West Low German
West Low German, also known as Low Saxon is a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark. It is one of two groups of mutually intelligible dialects, the other being East Low German dialects. A 2005 study found that there were approximately 1.8 million "daily speakers" of Low Saxon in the Netherlands.Extent
The language area comprises the North German states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt as well as the northeast of The Netherlands and the Schleswigsch dialect spoken by the North Schleswig Germans in the southernmost part of Denmark.
In the south the Benrath line and Uerdingen line isoglosses form the border with the area, where West Central German variants of High German are spoken.Germany
- West Low German
- *Westphalian, including the region around Münster and the Osnabrück region of Lower Saxony
- *Eastphalian, spoken in southeastern Lower Saxony and in the Magdeburg Börde region
- *Northern Low Saxon
- **Schleswigsch
- **Holsteinisch
- ***Hamburgisch
- **Ollnborger Platt in the Oldenburg region
- **East Frisian Low Saxon in East Frisia
- **North Hanoveranian
- **Dithmarsch
- **Emsländisch
Netherlands
While Dutch is a Low Franconian language, the Dutch Low Saxon varieties, which the Dutch government considers to be Dutch dialects, form a dialect continuum with the Westphalian language. They consist of:
