Dutch Low Saxon phrasebook
Photo: nds-nl:Gebruker:Grönneger 1, CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
Dutch Low Saxon (Dutch Low Saxon: Nedersaksies, Dutch: Nedersaksisch) is a group of West Low German dialects spoken in the northeastern Netherlands. It is assumed to be the native language of between 1 and 2 million people in the Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon is highly likely to be mutually intelligible with Low German; however, as each language is influenced by Dutch and High German, respectively, some misunderstandings are possible.
The class “Dutch Low Saxon” is not unanimous. From a diachronic point of view, the Dutch Low Saxon dialects are merely the Low German dialects which are native to areas in the Netherlands (as opposed to areas in northern Germany where Low German is the most common term accepted for these dialects). From a strictly synchronic point of view, however, some linguists classify Dutch Low Saxon as a variety of Dutch. Also, as a practical matter, Dutch Low Saxon is influenced by standard Dutch, whereas Low German in Germany is influenced by standard German.
DifficultiesSince Dutch Low Saxon, like its counterpart across the German border, is not a unified language, it is often hard to find two people speaking the same version of Dutch Low Saxon.
Writing system and dialect represented on this pageThe writing system chosen to write Dutch Low Saxon is the Algemene Nedersaksiese Schriefwieze (ANS) developed in 2011 by the Wikipedia Community.
PronunciationDutch Low Saxon has some vowel sounds that are not known in many other languages so they may be hard to learn.
Phrase list
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Dutch Low Saxon phrasebook" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: nds-nl:Gebruker:Grönneger 1, CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons