What countries speak Low German?
What countries speak Low German?
| Low German | |
|---|---|
| Dialects | West Low German East Low German |
| Official status | |
| Official language in | Germany Schleswig-Holstein Hamburg Lower Saxony Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Brandenburg Netherlands |
| Recognised minority language in | Mexico (100,000) Bolivia (70,000) Paraguay (30,000) Brazil (8,000) |
Is Low German a Germanic language?
Low German is one of the minority languages of Germany. The West Germanic language is spoken mainly in northern Germany. The language is quite distinct from Standard German and more closely related to English, Frisian, and Dutch. There are about 5 million native speakers of Low German in Germany.
What are the different languages spoken in Germany?
1 Official Language of Germany. Standard German is the official language of Germany. 2 Minority Languages Spoken in Germany. Low German is one of the minority languages of Germany. 3 Immigrant Languages Spoken in Germany. Immigrants to Germany speak their native languages. 4 Foreign Languages Spoken in Germany.
Is Dutch a Germanic language?
As you can see, Dutch is not just a German dialect, but an independent language like the other Germanic languages. It’s spoken in several countries — not only in Europe but also overseas. At the same time, when you learn German or Dutch, you can easily understand parts of the other language.
Are the West Germanic languages mutually intelligible?
On paper, the West Germanic languages can look extremely similar (especially if you’re comparing Dutch and Afrikaans, but we’ll get to that in a minute). However, just because the words look alike, it doesn’t mean they’re mutually intelligible. For one, German maintains a complicated grammatical case system that most of the others got rid of.