Low German

Low German is a <a href="/facts/West_Germanic_languages/PbeIH9Jz">West Germanic</a> <a href="/facts/Language_variety/QyllMQha">language</a> spoken mainly in <a href="/facts/Northern_Germany/mbX2ywdY">Northern Germany</a> and the northeastern <a href="/facts/Netherlands/y8xn5stT">Netherlands</a>. The dialect of <a href="/facts/Plautdietsch/oWUf0hIT">Plautdietsch</a> is also spoken in the <a href="/facts/Russian_Mennonite/5tjTLFqY">Russian Mennonite</a> diaspora worldwide. "Low" refers to the altitude of the areas where it is typically spoken.
Low German is most closely related to <a href="/facts/Frisian_languages/vEAn7PrD">Frisian</a> and <a href="/facts/English_language/tpkxGt7b">English</a>, with which it forms the <a href="/facts/North_Sea_Germanic/KFgblw9K">North Sea Germanic</a> group of the West Germanic languages. Like <a href="/facts/Dutch_language/yIB5lbsx">Dutch</a>, it has historically been spoken north of the <a href="/facts/Benrath_line/a9Q6yV8E">Benrath</a> and <a href="/facts/Uerdingen_line/FU4yaDSH">Uerdingen</a> <a href="/facts/Isogloss/5BA2RsAr">isoglosses</a>, while forms of <a href="/facts/High_German_languages/DhyaoTdm">High German</a> have historically been spoken south of those lines. Like Frisian, English, Dutch and the <a href="/facts/North_Germanic_languages/zocYfWp8">North Germanic languages</a>, Low German has not undergone the <a href="/facts/High_German_consonant_shift/B4LuIgoe">High German consonant shift</a>, as opposed to <a href="/facts/Standard_German/9qsa3C2S">Standard High German</a>, which is based on <a href="/facts/High_German_languages/DhyaoTdm">High German dialects</a>. Low German evolved from <a href="/facts/Old_Saxon/9DDedJAM">Old Saxon (Old Low German)</a>, which is most closely related to <a href="/facts/Old_Frisian/nSCvktGf">Old Frisian</a> and <a href="/facts/Old_English/9rsmQG2a">Old English (Anglo-Saxon)</a>.
The Low German dialects spoken in the Netherlands are mostly referred to as Low Saxon, those spoken in northwestern Germany (<a href="/facts/Lower_Saxony/fWt73Hu4">Lower Saxony</a>, <a href="/facts/Westphalia/tHtm9cTt">Westphalia</a>, <a href="/facts/Schleswig-Holstein/FIFpSySG">Schleswig-Holstein</a>, <a href="/facts/Hamburg/kmAAsYtT">Hamburg</a>, <a href="/facts/Bremen_(state)/rcaNPaQU">Bremen</a>, and <a href="/facts/Saxony-Anhalt/XWDDbRvA">Saxony-Anhalt</a> west of the <a href="/facts/Elbe/nCfafNDq">Elbe</a>) as either Low German or Low Saxon, and those spoken in northeastern Germany (<a href="/facts/Mecklenburg-Western_Pomerania/9eYnXcY4">Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania</a>, <a href="/facts/Brandenburg/H5dok80K">Brandenburg</a>, and Saxony-Anhalt east of the Elbe) mostly as Low German, not being part of Low Saxon. This is because northwestern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands were the area of settlement of the <a href="/facts/Saxons/mqm06m4r">Saxons</a> (<a href="/facts/Old_Saxony/fe3E6DNB">Old Saxony</a>), while Low German spread to northeastern Germany through <a href="/facts/Ostsiedlung/FqFSCa46">eastward migration</a> of Low German speakers into areas with an originally <a href="/facts/Slavic_languages/b5GaeFx1">Slavic-speaking</a> population. This area is known as <a href="/facts/Germania_Slavica/T7hjIK35">Germania Slavica</a>, where the former Slavic influence is still visible in the names of settlements and physiogeographical features.
It has been estimated that Low German has approximately 2–5 million speakers in Germany, primarily Northern Germany (ranging from well to very well), and 2.15 million in the Netherlands (ranging from reasonable to very well).: 88

Low German open-in-new

Low German