Plattdeutsch is a
German dialect spoken in the northwestern areas of
Germany above the so-called Benrather Linie, and in some areas of the northeastern Netherlands. Plattdeutsch is also know by the names of
- Platt Deutsch
- Plattdüütsch
- Plattdütsch
- Plattdiestsch
- Plattduits
- Nedersacksisch
- Twents
- Groningens (after the town of Groningen, The Netherlands)
Today's modern
Dutch, however close a relative, is not based on the Saxon dialect of Plattdeutsch, but instead on the Franconian dialect.
Where as other
Germanic languages changed with the alt
hochdeutsche Lautverschiebung ( High German Sound Shift), Platt Deutsch did not. Even as late as the eighth centaury, Anglo-Saxon missonaries could make themselves understood in the area they called Ealdsexanan (Old Saxony, as they called it) without much difficulty.