Rest
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words to see their definition.
Sounds and Spelling
Because the language was unofficial and suppressed until fairly recently, and
also because most of its speakers have lost their ethnic consciousness and
are variously fragmented, Low Saxon so far has no general standard
variety and no standard orthography (spelling). There are only some orthographic guidelines for certain dialect
groups. However, since there is no officially regulated Low Saxon education,
most people are poorly acquainted with the spelling guidelines and follow
them imprecisely in futile attempts to spell their specific dialects “phonetically” (i.e. supposedly “write as it sounds”).
On
the German side of the border, an additional problematic factor is that older
guidelines are based
on
German
spelling
conventions,
several of which are unsuitable for Low Saxon and are more conplicating
and confusing than helpful (especially the use of lengthening “h” and representation of final consonants following German patterns). Furthermore,
most writers do not follow the guidelines for distinguishing ęę (ee) from ee (ey), ö̢ö̢ (oe) from öö (oy), and oo
(oo) from oo (ou),
and this has led to learners and other non-native speakers mispronouncing
many words, a situation that speeds up Sprachverfall (“language decay”).
In this introduction to the language we will not go into detailed discussions
of orthographic problems. We will merely spell words and phrases in the predominant
German-based system (retaining the use of the lengthening “h” but spelling final consonants phonemically rather than following German patterns).
These will appear in red. Following each word or phrase will be the same written with the General Orthography
(Algemeyne Schryvwys’) appearing in light blue. This orthography, which is partly based on Middle Saxon (“Middle Low German”)
principles, is to be seen as an auxiliary phonemic representation and thus as a more
reliable guide to pronunciation. There will be no specific introduction to
the General Orthography, since its use in this phonological introduction is
sufficient. However, there will be a few notes explaining features of the
General Orthography.
