Niederdeutsch in Ostfriesland: Zwischen Sprachkontakt, Sprachveränderung und Sprachwechsel

Translated title of the contribution: Low German in East Frisia: intermediate language contact, language variation and language change

Research output: Book/ReportBook

Abstract

Low German is a West-germanic language, which is used mainly as a spoken language in the coastal areas of Northwest Germany, North-eastern parts of the Netherlands and along the German coasts of the Baltic Sea. Although still a variety used by millions of speakers, Low German must be counted among the languages threatened by decline if not extinction within the next twenty years because it is no longer used by the younger generations. Apart from the question of whether Low German will survive altogether, the variety is in a process of linguistic change due to the contact situation with the dominant language of the media and almost all written official communications, Standard German. Low German, therefore, is a field for research in all areas of language contact, e.g. codeswitching, language shift, mixed languages or language death. Within Low German, the variety spoken in East Frisia has a distinct history of language contact and language change over the last six hundred years. It is based on a Frisian substratum and has been in close linguistic contact with Dutch since the 16th century.
Translated title of the contributionLow German in East Frisia: intermediate language contact, language variation and language change
Original languageGerman
Place of PublicationStuttgart (DE)
PublisherFranz Steiner
Number of pages200
ISBN (Print)978-3-515-08571-7
Publication statusPublished - 2004

Publication series

NameZeitschrift f ur Dialektologie und Linguistik: Beihefte
PublisherFranz Steiner Verlag (DE)

Keywords

  • Low German
  • Standard German
  • language contact
  • codeswitching
  • language shift
  • mixed languages
  • language death
  • Within Low German
  • the variety spoken in East Frisia has a distinct history of language contact and language change over the last six hundred years. It is based on a Frisian substratum and has been in close linguistic contact with Dutch since the 16th century.

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