PLATTDEUTSCH, pliit'doich, or Low SAX ON. The language spoken in Northern Germany from the border of Holland to the frontier of Lithuania. It is distinguished on the one hand from Low Franconian, which includes the lan guage of Holland, Dutch proper (see DuTen LANGUAGE), and, on the other hand, from Middle and Upper German. which are grouped together under the name High German. In common with other Low German languages, Plattdeutsch is distinguished from High German by the fact that its surd mutes have not passed tln•ough the second or High German sound-shifting. (See GRIMM'S LAw•,) There is, however, no definite line of demarcation, some of the Middle German dialects not having shifted p and t. The best criterion of distinction is the so-called ich-linc which starts on the Belgian border south of Lim burg and runs in a northeasterly direction, cross ing the Rhine at Benrath (between Dusseldorf and Cologne), the Elbe south of Magdeburg, the Oder just above Frankfort, and finally reaches the Slavic frontier in the Province of Posen near Birnbaum. To the north of this line the first personal pronoun has the form ik, to the south ich. Within its district Plattdeutsch is generally spoken by the lower classes, while High German is the language of the school and pulpit, and as a rule of the educated classes.
Plattdeutsch is not a homogeneous language, but consists of a number of different dialects which may be divided into two main groups: (I) Northeast Saxon, in Oldenburg, Bremen. Ham burg, Hanover, Brunswick. Holstein, burg, Brandenburg, Pomerania, and East Prus sia; (2) Westphalian, in Westphalia and the Principality of Waldeek. During the nineteenth century the dialect of 'Mecklenburg acquired espe cial prominence through the writings of Fritz Renter.
Historically Low Saxon is divided into (1) Old Saxon or Old Low German, extending from the ninth to the twelfth century; (2) :Middle Low Saxon, from the twelfth to the end of the sixteenth century: (3) Modern Low Saxon. Platt deutsch, or Illodern Low German, front 1600 to the present time.
In the Old Saxon period the principal literary monument is the Heliand (qx.). a religious epic of nearly 6000 lines in alliterative verse. written about 830 at the request of Louis the Pious. Sev eral fragments of a versification of the first chap tors of the Book of Genesis, an interlinear ver sion of the Psalms, and various other smaller fragments of a character have been preserved, besides a number of glosses and proper names. Old Saxon may also lay partial claim to the Tlildcbrand's Lay, the most famous of all Low Saxon is the soehs(nspi(!a/. a compilation
of Saxon common law, made by Eyke von Ripe elnm e betv cell 122 t and 1230. and which became the model for law book, in other parts of Ger many. From 1:350 through the fifteenth century there i, an (xten,ive Low German literature, which is mainly religious in character. consisting largely of legends of the Chureh and collections of hymns. Among secular poems may be men tioned k( inr ke der I us (Liibeck, 1498) and Fiore end Wankllar. _About the middle of the seven teenth century Low Saxon ceased to be a literary language, the last Low Saxon Bible appearing at Go-Jar in 1621. In modern time, what little literature has appeared has been of a decidedly dialectical character. Especially prominent are Fritz Reuter (q.v.), best known for his humor ous novel t't mine Ntronitid and the poem /inane „Vale; and Klaus Grath (q.v.). a writer of lyric poems, a, the Quickborn.
Consult: Herne. Kleine altsiiehsisehe end all niederfrankische Grammatik (Paderborn, 1873) ; Galh%e, .titsiichsische (lratstmatik (Halle, 1891) ; Schliiter. zur Gesehichte der altsarhsisehen Spoaehr ((:iltting,en. 1892) ; Holt 1 a usen. .iitchsi.s.chcs Elrmentarbueh ( Heidel berg. 1899) ; Sehmeller, Giossariunt Sasonicum (Munich, 1840) ; K(Igel and Brukner, "Geschichte der althoch- und altniederdeutschen Litteratur," in Paul, arundriss der geomanisehen vol. i. (2d ed., Strasshurg, 1897 et seq.) ; Liib ben, ilittaniederdeutseheGrammatik mit ehresto mathie and Glossar (Leipzig, 1882) ; Schiller and Lidthen, ittelnirderdentsehrs1133oterbech (6 vols., Bremen, 1871-81) ; Liibben and Walther, .11 illy Iniederdeulsehes llandwiirterbeelt 1885-88) ; Jellingk, "Mittelniederdeut,ehe Lit teratur," in Paul, vol. ii. (see above) ; Krtiger, bersirht der hentigen plattdeutschrn (Enden, 1843) ; Ma rahrens, Gran( aorta. der plattdentschen Spraehr (Altona, 1858); Wiggers, Grammatik der plattdentschen Spraehe (2d ed., Hamburg, 1858) ; Eschenhagen, Zur platt dcutsehen Sprach(' (Berlin, 1860) ; Gilroy, Lcit laden :no plattdeutschen Sprach(' (Anklain, 1868) ; Paunch], die niederdrutsehe end Litterater (Berlin, 1S75) ; haus, Zno I.:bib-Hung der niedeodeutsehen Mend aoten (Kiel, 1884) ; Giidertz, Des Sehauspiel (Hamburg, 1894) ; Mentz, Itidiliographic der dent.s.elten ilendartenforsehung (ib., : dahrbech des l'errins Ter niederdentsche sprach forschung ( Leipzig, 1875 et seq.).