User talk:Korn/sandkist

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Low German/Saxon is the modern incarnation of the West Germanic lects descending from Old Saxon. It forms dialect continuum spoken in northern Germany, the eastern Netherlands, southern Denmark and in enclaves in several Slavic and American countries. Its earlier form is called Middle Low German.

Timescale

It is imperative to remember that 'Modern Low German' does not equal 'present day Low German'. When entering something which does not apply to all of the following stages, please label it accordingly.

• Low German linguistics considers modern Low German to supersede Middle Low German in the 17th century, roughly coinciding with the end of the 30 Years War.
• The 18th century were the second Dark Ages for the language, with Low German writing being largely replaced by High German.
• The 19th century has a re-emergence of the language as a medium for fictional literature, meeting international success. For the educated and urban population, Low German becomes either second language to a High German first language or an equal native language along High German. This causes a divergence between conservative dialects and emerging German-influenced regiolects.
• The current day period begins in the 1960s, during which Low German speakers largely raised their children as native German speakers, passing Low German on as a second language at best and often not at all. As a result of both this and migrations during the war, regiolects replace dialects more greatly. Furthermore, many Low German speakers in Germany and the Netherlands begin a rapidly proceeding process of creoloidisation, i.e. begin to speak creoloids of the new regiolects and their respective national language.

Terminology and names

• During Middle Low German times, the language was known as either 'German' or 'Saxon' to it native speakers and, together with Dutch, as 'Low Landic' (cf. Netherlands) or 'Low German' when contrasted with Central and Upper German.
  
• When High German spread as a language of education into Low German lands, the term 'Low German' began to displace 'Saxon' amongst native speakers too.
• 'Low Saxon' remained more common, especially in the Netherlands; however, its usage is advised against on Wiktionary, for reasons of clarity. Lower Saxony is the name of a state in Germany, and as such, the term 'Low Saxon' can refer to dialects from this state exclusively, especially its coastal area.
  
• Creoloids in the Netherlands and dialects utilising Dutch spelling conventions are also known as 'Dutch Low Saxon'. Please be aware that despite the name, many of these dialects are actually Westphalian and not part of the coastal continuum normally known as Low Saxon.
• The variety spoken by Mennonites who emigrated from East Prussia is known as 'Plautdietsch' or 'Mennonite Low German'. It is treated as a separate language.

Relationships to other languages

Low German/Saxon forms a dialectal continuum with Dutch and German dialects, and was in the Middle Ages part of a cluster with the Frisian and English dialects. In some cases, Low German expressions are still intelligible to English speakers, especially when from northern England. He was en old Mann is one example Low German of sentences English-speakers can understand.

Dialectal variations

One of the common pitfalls when dealing with modern Low German is to forget the considerable dialectal variation. Media produced by Germans especially tends to revolve around the simplified regiolect of the eastern North Sea coast, which is the focus of Sass dictionary and national German TV, whose greatest production stations are located in that area. This dialect is not considered to be a standard by those who do not share it, however. It is perceived as simply another foreign dialect. It is also not linguistically representative of the language as a whole. As such, please make sure to enter a representative number of pronunciations for each spelling. Especially make sure to mark the geographical areas for each pronunciation, to prevent creating a false impression of universality.

Most differences between the dialects are covered by the spellings, but some letters represent something different in the various dialects. Please, if you can, add pronunciation sections for entries with ambiguous spellings. The following list does only mention variations which are not already inherent in using a Dutch or German orthographic convention.

Variation in consonants

• ⟨g⟩, word initially, can represent /χ~x~ç/ in Slesvig and Westphalian dialects and /ɣ~ʝ/ elsewhere. An allophone /g/ has entered the language in Germany sometime in the 19th century and was considered by grammarians of the time to be introduced by native speakers of High German. It is used in some regiolects and creoloids in place of /ɣ/.
• ⟨sch⟩ can represent /sχ~sx~sç/ in Westphalia and conservative parts of Lower Saxony, and /ʃ/ anywhere in Germany. In pre-current times, it is also used to represent /sk/ everywhere.
• ⟨p, t, k⟩ word-initially represent aspirated stops in coastal dialects and unaspirated stops in southern ones. More notably, they can represent voiced stops intervocally, again in coastal dialects. Furthermore, ⟨t⟩ can represent /ɾ/ intervocally.
• ⟨d⟩ can represent /d/, /ð/ and /ɾ/ intervocally.
• ⟨v⟩ can represent any of the spectrum /v~f/.
• ⟨w⟩ can represent any of the spectrum /w~v/.
• Gemination of consonants is distributed differently throughout dialects and periods. Some have lost it completely, some retain it for nasals and liquids, some retain it completely.

Variation in vowels

• Every vowel can appear in four lengths: /V, Ṽˑ, Vː/ and /Vːˑ/ in open syllables before voiced consonants.
• ⟨ö⟩ can represent any vowel of the spectrum /œ~ʏ/ in any length and any diphtongal combination thereof.
• ⟨e⟩ can represent any vowel of the spectrum /æ~ə~ɪ/ in any length and any diphtongal combination thereof.
• ⟨a⟩ can represent any vowel of the spectrum /a~æ/ in any length and any vowel of the spectrum /ɒ~oː, ʌ/ and any diphtongal combination (within the respective spectrum) thereof.
• ⟨eu⟩ and ⟨äu⟩ can represent any vowel of the spectrum /œ~ʏ/, in any length and any diphtongal combination thereof. It can also represent any diphthong composed of /ɒː~oː/ as a first part and /e~i/ or /ø~y/ as a second part. Thirdly, any diphthong composed of /ɛ~ə/ as a first and /o~u/ as a second part.
• ⟨u⟩ can also represent /ø~y/, when used in diphthongs in Germany. E.g. Ravensberg ⟨ui⟩ can be both /ʊi/ and /ʏi/.
• ⟨r⟩ can represent either a consonant [r] or a vowel /æ~ə/ when acting as syllable coda or nucleus.