Northern Low Saxon


Northern Low Saxon is a subgroup of Low Saxon dialects of Low German. 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 South Low Saxon is spoken, and Gronings dialect in the Netherlands.

Dialects

Northern Low Saxon can be divided into Holsteinian, Schleswigian, East Frisian Low Saxon, Dithmarsch, North Hanoveranian, Emslandish, and Oldenburgish in Germany, with additional dialects in the Netherlands, such as Gronings.
Holsteinisch is spoken in Holstein, the southern part of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, in Dithmarschen, around Neumünster, Rendsburg, Kiel and Lübeck.
Schleswigsch is spoken in Schleswig, which is divided between Germany and Denmark. It is mainly based on a South Jutlandic substrate. Therefore, it has some notable differences in pronunciation and grammar with its southern neighbour dialects. The dialects on the west coast of Schleswig and some islands show some North Frisian influences.
Oldenburgisch is spoken around the city of Oldenburg. It is limited to Germany. The main difference between it and East Frisian Low Saxon, which is spoken in the Frisian parts of Lower Saxony, is the lack of an East Frisian substrate. Oldenburgisch is spoken in the city of Bremen as "Bremian", which is the only capital where Oldenburgisch is spoken.

Overviews

a)
  • Schleswigsch
  • Holsteinisch
  • Hamburgisch
  • Bremisch-Oldenburgisch
  • Ostfriesisch
  • Emsländisch
b)
  • Ostfriesisch
  • Emsländisch
  • Bremisch-Oldenburgisch
  • Nordhannoversch
  • Niederelbisch
  • Holsteinisch
  • Schleswigsch
c)
  • Dithmarsch
  • Schleswigsch / Schleswigian
  • Holsteinisch / Holsteinian
  • Oldenburgisch
  • Emsländisch
  • Nordhannoversch
Emsländisch and Oldenburgisch are also grouped together as Emsländisch-Oldenburgisch, while Bremen and Hamburg lie in the area of Nordhannoversch.

Characteristics

The most obvious common character in grammar is the forming of the perfect participle. It is formed without a prefix, as in all North Germanic languages, as well as English and Frisian, but unlike standard German, Dutch and some dialects of Westphalian and Eastphalian Low Saxon:
  • gahn : Ik bün gahn , Standard German: gehen; ich bin gegangen/ich ging
  • seilen : He hett seilt , Standard German: segeln; er ist gesegelt/er segelte
  • kopen : Wi harrn köfft , Standard German: kaufen; wir haben gekauft/wir kauften
  • kamen : Ji sünd kamen , Standard German: kommen; ihr seid gekommen/ihr kamt
  • eten : Se hebbt eten , Standard German: essen; sie haben gegessen/sie aßen
The diminutive 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 , du , he , se , dat , wi, ji , se .
  • Interrogatives : wo, woans , wo laat , wokeen , woneem , wokeen sien / wen sien
  • Adverbs : laat , gau , suutje , vigeliensch
  • Prepositions : bi , achter , vör , blangen , twüschen , mang, ''mank''