Indo-European · ISO 639-3 nds
Low German Language Plattdüütsch
Low German is an Indo-European language spoken by about 12 million people in 3 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Low German is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Low German
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- North Sea Germanic
- Altsächsisch
- Middle-Modern Low German
- Low German
- Greater East Low German
- Low German
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Low German language
Low German (Plattdüütsch) is spoken by about 12 million people, which makes it the 106th most spoken language in the world — just behind Tunisian Arabic (12 million) and ahead of Central Kurdish (11 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Greater East Low German group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Low German spoken?
Low German is used in 3 countries. The largest communities live in Germany (10 million) and Netherlands (2.0 million).
Share of the population that speaks Low German: Germany 12% (10 million) and Netherlands 11% (2.0 million).
Low German is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Low German is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are English, Nigerian Pidgin, Krio, Tok Pisin, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Jamaican Creole English and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 nds.
Frequently asked questions about Low German
How many people speak Low German?
Where is Low German spoken?
What language family does Low German belong to?
What is Low German called in Low German?
Is Low German an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.