Southern Low German (südliches Niederdeutsch) is a variety of Low German in Germany.^[1] Its varieties in Germany are divided into Westphalian and Eastphalian.^[1] It borders to Low Franconian, High German and Northern Low German. The Low German varieties of Germany excluding Eastphalian and Westphalian are Northern Low German.^[1]

In Germany, it is spoken in parts of the Ruhr area inter alia. It is spoken in several states of Germany. Eastphalian had two language islands within its area.^[2] The approximate border of Westphalian entirely is within respectively coincides with the border of Westphalia-Lippe.^[1]

There is an ISO 639-3 code for both Low German (nds) and Westphalian (wep), although Westphalian belongs to Low German.

Division of Low German into regional classifications

Northern vs. Southern Low German is a concept to refute West vs. East Low German. The division into a western and an eastern part of Low German has historical reasons (homeland of the Saxons vs. colonyland of the Saxons) as well as linguistic reasons (unit plural of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person plural present in -et or -en).^[3]

The definition of Northern Low German is defined at its simplest by a kind of "exclusion definition", such as "Northern Low German is all Low German dialects without the specific characteristics of Southern Low German (= Eastphalian and Westphalian)". Otherwise it is quite difficult to find common features for Northern Low German, at most the common quite advanced level of sound development.

South Westphalian is spoken in South Westphalia, including the Hellweg region in South Westphalia, in the Dortmund and Bochum area and West thereof. South Westphalian also is spoken in the Ruhr area. A large part of the Ruhr area is within the area of South Westphalian. The Rhineland borders to Westphalia - the former border between the Rhineland and Westphalia being Deilbach river in Langenberg (Rhineland).

Many regional languages consist of dialects. Some groups of dialects have been afforded the status of "regional language"; others have not been so lucky. But acquiring the status of "regional language" is a political process, and does not always result in the groupings that make the most linguistic sense. There is an unavoidable amount of arbitrariness and subjectivity in defining dialect boundaries and groupings. Achterhooks, Dreents, East Frisian Low Saxon, Gronings, Sallaans, Stellingwarfs, Tweants and Veluws merely are part of Low Saxon, but they all have their own code. This is a division according to dialects of "Dachsprachen". This is common concerning other varieties as well.

The regional language variants, especially the colloquial language of the Dutch cities, naturally already had an effect on the written everyday and media language (some phrases, idioms, abbreviations, dialect terms, slang). The casual slang spoken in the Netherlands is much more "slang" than in Germany.

History of Low German

Deilbach approximately used to be the border between the tribal duchies of Lower Lotharingia and Saxony (including the former, nowadays merged town of Steele, Essen). It possibly was the settlement border between Franks and Saxons. As a borderland to Westphalia - the historical border between the traditional Rhineland and Westphalia lies in Langenberg - there were numerous Westphalian influences. Low German is much more closely related to Dutch than to High German, despite the Benrath line north of which the sound shift (mainly) was not carried out. The Old Saxon dialects form the historical basis of today's Low German dialects. The majority of the Low German dialect area belonged to Prussia long before 1871. In the Kingdom of Hanover before annexation by Prussia, Low German was not the official language. The situation may have been more like the situation of the German language dialects today in Switzerland. After all, the way in which Standard German was pronounced by people from the Southern Low German dialect area partly standardized the standard German accent, before Bismarck. From the 17th century High German was written in Northern Germany (change of the writing language). By 1700 at the latest, all public offices without exception were using High German, which can be attributed to the decline of the Hanseatic League and other circumstances. Low German, on the other hand, continued to be used as the spoken language. Therefore, the official language was High German. The decline in Low German as a spoken language again came from the cities, not only educated middle classes.

In terms of linguistic history, the Bergish dialects in the Rhineland developed from the Middle Dutch language of the 13th century. The Bergish Hanseatic cities belonged to the same quarter of the Hanseatic League as the Netherlands. The Low Franconian (more exactly Hollandic) from the western Netherlands, just became the official language. Concerning Low Franconian, the transitions between Low Franconian and Middle Franconian are more fluid than between Low German and Middle German.

In the Southern Low German dialect area its Low German features increase to the north (in every village and in every town the language used to be different). There are transitional areas between various dialect areas.

The Westphalian line forms a clear bundle of isoglosses. Occasionally an isogloss or two will veer and bypass some locations, but the main bundle forms a clear line. While the people in the centre of Langenberg say, "wi kallen ohn Ongerschied", a few kilometers further in Niederbonsfeld they say "wi küert ohn Unnerscheid". These are only three words, but they contain five typical differences: "o" instead of "u" in "onger"/"unner" is very typical for the entire Lower Rhine, while it hardly ever occurs in Westphalia. Then there is "ng" instead of "nn" and a different vowel development in "schied" and "scheid". With "kallen" vs. "küert" there are two very clear differences. First the verb "kallen", which is typically Lower Rhine, versus the verb "küern", which is typically Westphalian.

Essen-Werden is within the area of Bergish, not on its border, but its border used to be the state border of the abbey principality of Werden monastery. Essen partly belongs to Westphalian, Werden to Bergish. So-called East Bergish is spoken in the South East and other parts of Essen (Essen-Überuhr, Werden, Schuir, Haarzopf, Bredeney, Fischlaken, Heidhausen, Kettwig excluding Kettwig vor der Brücke, Hinsbeck, Rodberg, Vossnacken, parts of Byfang and parts of Dilldorf).^[4] Heisingen speaks Bergish as well.^[5] Here the Eastern border of Bergish coincides with the border of Rhenish accentuation like everywhere, the only exception being the area around Hückeswagen and Lennep, including the centre of Lüttringhausen.^[4]

Border to Central or Middle German

The (West Central German) dialect of the Siegerland is called "Platt" coincidentally, but (despite its sharp demarcation from the Southern Low German Sauerland Platt) is spoken far into the Central German language area, showing features of Low German and Upper/High German. Its vocabulary and grammar mostly are Central German. It is called Middle German precisely because it has gone through the sound shift to different parts, i.e. less "shifted" Low German and more "shifted" High German shares. In Siegerland, for example, they say "Botze" instead of "pants" (cf.: Northern German: "Büx"), "häh" instead of "er" (cf.: English/Low German/Dutch: "he"), "Knippchen " instead of "knife" (cf.: Low German: "Knipp/ken", Fries.: "Knif" and English: "knife" as well as "Huése" instead of High German: "Stockings" (cf.: English: "hoses"). "Sevenzich" (English 70 = "seventy") is another one of countless examples. Siegerländer Platt (in which there is also the "substantialization of female first names, this peculiarity can also be found in neighboring Central Hessian: "das/dat Anneliese"), like Thuringian or Frankfurter South Hessian, is not part of the Low German language, in contrast to Hamburger or Rostocker Platt, only being called Platt. The Wittgensteiner Platt is already Central Hessian, but not Central Franconian, and is spoken in a small area in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the extreme South of North Rhine-Westphalia. Finally, in Rhenish Franconian, the third unvoiced stop /t/ was shifted between vowels and in the final to /s/. Rhenish Franconian dialects are distinguished from Moselle-Franconian dialects by the Bad Goar line (also called the Hunsrück barrier or dat/das line).

Low German language border

The Low German language border is not just a single isogloss sound shift, but a thick set of isoglosses that not only includes consonantism, but also vowelism, morphology and vocabulary. The Low German language border is without a doubt, even if one were to exclude the differences resulting from the sound shift, the most important and sharpest language border within continental West Germanic (excluding the Frisian languages). But, "gradual transition, dialect continuum, no sharp language boundary" are not really the terms that describe this language boundary well.

An example is a sentence from the Wenker questionnaire (after Georg Wenker):

• English: How many pounds of sausage and how much bread do you want?
• Standard High German: Wieviel Pfund Wurst und wieviel Brot wollt ihr haben?
• in the North Thuringian dialect of Bad Sachsa, just south of the language border: Wie vēle Fund Worscht un wie vēle Brōt wull di hā?
• in the Low German of Barbis, a few kilometers further north-west: Wo veele Pund Wost un wo veele Brohd will ji hemmen?

It is easy to see that several words in this short sentence differ significantly in the stem of the word.

In Northern Thuringia, the border is fairly clear and has not been moved for a long time. The transition to Low German is fluid in some places, e.g. in the Rhineland. In Saxony-Anhalt, the language border has moved north over the centuries. The language border used to be between Halle and Leipzig, formerly both Low German speaking. As a result, there is a wide foreland in which there is a Low German substrate. But in the core areas, this foreland is also Central German through and through. In the case of words in which Low German and High German have clearly different stems, such as "hebben" and "seggen" for "haben" ("to have") and "sagen" ("to say"), the isogloss for the umlauted forms at least mostly follows the Benrath line. What has a blurring effect in Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg is the fact that there has been a massive loss of Low German language since Wenker's time. In Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg there are still communities of people who speak Low German, i.e. more than individuals who can still remember without actively speaking the language today, is not a whole lot. But at least in Wenker's time, the border was often not fluid or blurred.

There is the Low German unit plural, which is one of the most important characteristics of Low German. High German does not have unit plural, with the exception of Alemannic. Alemannic developed its unit plural independently of Low German and only in the 17th century, while the Low German unit plural is probably at least 1,500 years old.

If you superimpose these isoglosses, such as unit plural, kallen vs. küern, onger vs. unner or even was vs. wor and ik versto vs. ik verstonn, then a fairly clearly defined line emerges. It possibly makes sense to end at the German-Dutch border, because the state border here is also a border of the Dachsprachen.

List of dialects

^[1]

• Eastphalian
• Westphalian, in a strict sense: In Lameli's classification this covers roughly the area of South and East Westphalian. Westmünderländisch and Münsterländisch – which are commonly classified as part of Westphalian – are classified by him as part of Westniederdeutsch.

Status

Today, most people in the area of Southern Low German do not speak this variety. It's simply no longer spoken there in everyday life, at most on local folkloric evenings by elderly people, who read dialect poetry from sight or recite it by heart, but not as a living everyday language. In general, a strong retreat of all dialects can be observed everywhere due to the influence of Standard High German media and the mobility of numerous people (and thus the mixing of the individual variants). There are or used to be items in Southern Low German in daily newspapers. If Low German is used at all, it frequently is Northern Low German. In television in Germany, various varieties of Northern Low German are used.

Regiolects on Southern Low German substrate

Native speakers rolled tongue R (as in Spanish), unlike the High German throat R. The pronunciation of the word "speak" (s-prrrechen/ s-prechen/ schprechen) also revealed a few things. The change in sound from [aɪ̯] to [aː] is characteristic of Eastphalian (especially in comparison to other Low German dialects), especially in the central and southern part of the Eastphalian dialect area. This development has not been completed to this day, includes more and more words and also spreads to the local High German colloquial language, mockingly emphasized with sayings like "mit baad'n Baan'n in den Hildeshaama Wassa-aama" "with both feet in the Hildesheim water bucket" (Eastphalian: mē bā'n Bān'n in'n Hilmssă Wåtă-ammă). There used to be inter alia the following pronunciations in the regiolect of the city of Hanover: pronunciation of High German [aː] as /äö/ ("Konraad, sprich ein klaares Aa! – Jäö, Vadda, jäö!" for Standard German "Konrad, sprich ein klares A! – Ja, Vater, ja!", meaning "Konraad, speak a clear [aː] – Yes, daddy, yes!"), [s] as [ʃ] ("s-tolpan üba’n s-pitz'n S-taan" for Standard German "über spitzen Stein stolpern" meaning "stumble over the pointed stone") and the pronunciation of /r/ before voiceless plosives as [x] ("is doch gochkaan Themäö" instead of Standard German "ist doch gar kein Thema" for "is not an issue at all"). Nowadays in Hanover Region still "s-tolpern über'n s-pitzen S-tein" is said. The ö-heavyness of the colloquial language is characterized in the municipality of Uetze (between Wolfsburg and Hanover) with the sentence: "Sonntachs um ölf (or: "ölwe") nach der Körche, wenn der Hörsch röhrt!" for Standard German "Sonntags um elf nach der Kirche, wenn der Hirsch röhrt!" meaning "Sundays at eleven after church, when the stag roars!"

Missingsch (still) ekes out at most a niche existence in everyday conversation in Hanover. In such surveys, people regularly describe themselves as dialect speakers who at best speak the dialect superficially. Secondly, there are numerous areas in Germany where respondents are not sure what is meant by "dialect". This ambiguity is also often found in newspaper articles and even in statements by linguists.

Dutch Low Saxon

This classification is based on a comprehensive basis by the German Language Atlas (Deutscher Sprachatlas) regarding Germany. A similar division was made by Bremer and Wrede in the 19th century. Between German and Dutch, because at least in the case of written texts, a certain degree of mutual intelligibility is retained. Here, too, an isogloss is usually used as a language boundary, which limits the spread of the Low Saxon unitary plural to -(e)t. However, the influence of the two standard languages on the dialects meant that the state border developed into a dialect border in the 20th century.

Dutch Low Saxon arbitrarily lumps together dialects often seen as Westphalian and dialects often seen as Northern Low Saxon varieties (the latter with Frisian influences) just because they are spoken within the borders of the Netherlands and have been influenced by Standard Dutch (or non-standard Hollandic varieties) over time - as if the neighboring Low Saxon varieties in Germany were not influenced or completely replaced by Standard German either. It is unclear whether Gronings (genuine Gronings, not Gronings Tussentaal, or Gronings Nederlands if you want) is closer to dialects possibly being part of Westniederdeutsch in the Netherlands or to East Frisian Low Saxon despite all the Standard Dutch influences on the former.

Dutch Low Saxon is not the main linguistic classification of the Low Saxon dialects in the Netherlands. It possibly is not a dialect classification but just a term to include all variants of Low Saxon in the Netherlands. The Dutch in Dutch Low Saxon does not classify the Low Saxon variants as part of Dutch, but indicates that these variants are spoken in the Netherlands, and therefore the geographical reference Dutch. "Dialects in the Netherlands" are not the same as "Dutch dialects". These are not always dialects of the Dutch language, but they are mainly characterized by their similarity and are spoken in most cases on Dutch territory. The similarity arose mainly through language contact and the "Dutch-Low German-German" dialect continuum of the West Germanic languages. The West Frisian language, spoken in the Netherlands, is fully separate from Dutch. Low Saxon dialects are spoken in north-eastern parts of the Netherlands as well as in western northern Germany, but they make part of Low German and are therefore also considered as a separate language.

The West Veluwe is characterized by the absence of numerous Dutch markers and has some distinct Low Saxon characteristics. Low Franconian has forms that coincide with the infinitive ("hij kijkt" or "he kiekt"). This isogloss also runs roughly along the IJssel. If Veluws (which has -en plural) historically had unit plural, that would be a Low Saxon feature. However, West-Veluws (which has the -en plural and shows agreement between the 3rd person and the infinitive) is also often counted as Low Saxon. This then happens because of an isogloss bundle that includes, among other things, the kiekt/kijkt isoglosse. This bundle of isoglosses, terminating in the Eem estuary, is undoubtedly a very important boundary. Western dialects classify as Dutch without much doubt. To the east, the Hollandisms are greatly reduced. However, the Saxonisms only become so clear with the IJssel line that one can classify the dialects as Low Saxon with some certainty. Linguistically, the West Veluwe is somewhat questioned. West-Veluws has historically unitary plural. The 2nd person singular is "jie maken" (you make), where the Dutch equivalent is "jij maakt".

Since this form represents the original 2nd person plural, Veluws had "wi maken", "ji maken", "ze maken". In other words, the Low Saxon unit plural, in the form that typically occurs in colonized areas in -en, which can also be found where Saxons overlaid the language of Slavs, Jutes or Frisians. (Whether the -en plural in parts of Hesse is based on Saxon superimposition on Franks previously resident there or on more recent innovation, is unclear.)

Here, too, an isogloss is usually used as a language boundary, which limits the spread of the Low Saxon unitary plural to -(e)t. It is one of several possibilities to draw a border between Low Saxon and Low Franconian. More relevant than the concrete form (-(e)t or -en) is the question of whether there is a unit plural at all. Historically, Dutch has no unit plural. Today's unit plural was only introduced by recent innovations. If Veluwian (which has -en plural) historically had unit plural, that would be a Low Saxon hallmark. However, the current forms do not allow any statement about this due to the innovation. Another important isogloss is that of the irregular 3rd person present singular. While Low Saxon has irregular forms (such as he kickt with a short i), Low Franconian has forms that coincide with the infinitive (hij kijkt or he kiekt). This isogloss also runs roughly along the IJssel. However, West-Veluwian (which has the -en plural and shows agreement between the 3rd person and the infinitive) is also often counted as Low Saxon. This then happens because of an isogloss bundle that includes, among other things, the kiekt/kijkt isoglosses. This bundle of isoglosses, terminating in the Eem estuary, is undoubtedly a very important boundary. Western dialects can be classified without much doubt as Central Dutch. To the east, the Hollandisms are greatly reduced. However, the Saxonisms only become so clear with the IJssel line that one can classify the dialects as Low Saxon. West-Veluws has historically unitary plural. The 2nd person singular is jie maken (where Dutch has jij maakt). Since this form represents the original 2nd person plural, the Veluws had wi maken, ji maken, ze maken. In other words, the Low Saxon unit plural, in the form that typically occurs in colonized areas in -en, which can also be found where Saxons overlaid the language of Slavs, Jutes or Frisians. Since this form represents the original 2nd person plural, the Veluws had wi maken, ji maken, ze maken. In other words, the Low Saxon unit plural, in the form that typically occurs in colonized areas in -en, which can also be found where Saxons overlaid the language of Slavs, Jutes or Frisians. Whether the -en plural in parts of Low German Hesse is based on Saxon superimposition of Franks previously resident there or on more recent innovation, is unclear.

The sharp division between Dutch and Low German is not an "achievement" of the 20th century. Before the (High) German language spread all over the north, a linguistic gap developed far beyond the dialect boundaries. Because the Low German written language was no longer used anywhere and real Low German is spoken less and less, a language border was created in addition to the state border. In fact, the eastern boundary of Low Saxon in the Netherlands was also less arbitrary than the southern one. The swampy, sparsely populated areas, such as the Hondsrug in Drente, had always served as a natural border. The political development in the Middle Ages had also meant that the eastern landscapes were oriented more to the west than to the German hinterland. During the existence of the republic this process has continued with particular force. Just under the preponderance of the county of Holland the eastern regions were quickly and vigorously integrated. They were more closely linked to the West in terms of transport and were often economically dependent on goods that were imported via Hollandic ports. Culturally they were under a permanent Hollandic influence, which pushed back the Low Saxon dialects in favor of the Dutch language and steadily gained ground through the widespread Reformed church organization. The Hollandic influence even extended far beyond the German borders. Above all in East Friesland, in the County of Bentheim and in the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, Dutch became the written language and lingua franca of the Reformed Church and the upper class, only to then slowly but surely lose ground again in the 18th century. There was little or no political or cultural counter-pressure from the German states. Holland was an independent language center and was in no way influenced by Low German (inexactly= North German) languages or dialects.

Written and office languages developed from the heterogenuous West Germanic dialects. The modern German language arose from the High (Central and Upper German) dialects, but not the modern Dutch language from Low German. Linguistically, it is very doubtful that Dutch emerged from the written language of Middle Low German. Modern Dutch developed from Middle Dutch, which was related to Middle Low German. The names of the languages in some cases are irrelevant, there were definitely differences back then, e.g. B. oude - olde, en - un(de). These differences can be found in the sea books (nautical aids in northern Europe) of the time, and Dutch books were even translated into Low German. Most dialects West of the IJssel are not included in Low German (inexactly translated as "Nedersaksisch"). But today this uniform plural line has been weakened to such an extent that most dialects west of the IJssel are not attributed to Low Saxon ("Nedersaksisch"). However it does refer to the areas of East and West Veluws, which are now considered part of Low Saxon and not of Low Franconian. These lie west of the unit plural line. "Frankish" of Merovingian Franconia had at times even reached Friesland. The fact that East Frisian also adopted many Dutch-Low Franconian expressions is due to the fact that Dutch ("Nederduitsch") in the Netherlands functioned as a written variant of the spoken dialects for a long time and had an effect on them. Due to its border location, the area was strongly geared towards the Netherlands, East Frisians studied in Holland's cities and Dutch doctors, priests and teachers settled in the area. At that time no dividing line was drawn between the Low German of the Netherlands and the language variants of Germany.

The Low Saxon dialects, which are not far geogragraphically from the Low Franconian dialects, also gave way to the written language early on. The essential distinguishing criterion of the two "dialect landscapes" was the quite different pronunciation (in Low Franconian: l-stretching, g/ch-resolution, vowel ending). But it hardly contributed to the emergence of the modern standard language. Modern Dutch has evolved from the elevated city language of Holland, with important influences from Brabant. The largest share comes from Hollandic and Brabantian. The north-eastern (Low Saxon) dialects and the West Frisian language made a smaller contribution. ui/uy is the Low Franconian, diphthongized pronunciation form (somewhere between "äui" and "öi"), y (=ü) the Low Saxon. Because Low Saxon consistently uses monophtongs, e.g.: huus, tied instead of huis and tijd a language boundary is marked, not only a phonetic deviation between dialects. The diphthongization is peculiar to certain Brabantian and Hollandic dialects and the modern standard language. The diphthongization is thus a sign that these dialects have had a decisive influence on the modern standard Dutch language. So huis (with the Brabantic-Hollandic öj, [œɪ]) instead of Middle Dutch huus (with ü, [yː]). Parallel to this "tijd" (with the Brabantic-Hollandic äj, [ɛɪ]) instead of "tied". Especially the (mostly Low Franconian, in particular) dialects of the Netherlands were so strongly influenced by the written language over the centuries that there is a decreasing gap between the written language and the local dialects ("streektalen"), also including marginal dialects like Limburgish, which has been designated as an independent language - but here, too, the pull of the written language is significant.

It is already clear that mutual intelligibility does not have to be guaranteed in all cases, but that does not apply to all German dialects anyway, be they north or south of Benrath line, because mutual intelligibility not only applies between neighboring dialects, and incidentally also across Benrath line. Low German is the last relic of the language of civilisation of earlier times. The fact is that the Low and Central German dialects in Germany and the Netherlands cannot be pinned down to any political border, but used to merge seamlessly.

Places (partly historic)

Each place in the area of Southern Low German used to have an overall majority of one of the three Christian denominations of Continental Reformed Protestantism, Protestant Lutheranism or Roman Catholic Church. Essen, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Hamm, Hagen and Langewiese were among the Southern Low German speaking places with changing or heterogenuous religious allegiance.

References