Language
Northern Germany generally refers to the Sprachraum area north of the Uerdingen and Benrath line isoglosses, where Low German dialects are spoken. These comprise the Low Saxon dialects in the west (including the Westphalian language area up to the Rhineland) as well as the East Low German region along the Baltic coast with Western Pomerania, the Altmark and northern Brandenburg.
Although from the 19th century onwards the use of Standard German was strongly promoted especially by the Prussian administration, Low German languages are still present in rural areas, with an estimated number of five to eight million active speakers. However, since World War II and the immigration of expellees from the former eastern territories of Germany, its prevalence has steadily reduced. Besides which, Frisian is spoken in East and North Frisia, as well as Danish (South Jutlandic) in parts of Schleswig. From a linguistic and cultural perspective, Northern Germany is linked to Scandinavia and Great Britain.
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Famous quotes containing the word language:
“This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.
Look at it talking to you.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)
“Though language forms the preacher,
‘Tis “good works” make the man.”
—Eliza Cook (1818–1889)