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Language Lineage

Low German

Old Saxon stayed outside the High German shift but shared some North Sea changes (ūs 'us', fīf 'five'), and generalised one verb ending across the plural (wi, ji, se maakt 'we, you, they make').

c. 8th century CE (Old Saxon) – presentThe North German Plain and the north-eastern Netherlands; Mennonite communities from Russia to the Americas
On this page
  1. Origins
  2. The Language of the Hanse
  3. Today
  4. In its own words
  5. Where it's spoken
  6. Turning points

01

Origins

Low German continues Old Saxon, the language of the Saxons between the Rhine and the Elbe. The Saxons were conquered and forcibly Christianised by Charlemagne in wars lasting from 772 to 804, and their earliest literature is Christian as a result. The Heliand ('Saviour'), a gospel harmony of about 6,000 alliterative lines from the 830s, retells the life of Christ in the style of Germanic heroic verse, with Christ as a lord and his disciples as his warrior band.

Old Saxon stands between the continent and the coast. It has some North Sea features that link it to English and Frisian, such as ūs 'us' and fīf 'five', but it shares much else with the Franconian dialects to the south. Whether that makes it part of a North Sea subgroup is disputed.

02

The Language of the Hanse

In the later Middle Ages, Middle Low German was one of the great commercial languages of Europe. The Hanseatic League, led by Lübeck, ran trade from London and Bruges to Bergen, Stockholm and Novgorod, and wrote its charters, accounts and law in Low German. Scandinavian languages took large numbers of words from it.

The decline came quickly. From the 16th century, High German, carried by the Reformation, printing and the princely chanceries, replaced Low German as the written language of northern Germany. Low German survived as the everyday spoken language, called Plattdeutsch, but lost its written prestige.

03

Today

Low German is still spoken across northern Germany and, as Low Saxon, in the north-eastern Netherlands, though mostly by older speakers and in rural areas. Both states now recognise it as a regional language. Plautdietsch, the Low German of the Mennonites, left the Vistula delta for the Russian Empire in the 18th century and has since been carried to Canada, Mexico, Paraguay and Bolivia, where it is a thriving community language.

A sample

In its own words

Old Saxon (Heliand, line 1)

Manega uuaron, the sia iro mod gespon
Manega
many
uuaron,
were
the
who
sia
them
iro
their
mod
mind
gespon
urged
‘There were many whose minds urged them’
Sources (1)
  • Behaghel, Otto (ed.). 1984. Heliand und Genesis. 9th ed., revised by Burkhard Taeger. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Germanyc. 2 million
  2. Bolivia
  3. Canada
  4. Mexico
  5. Netherlands
  6. Paraguay

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Contact772–804

    Charlemagne's Saxon wars

    Frankish conquest brings the Saxons under Carolingian rule and the Church. Frankish and Latin influence, and the missionary writing that produces the first Old Saxon texts, follow.

    Sources (1)
    • Harbert, Wayne. 2007. The Germanic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. Writingc. 830s

    The Heliand

    An Old Saxon gospel epic in alliterative verse, the largest Old Saxon text. Together with fragments of an Old Saxon Genesis, it provides most of the evidence for the language.

    Sources (1)
    • Harbert, Wayne. 2007. The Germanic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  3. Contact13th – 16th century CE

    Language of the Hanse

    Middle Low German serves as the written and commercial language of the Hanseatic League around the North Sea and the Baltic, and is the source of a large share of the loanwords in Danish and Swedish.

    Sources (1)
    • Sanders, Willy. 1982. Sachsensprache, Hansesprache, Plattdeutsch: Sprachgeschichtliche Grundzüge des Niederdeutschen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
  4. Contact16th – 17th century CE

    High German takes over the writing

    Chanceries, churches and printers in northern Germany switch to High German. Low German stops being a written standard and continues as regional speech.

    Sources (1)
    • Sanders, Willy. 1982. Sachsensprache, Hansesprache, Plattdeutsch: Sprachgeschichtliche Grundzüge des Niederdeutschen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
  5. Revitalization1990s

    Recognised as a regional language

    Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Germany and the Netherlands recognise Low German / Low Saxon as a regional language. This supports teaching, broadcasting and some official use, though the number of speakers continues to fall.

    Sources (1)