Low German or Low Saxon (Plattdüütsch, Nedderdüütsch; Standard German: Plattdeutsch or Niederdeutsch; Dutch: Nedersaksisch in the wider sense. See Nomenclature below.) is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is descended from Old Saxon in its earliest form.
The historical Sprachraum of Low German also included contemporary northern Poland, the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, and a part of southern Lithuania. German speakers in this area were forcibly expelled after the post-World War II boundary changes. The former German communities in the Baltic states also spoke Low German. Moreover, Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League, and it had a significant influence on the Scandinavian languages.
Read more about Low German: Nomenclature, Disambiguation, Legal Status, Classification and Related Languages, Sound Change, Grammar, Writing System
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“Better extirpate the whole breed, root and branch. And this, unless the German people come to their senses, is what we propose to do.”
—Gertrude Atherton (1857–1948)