Thursday, December 20, 2012

Low German

I still don't know the full extent to which Andalusada's butterflies change the evolution (and survival) of languages. I do know that Mozarabic survives, or at least evolves into a spoken language the world recognizes as "Moorish."

At least one other language survives to Andalusada's present day: Low German, in various iterations.

Pommersch

To the extent that Low German has a standard, it would be Pomeranian. This was the dialect standardized in the Günther Bible, which subsequently became the chancery language of Pomerania.
  • Refugees and escapees from the Reductions created a trans-Atlantic Pomeranian diaspora, which stretched to at least Moorish Mexico. The descendants of this diaspora have made it a co-official language of Hispano-Baltic Texas, and several lines of the House of Sansinger (mostly those descended from Kaspar) speak it to the present day.
  • Since the Treaty of Meissen re-established Pomerania, Pommersch has gone from being the chancery language to the official one.
Pommersch also survives as something of a Güntherite Yiddish.

Other dialects of Low German

"Pommerish" isn't the only dialect of Low German spoken in the world, merely the best-defined. Others include, but aren't limited to:
  • Lübsch. The Low German of Lübeck, which eventually standardized in response to the Günther Bible. [details?] Pomeranian may be the dominant dialect of the Baltic now, but Lübsch has had more influence within the Low Countries. [details?]
  • "Platt." French has patois, dialects-or-maybe-languages that are only recognized regionally. Because of the more scattered German language families, any German dialect spoken only overseas can be simply called "Platt" without any further specification.
This is a stub. It will be expanded upon.

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