Luxemburgish is often included as a Moselle Franconian dialect. Central German dialects are Ripuarian, Central Franconian, Rhine Francoinian, Hessian, Thurinigian, Saxonian, and Berlinerish. The dialects of German are classified as central and upper German. In modern times however standard New High German with a Northern accent has become the norm for spoken language in the North of Germany. One might encounter also Missingisch, a Low Saxon - High German pidgin. The Low Saxon dialects spoken in the east of the Netherlands are often included as East Dutch Low Saxon. It is said that the best High German is spoken in Hanover, while the traditional dialect of the Hanover area is a dialect of Low German.ĭialects of Low German or Low Saxon spoken in the North of Germany are Westphalian, Eastphalian, East-Frisian, North Low Saxon, Sleswickian, and Holastian, and Pommerian, Margravian. Due to the influence of Prussia as political power, and later Hamburg as media center, a more Northern German pronunciation has been adopted as standard pronunciation in television and radio. It was the standard language of the Hanseatic league, but was superseded as standard language in North Germany when High German was accepted as official language in Prussia. Low German went through a similar development, starting with Old Saxon and similar languages, through Middle Low German into the modern Low German, which is in linguistics often referred to a Low Saxon. 1500-1700) and finally to the present New High German, which is the standard modern German language. The term "High German" refers to the standardized version of German that derives mostly from Upper and Central German dialects. "Low" and "Upper" are geographic terms, referring to the lowlands of Northern Germany and the more mountainous areas of Southern Germany, respectively. Generally, the later development of the West Germanic language can be divided in two distinct lines of descent: Upper German, spoken in Central and Southern Germany, and Low German, spoken in Northern Germany. Gothic is the only known East Germanic language, while North Germanic evolved into the modern Scandinavian languages. Proto-Germanic was eventually divided into several different but similar languages, specifically East Germanic, West Germanic and North Germanic. The modern German language is descended from the language known as Proto-Germanic, which is believed to have been spoken in central and northern Europe during the first millennium BC. If not present on a keyboard they customarily are substituted by ae, oe, and ue. The other additional letter are the three vowels ä, ö and ü, also known in English as Umlauts. In Switzerland and Liechtenstein this letter is generally omitted in favor of "ss". It is sometimes called "sz," however, if the letter is not available it has to be replaced by the letters "ss", and not by "sz". This to avoid confusion with the voiced alveolar fricative, the sound of "z" in the English word "zoo", for which German always uses the letter "s". It is used for occurrences of the voiceless alveolar fricative, the sound of the "s" in the English word "sea", after long vowels and diphthongs, for which German otherwise uses "s" or "ss". German makes use of the letter ß, called the scharfes S ("sharp s"), which is a ligature of the letter "s" and "z" from cursive scripts. The German alphabet consists of every letter in the English alphabet, with additional letters.
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