West Germanic languages

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 25. Chapters: High German languages, Low German, Old Dutch, Old Frankish, Meuse-Rhenish, History of Dutch, Franconian languages, Southeast Limburgish dialect, Stadsfries, Anglo-Frisian languages, Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, Ripuarian language, Borbecksch Platt dialect, Ingvaeonic languages, Separable verb, Central Franconian dialects, West Germanic gemination. Excerpt: Low German or Low Saxon (Plattdüütsch, Nedderdüütsch, Standard German Plattdeutsch, Niederdeutsch; Dutch Nedersaksisch in the wider sense-see Nomenclature) is a West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands. The historical sprachraum also includes contemporary northern Poland, the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia and a part of southern Lithuania, the German speakers of which were expelled or murdered after the post-World War II boundary changes. The former German communities in the Baltic states (see Baltic Germans) also spoke Low German. Moreover, Middle Low German was the Lingua Franca of the Hanseatic League and it has thus had an important influence on the Scandinavian languages. City limits sign; this city is called Emlichheim in High German and Emmelkamp in Low GermanDialects of Low German are widely spoken in the northeastern area of the Netherlands (Dutch Low Saxon) and are written there with an orthography based on Dutch orthography. Variants of Low German were widely (and are still to a far lesser extent) spoken in most parts of Northern Germany, for instance in the states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg. Small portions of northern Hesse and northern Thuringia are traditionally Low Saxon speaking too. Historically, Low German was also spoken in formerly German parts of Poland as well as in East Prussia and the Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia. The language was also formerly spoken in the outer areas of what is now the city state of Berlin but in the course of urbanisation and national centralisation in that city the language vanished. (The Berlin dialect itself is a northern outpost of High German and typologically a Missingsch variety, although rarely recognized as the latter). Today, there are still speakers outside of Germany and The Netherlands to be found in the coastal areas of present Poland (minority