Parts of Speech There are eight parts of speech in the North Saxon dialect of Lox German: verbs, nouns, determiners, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. (Thies)
Verbs: In Low German, verbs describe a state or event and are mutable, meaning they are inflected (Thies). All verbs must be inflected for personal reference (person and number), time reference (tense and aspect), reference to reality (mood and voice), and action reference (active vs. passive) (Thies). Personal reference, time reference, and action reference, will be discussed below. Low german tends to prefer a verbal style of communication, where there is a predominant use of verbs, this is in contrast to Standard High German which tends towards nominal style, marked by the predominant use of nouns and nominalization. (Thies).
Nouns: In Low German, nouns act as the main topic/ main words. They are broken into two categories: concrete and abstract. If the concept portrayed by the noun can be physically seen or touched, it is considered a concrete noun, if not, the noun is considered an abstract noun (Thies). Nouns in Low German can all have a gender, case, and number however, not all of this information is easily seen directly marked on the noun itself, rather it is often marked on the determiners, pronouns, and adjectives that accompany/ replace it (Keller). All of this will be discussed below.
Determiners: In Low German, determiners are considered companions to the nouns they accompany. Determiners in Low German are broken into two categories: articles (both definite and indefinite) and pronominals (Goltz). All determiners in Low German are inflected for gender, case, and number to match the noun/noun phrase they accompany (Keller).
Pronouns: In Low German, pronouns stand in for nouns/ noun phrases that represent people, objects, or situations (Thies). Pronouns in Low German are broken into seven categories: personal, reflexive, possessive, demonstrative, relative, interogative, and indefinite (Keller). The personal, reflexive, possessive, and demonstrative pronouns can all be inflected for number, case, and gender (Keller). However, only the personal and reflexive are consistently inflected in all usage for all three conceptual categories, with case being the only inflection that has a strong pattern of inflection for all uses, and most possessive and demonstrative pronouns only being inflected for gender and number in the most formal of writtings (Stellmacher). A number of pronouns, specifically the demonstrative and possessive, can be used as determiners under the pronominal determiner category (Thies). Relative, interogative, and indefinite pronouns are not inflected for any of the standard nominal conceptional categories (Thies).
Adjectives: In Low German, adjectives indicate properties of nouns (Thies). Adjectives can be used in three ways within a sentence in Low German: as an attributive before a noun/noun phrase, a predicative to an auxiliary verb, or as an adverbial, in special cases with the head verb (Thies). Adjectives are inflected for gender, case, and number, to match their noun/noun phrase, whenever used in an attributive manner or when substantivized; in all other cases they are not infelcted (Keller). Attributive adjectives can be inflected in one of two ways, strong vs. weak, depending on how the adjective has been morphologically characterized within the context of the usage (Stellmacher). If a preceding determiner has already sufficiently characterized the adjective it is weakly inflected, which only distinguishes plurality and case in the masculine gender (Keller); if the adjective hasn’t been previously caraterized, it will receive strong inflection (Stellmacher), which has much starker inflection to demonstrate case, gender, and plurality. When used as an attributive, adjectives can also be marked to show comparison, by adding the comparative ‘-er’ suffix or the superlative ‘-st’ in conjunction with the comparative preposition ‘as’ (Keller).
Adverbs: In Low German, adverbs describe mostly verbs, but occasionally other parts of speech relating to the verb, in more detail and don’t receive any inflection (Thies). Adjectives can be used as adverbs, in which case they are not inflected (Thies). Low German breaks adverbs into six categories: local, having to do with location, temporal, having to do with time, modal, having to do with way in which the action is done, causal, having to do with justifying the verb, relative, relating the verb to some other idea, and interogative, having to do with querstioning (Thies).
Prepositions: In Low German, prepositions are used to clarify local, temporal, and causal relationships and are not inflected. In most situation, the preposition precedes the noun of its noun phrase (Thies). After prepositions articles can be shortened (Keller). In Low German, temporal adverbials are often found without a preposition or even an article in the objective (non-nominative) case (Thies).
Conjunctions: In Low German, conjunctions connect words, phrases, and sentences (Thies). Conjunctions are catagorized as either real or false based on their function; real conjunctions only connect idesa, while false conjunctions are seperable morphemes based on function (Thies). Conjunctions are also catagorized in three groups depending on the type of joining they do: coordinating, subordinating, and infinitive (Thies). Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases, and clauses of the same level, while subordinating conjunctions connect subordinate clauses to main clauses. Infinitive conjunctions connect words verbs in the nominal form (Thies). Conceptual Catagories
Nominals (Nouns, Determiners, Pronouns, and Adjectives)
Generally speaking nominals in Low German are grouped into conceptual categories based on gender, case, and number. However, whether the categorization is directly and visibly marked is dependent on the part of speech and formality of the situation.
Gender: All nouns in Low German have one of three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Most nouns have the same gender as their Standard HIgh German equivillants, but there are some exceptions, though these are slowly assimilating to match their Standard High German counterparts (Goltz). The gender of a noun is not typically marked on the noun itself, but rather on the determiners, pronouns, and adjectives that accompany/ replace the noun/ noun phrase.
Case: Case in North Saxon Low German is highly simplified compared to Standard High German. The Case system is broken into only two cases: Nominative (subject) and Objective (Objects), with the genetive being replaced with a variety of prepositional phrases (Keller). Once again, nouns are mostly unmarked for case, the exception being masculine animate nouns which are marked with an ‘-en’ suffix in the objective case (Goltz).
Number: Nouns in Low German are marked for singularity and plurality, with no further distinctions for numbers between. Singular nouns are unmarked for number, essentially possessing a null morpheme. Most Plural nouns however are marked to show they are plural, though the method through which they are marked is highly irregular. There are seven main methods through which plurality is marked on nouns in Low German: 1) the marker is null and not seen through suffixation or mutation, 2) the plural is marked through Ueberlange (an overlong trimorphic vowel), 3) plurality is marked by a different change/mutation of the vowel than that fund in Ueberlange, 4) the plural is marked by a consonant mutation, 5) plurality is marked through nasal suffixation, 6) plurality is marked with ‘-er’ suffix, and 7) plurality is marked through ‘-s’ suffix (Keller)
For the inflection of determiners, adjectives, and pronouns accompaning the noun/ noun phrase the conceptual category markers are often combined to allow for a fusional type of morphological marker giving the information about all three categories at once. Throughout all nominals except for the personal and possessive pronouns, case is distinguished only for the masculine gender except for in the most formal of situations (Stellmacher). Declinsion of the Definite Article
Masc. Fem. Neuter PL
Nom. de
de dat de Obj. den (Keller)
Declinsion of the Indefinite Article
Masc. Fem. Neuter
Nom. en
ene en Obj. enen (Goltz)
Declinsion of the Demonstrative Pronoun/ Determiner
Masc. Fem. Neuter PL
Nom. düsse
düsse düt düsse
Obj. düssen (Keller)
Strong Declinsion of Adjectives through Suffixation
Masc. Fem. Neuter PL
Nom. -e (r)
-e - e (t) -e Obj. -en (Stellmacher) Weak Declinsion of Adjectives through Suffixation
Masc. Fem. Neuter PL
Nom. -e
-e -e -en Obj. -en (Stellmacher)
Personal, reflexive, and possessive pronouns are additionally inflected for person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), with only the 3rd person singular receiving any form of gender distinction in inflection marking (Goltz).
Declinsion of Personal Pronouns
1st 2nd 3rd
M F N
Nom. ik du he se dat Singular
Obj. mi di em ähr
Nom. wi ji se Plural
Obj. uns ju jüm
(Keller)
Reflexive pronouns are the same as the personal pronouns except that the 3rd person singular and 3rd person plural are the new morpheme/ word ‘sik’ (Goltz). Declinsion of Possesive Pronouns
1st 2nd 3rd
M F N
Nom. mien dien sien ähr - Singular
Obj. mein dien sienen ähr -
Nom. uns juun ähr Plural
Obj. uns juun ähr
(Keller)
Verbs Verbs in Low German are marked for personal reference (person and number), time reference (tense and aspect), and action reference (mood and voice) (Thies). These conceptual categories are attached to the verb through the required conjugation of the verb into one of five form cases: infinitive, imperative, past participle, present, and preterite; with the option of an additional one of four compound form: perfect, pluperfect, passive, and future (Keller). North Saxon does not have a subjunctive mood (Keller).
Infinitie: gives the base form of the verb before any inflection has occurred. In North Saxon, the infinitive is marked with a ‘-en’ suffix (Keller)
Imperative: gives the form of the verb when it is being marked for the imperative mood. It is always in the present tense, simple aspect, and active voice, and makes distinctions for number, but not person. If a verb isn’t in the imperative form, the verb/ verb phrase is assumed to be in the indicative mood, though the full sentence may be in a different mood (Thies).
Present: marks the verb as being in the present tense, the indicative mood and active voice. Within the present form of the verb, it is then inflected to show number and person, through a fusional morphological method. (Keller) If the present form of the verb is not combined with any of the additional optional verb forms, it is also assumed to be in the simple aspect (Keller). If it is marked with an additional optional verb form, it may have a different aspect, that will be discussed later below.
Preterite: marks the verb as being in the past tense and simple aspect, with an assumed indicative mood and active voice. The person and number is then inflected in the same manor as in the present verb form, tough with different markings (Keller). Past Participle: marks the verb as being in either the past tense and perfect aspect, or in the passive voice, and is assumed to be in the indicative mood (Goltz). The past participle makes no distinction for personal reference, but rather makes a distinction between what are classified as weak, strong, (and irregular) verbs. Weak verbs receive the ‘-t’ suffix, while strong verbs receive the ‘-en’ suffix (and irregular verbs being irregular in what they do, and having to be memorized) (Keller) There is more complexity into how weak, strong, and irregular verbs are conjugated differently in different contexts, but generally speaking, strong verbs receive inflection in their stem vowels for all past tenses and receive a suffix for past tense only in the perfect, while weak verbs don’t receive any inflection to their stem vowel and receive a suffix for past tense both in the simple and perfect aspects, while irregular verbs do some random combination of the two, with the additional possibility of stem consonant mutation (Thies). Past participle form verbs are paired with an auxiliary verb when being used, with the auxiliary verb being put in the present verb form (Thies).
Inflectional Endings of the Verb
Inf. '-en'
Imp. sg. '-'
Imp. pl. '-lt'
Pres. 'ik' '-'
Pres. 'du' '-st'
Pres. 'he/se/dat' '-t'
Pres. 'wi/ji/se' '-t'
Pret. 'ik' '-'
Pret. 'du' '-st'
Pret. 'he/se/dat' '-'
Pret. 'wi/ji/se' '-en'
Pp. strong '-en'
Pp. weak '-t'
(Goltz)
Perfect and Pluperfect: mark the perfect and pluferfect aspects resectivelly, and are used as auxiliary verbs to allow for their respective aspects in the present tense, when used in conjunction with present form verbs (Thies). Most often ‘hebben’ is used for non-motion verbs, while ‘sien’ is used for motion verbs, but this rule is not absolute (Keller). Again as auxiliaries, these verbs are inflected in the present verb form, regardless of what the main verb is inflected for.
Future: Similar to in English, the future tense is marked through the inclusion of an auxiliary verb either ‘schoelen’ or ‘wüllen’, with the auxiliary verb being in the present verb form, and the main verb being marked as an infinitive (Keller)
Passive: In North Saxon, the passive is most commonly formed through the use of the auxiliary verb ‘warrn’ that is inflected either in the present verb form or infinitive verb form, depending on function (Keller).
Syntax
Sentences and Glossing
Definitions:
PRES = Present verb form
IMPV = Imperative verb form OBJV = Objective case COMPR = Comparative CONJ = Conjunction PRO = Pronoun DART = Definitive article IART = Indefinite article
DEM.DET.N AUX.FUT. REFL.PRO.3SG probably stop -INF when 3SG.M.NOM =one
DART.F.SG wife.SG get -PRES.3SG
‘That will stop once he has a wife.’
All sentences and translations used come from examples given in The Dialects of Modern German, however the glossing was done myself.
Phrasal Catagories and Rules
AP = Actant phrase InfP = Infinitive phrase
S → (AP) VP (AP) VP → (DP) V or Aux (AP) V AP → {(PP) DP or (AdjP) DP or InfP} (DP) DP → Det (NP) AdjP → (PP) Adj (AdvP) InfP → (DP) Inf NP → N (AdvP) PP → Prep (DP) AdvP → (PP) Adv (PP) XP → XP Conj XP
The phrasal categories and their rules were created from a combination of syntatic information from Deutsche Grammatik, and Handbuch zur niederdeutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft.
Syntactic Trees 1) he is grött -er as se.
3SG.M.NOM be.PRES.3SG tall -COMP as 3SG.F.OBJV
‘He is taller than her.’
[S [AP [DP [Det -] [NP [N he]]]] [VP [V is]] [AP [AdjP grötter] [DP [Det as] [NP [N se.]]]]] 2) düt is de Hoot, den du
References Goltz, R. H., & Walker, A. G. H. (1990). North Saxon. In The Dialects of Modern German (pp. 31–52). essay, Routledge. Helbig, G., & Buscha, J. (1981). Deutsche Grammatik: Ein Handbuch Fur Den Auslanderunterricht. Verlag Enzyklopadie.
Keller, R. E. (1961). North Saxon: Lower Elbe. In German Dialects (pp. 339–369). essay, Manchester University Press.
Stellmacher, D. (1983). Neuniederdeutsche Grammatik. In Handbuch zur niederdeutschen
Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (pp. 238–276). essay, Erich Schmidt Verlag.
Thies, H. (2021). Sass Plattdeutsche Grammatik. verlag.marless.de. 2024,
