Dutch Low Saxon
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Low Franconian
Low Franconian/Ripuarian Low Saxon
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Dutch Low Saxon (Dutch Low Saxon: Nedersaksisch) is a dialect group that is spoken in the northeastern Netherlands. Roughly, the southwestern part speaks a Low Franconian language. The classification of Dutch Low Saxon is not unanimous. From a diachronic point of view, it is classified as a Low German variety. This classification is reflected in the name Dutch Low Saxon, Low Saxon (Nedersaksisch) being a synonym of Low German (Nederduits) that is more commonly used in the Netherlands. From a strictly synchronic point of view, however, some linguists classify it as a variety of Dutch.[1] Some forms of Dutch Low Saxon show features of Westphalian, a West Low German dialect spoken in Germany.
[edit] Dialects
| Language classification |
| Indo-European languages |
| Germanic languages |
| West Germanic languages |
| Low German |
| Dutch Low Saxon |
Dutch Low Saxon comprises the following forms (any of which are considered separate languages in ISO 639-3/DIS):
- Westerkwartiers
- Kollumerpompsters
- Kollumerlands
- Middaglands
- Midden-Westerkwartiers
- Zuid-Westerkwartiers
- Gronings and Noord-Drents
- Hogelandsters
- Stadsgronings
- Westerwolds
- Veenkoloniaals
- Oldambtsters
- Stellingwerfs
- Midden-Drents
- Zuid-Drents
- Twents
- Twents-Graafschaps
- Gelders-Overijssels
- Achterhoeks
- Sallands
- Urkers
- Veluws
- Oost-Veluws
- West-Veluws
Most varieties belong to the West Low Saxon group. Gronings is so different from the rest of the Dutch Low Saxon varieties that it should be treated separately. Twents and Achterhoeks belong to the Westphalian group of dialects. The remainder, Drents, Stellingwervish, Sallands, Urkers and Veluws, could be classified in their own subdivision, since they form the westermost group of Low Saxon dialects, considerably affected by Dutch. Urkers and West-Veluws are even so heavily Hollandified that some people classify these dialects as Low Franconian rather than Low Saxon.
[edit] Dutch influence
A lot of these dialects have been affected by the Hollandic expansion of the seventeenth century. All of them are lexically dependent on Dutch rather than German for neologisms. When written down, they use a Dutch-based orthography.
- a unified plural in -en rather than -t
- This is found in West-Veluws and Urkers and clearly ensued from Dutch influence, since a unified plural in -t for verbs is common in Low Saxon. These dialects have wiej warken instead of wiej warkt for "we work". This feature is, surprisingly, also found in Stellingwerfs and Gronings, but here this trait is believed to have Frisian rather than Hollandic origins (the Stellingwerven have been Frisian for centuries and Groningen was a Frisian speaking area in the Middle Ages). Modern Frisian has -e here, -en may be a kind of intermediate form between -t and -e. This unified plural takes the form
-et rather than -t in the Achterhoeks dialect of Winterswijk.
- several long vowel shifts
- Veluws, Sallands, Stellingwervish and Drents have experienced mutation as the Hollandic dialect rose in prestige during the seventeenth century. The ee [e:] mutated into ie [i:], the oo [o:] into oe [u:] and the oe [u:] into uu [y:]. Twents and Eastern Achterhoeks, by contrast retained their old vowels. Compare these Twents and Sallands couples: deer - dier ("animal"); good - goed ("good"); hoes - huus ("house"). Surprisingly, in many dialects the oe sound was preserved in some words while it mutated towards uu in others. As a result, in Sallands "huis" (house) translates as huus but "muis" (mouse) as moes (as in Twents).
- loss of the word du "thou"
- Dutch has lost the word doe "thou" for long and replaced it by jij, originally a personal pronoun for the pluralic second person. In many Low Saxon dialects in the Netherlands, the very same happened. The doe/jij isogloss runs surprisingly close to the Dutch border, except in Groningen, where it enters the Dutch territory with a vengeance (in the entire province this word is known). In Twente, it is present in the easternmost villages of Denekamp and Oldenzaal, in de Achterhoek (Gelderland), dou is present in Winterswijk and Groenlo .
[edit] References
- ^ Hermann Niebaum/Jürgen Macha: Einführung in die Dialektologie des Deutschen, 2., neubearbeitete Auflage, Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 2006, p. 221, footnote 7.
