Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:More citations needed Template:Use Oxford spelling Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other

Low Saxon (Template:Langx), also known as West Low German (Template:Langx<ref>Peter Wiesinger, Die Einteilung der deutschen Dialekte, in: Werner Besch, Ulrich Knoop, Wolfgang Putschke, Herbert Ernst Wiegand (eds.), Dialektologie. Ein Handbuch zur deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung. Zweiter Halbband (series: Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (HSK), 1.2), 1983, p. 828</ref>) are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of the German-speaking minority). It is one of two dialect groups, the other being East Low German.

ExtentEdit

The language area comprises the North German states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia (the Westphalian part), Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt (the northwestern areas around Magdeburg) as well as the northeast of the Netherlands (i.e. Dutch Low Saxon, spoken in Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel, northern Gelderland and Urk) and the Schleswigsch dialect spoken by the North Schleswig Germans in the southernmost part of Denmark.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.

List of dialectsEdit

GermanyEdit

File:Koart Leegsaksisch.png
Low Saxon language area in the Netherlands

NetherlandsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} While Dutch is a Low Franconian language, the Dutch Low Saxon varieties form a dialect continuum with Westphalian. They consist of:

DenmarkEdit

PolandEdit

Situation in the NetherlandsEdit

A 2005 study found that there were approximately 1.8 million "daily speakers" of Low Saxon in the Netherlands. 53% spoke Low Saxon or Low Saxon and Dutch at home and 71% could speak it.<ref name="blo05" />Template:Page needed According to another study the percentage of speakers among parents dropped from 34% in 1995 to 15% in 2011. The percentage of speakers among their children dropped from 8% to 2% in the same period.<ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

Template:Germanic languages

Template:Authority control