Low Franconian languages
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The Low Franconian languages indicated in red shades. |
Low Franconian is any of several
West Germanic languages spoken in the
Netherlands, northern
Belgium, and
South Africa, descended from medieval
Old Franconian (sometimes, less accurately, referred to as
Old Dutch).
Low-Franconian varieties are also spoken in the German area along the
Rhine between Cologne and the border between Germany and the Netherlands. During the 19th and 20th centuries these dialects have partly and gradually been replaced by today's Standard German.
Sometimes, Low Franconian is grouped together with
Low Saxon in the
Low Saxon-Low Franconian languages. However, since this grouping is not based on common linguistic innovations, but rather on the absence of the
High German consonant shift and
Anglo-Frisian features, there are linguistic reference books that do not group them together.
[Glück, H. (ed.): Metzler Lexikon Sprache, pages 472, 473. Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler, 2000 (entries Niederdeutsch and Niederfränkisch)]In Germany it is common to consider the
Limburgian dialects as Low Franconian; in the Netherlands and Belgium however they are seen as
Central or
High German. This difference is caused by a difference in definition: the linguists of the Low Countries define a Low Franconian dialect as one that has only taken part in the fourth phase of the
High German consonant shift.
The modern Low Franconian languages are:
*
Standard Dutch*
AfrikaansAnd their dialects:
*
Brabantian*
East Flemish*
Hollandic *
Limburgish*
West Flemish*
Zuid-Gelders*
Ethnologue report for Low Franconian
