| East Low German | |
|---|---|
| Ostniederdeutsch | |
| Spoken in | Germany, Poland, Brazil |
| Language family |
Indo-European
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nds |
East Low German is a group of Low German dialects, including various varieties known as Pomeranian and Prussian, spoken in Northeast Germany as well as by minorities in present northern Poland. Together with West Low German, it constitutes Low German. Prior to 1945 the dialect was spoken along the entire German Baltic Coast, from Mecklenburg, through Pomerania, West Prussia into certain villages of the East Prussian Memel-Klaipėda Region.
The varieties known as Pomeranian (German: Pommersch) should not be confused with the West Slavic Pomeranian language (German: Pomoranisch).
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East Low German belongs to the dialect continuum of the continental West Germanic languages. It developed from the older Middle Low German.
In the West it fades into West Low German. The distinction is usually made referring to the plural endings of the verbs: East Low German endings are based on the old first/third person ending: -e(n), whereas West Low German endings are based on the old second person ending: -(e)t. The categorization of the Low German dialects into an Eastern and a Western group is not made by all linguists.
In the South, it fades into East Central German. The difference is that the East Low German varieties have not been affected by the High German consonant shift. The areas affected by the High German consonant shift are still expanding today, especially the Berlinisch dialect that is gaining ground on the Brandenburgisch dialect by which it is surrounded.
East Low German dialects are:
It also includes Plautdietsch (originating from Danzig), which is spoken by Mennonites in North America and a few other places in the world. Berlinisch (in Berlin) was a version of Brandenburgisch in medieval times until it split off; it is now seen as an East Central German dialect.
Baltendeutsch is a High German variety influenced by East Low German formerly spoken by Germans in the Baltic states.
In Pomerania, several dialects of East Low German are, or were, spoken:
The German dialects of Pomerania are compiled and described in the Pommersche Wörterbuch ("Pomeranian Dictionary"), a dictionary of the German dialects spoken within the Province of Pomerania's borders in 1936.
Pomeranian dialects of East Low German are also spoken in Brazil (see Pomerode, in Santa Catarina, Santa Maria de Jetibá, in Espírito Santo, and Arroio do Padre, Morro Redondo, Turuçu, São Lourenço do Sul and Pelotas, in Rio Grande do Sul).
By the early Middle Ages, Pomerania was largely populated by Slavic Pomeranians and Liuticians, who spoke the Pomeranian and Polabian languages. During the High Middle Ages, Germans from northern parts of the Holy Roman Empire settled in Pomerania as part of the medieval Ostsiedlung. Most Slavic Pomeranians gradually became Germanized. The new Pomeranian dialects which emerged from the admixture of the Low German dialects of the settlers are classified as East Low German.[1]
After World War II, Germans east of the Oder-Neisse line were expelled to post-war Germany. Most of the Pomeranian dialects have largely died out in the following decades as the expellees were assimilated into their new homes, although Pomeranian dialects are still spoken in Vorpommern (Western or Hither Pomerania), part of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
As a result of German immigration to Brazil, there are still some communities speaking Pomeranian in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Espírito Santo.[2]
Fritz Reuter and Heinrich Bandlow are among the most famous East Low German writers.
Note that the nds.wikipedia linked here is both West and East Low German, with a vastly predominant western input.