East Frisian Low Saxon

East Frisian Low Saxon, and Emslandic is a Low Saxon dialect spoken in northwestern Lower Saxony. It is used quite frequent in East Frisia. About 50% of the people in the coastal region use Plattdüüts, more than 90% are able to understand it.

Although an eastern dialect of the Frisian is spoken by about 2000 People in the Saterland region, East Frisian Low Saxon is unrelated to Frisian.

There are several dialects in the East Frisian Low Saxon:

• Standard East Frisian Low Saxon north of Leer, east of the river Ems and
• Oldenburger Platt
• Ammerländer Platt
• Rheiderländer Platt west of the river Ems around the city of Weener
• Emslandic

The East Frisian Low Saxon differs from the Northern Low Saxon language by

• the frequent use of diminuitives like in the Dutch language, f.ex. Footjes = litte feet, Kluntje = piece of sugar, Koffje = coffie
• the vocabulary, which is partly shared with the Dutch language

Examples (East Frisian Low Saxon / Northern Low Saxon / English)

hör = ehr = her

mooi = scheun = beautiful, nice, fine

was = weer = was

geböhren = passern = to happen

praten, proten = klönen = to talk

The standard greeting formula is Moin, used 24 hours a day. It is nowadays used in whole northern germany, but more and more spreading to the east, west and south.

Links

• http://www.oostfreeske-taal.de Ostfreeske Taal
• http://www.diesel-online.de Diesel - dat oostfreeske Bladdje, the trilingual East Frisian newspaper