)=is(holl.) without "t"
or "sch" as in high german "ist" or
- the auxiliary verb sallen/schallen (platt) - shall (engl.) -
zullen (ned.) contra werden (high german) for the future tense
- Some good links are
der germanischen Sprachfamilie and
- The syntax is more like the high german, for example
Subject-Object-Predicate is possible for Subject-Predicate-Object.
On the other hand there are partly fluent transitions in the west and
south to the middle German dialects and Dutch, concerning grammar and
vocabulary. Some transitional effects are in the north to Danish and
But one is prooven. Though many by number, the Low Saxon dialects are so
similar, that people fo Mecklenburg, Holstein, East Frisia and Groningen -
a distance of far more than 500 km - can easily speak their dialect and
understand each other. But that experiment would not work with a Low Saxon
speaker and speakers of Switzeland, Bavaria or Baden. The upper german
people would hardly understand any sentence. Even a Low Saxon and a Dutch
speaker speaking their own language would understand each other more
easily. That is a practical proof of the thesis of Low Saxon as a language
for its own.
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