Plautdietsch Language - Status

Status

There is disagreement whether Plautdietsch is a language or a dialect. Some classify it as a dialect of Low German (Plattdüütsch) based on mutual intelligibility. Others classify it as a language based on socio-linguistic reasons.

Arguments for a dialect:

1. It is primarily a spoken, not written language;
2. It shares grammatical and lexical similarities with other varieties of Low German;
3. It is intelligible to other Low German speakers after some acquaintance;
4. Until at least 1750 it was in strict contact with the other Low German dialects along the North Sea and Baltic coasts, forming a consistent dialectal continuum of one proper language. (Saxon/Low German)

Arguments for classifying it as a language of its own:

1. It has many developments and sound shifts not found in any other Low German dialect;
2. It has many borrowings from other languages completely adapted into Plautdietsch phonetics, which would not be understood by a speaker of other dialects;
3. It has many idiomatic expressions of its own and usages of particular words different from the ones in Northern (Low Saxon, Mecklenburgic) and Southern (Westphalian, Eastphalian, Märkisch) Low German. Many idiomatic expressions of Northern/Southern Low German are not used nor understood by a Plautdietsch speaker.