Northern Low Saxon


Northern Low Saxon is a subgroup of West Low German 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 Eastphalian and Westphalian are spoken, and Gronings dialect in the Netherlands.

Dialects

Northern Low Saxon can be divided into Holsteinisch, Schleswigsch, East Frisian Low Saxon, Dithmarsisch, North Hanoveranian, Emsländisch, and Oldenburgisch 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.
The Lübeck dialect was a lingua franca for the Hanseatic league in the Middle Ages.
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.
Oldenburg dialect 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 Low Saxony, is the lack of an East Frisian substrate. Ollnborger Platt is spoken in the city of Bremen as Breemsch, which is the only capital where Ollnborger Platt is spoken. Minden in Westphalia, where Ollnborger Platt is traditionally spoken, possibly belongs partially to the area.
Gronings dialect, Netherlands.

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:
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.: