'Middle Low German' is the descendant of
Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern
Low German. It served as the international lingua franca of the
Hanseatic League. It was spoken from about
1100 to
1500.
Related languages
The neighbour languages within the
dialect continuum of the
West Germanic languages were
Middle Dutch in the West and
Middle High German in the South, later substituted by
Early Modern High German.
History
Middle Low German was the
lingua franca of the
Hanseatic League, spoken all around the
North Sea and the
Baltic Sea. Based on the language of
Lübeck, a standardized written language was developing, though it was never codified.
Traces of the importance of Middle Low German can be seen by the many loans found in the
Scandinavian,
Finnic, and
Baltic languages, but also in
standard German or in
English.
In the late Middle Ages, Middle Low German lost its prestige to Early Modern High German which the elites began to use first as a written language and later as a spoken language. Reasons for the loss of prestige of Low German were the decline of the Hanseatic League that was followed by political heteronomy of Northern Germany, but also the cultural predominance of Middle and Southern Germany for instance through the
Protestant Reformation.
Literature
★ The ''
Sachsenspiegel''
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
