Low Germanic languages

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{{Infobox Language family

 |name=Low Germanic
 |region=predominantly the Netherlands, northern Belgium, northern Germany and South Africa. 
 |familycolor=Indo-European
 |fam1=Indo-European
 |fam2=Germanic
 |fam3=West Germanic
 |child1=Low Franconian
 |child2=Low German

}}

Low Germanic languages (Nederduitse talen, Niederdeutsche Sprachen) are any of a variety of West Germanic languages spoken in northern Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Surinam. It also includes Afrikaans, which is spoken in South Africa, and Plautdietsch, which is spoken by Mennonite communities in North and South America. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League.

The term Low German is sometimes used instead of Low Germanic languages. However, this leads to the confusion between that group of languages and one of its constituents, Low German.

The Low Germanic languages are distinguished from the High Germanic languages principally in that the latter underwent a consonant shift in the 700s and 800s. In High German, /k/, /p/, /t/ became /(k)x/ (only in some dialects), /pf/, /ts/ in initial positions and /x/, /f/, /s/ in medial and final positions. In Low German (as well as English and Frisian), the old /k/, /p/, /t/ are still there, as in English "better", Dutch "beter", German "besser".

Low German (North Saxon):	Ik segg et/dat up Nedderdüütsch/Platt(düütsch).
Low German (Mennonite Plautdietsch):	Ekj/Etj saje et op Nadadietsch/Plautdietsch.
Standard Dutch:	Ik zeg het in het Nederduits/Platduits.
Afrikaans:	Ek sê dit in Nederduits/Platduits.
High (Standard) German:	Ich sage es auf Niederdeutsch/Platt(deutsch).
(Eastern) Yiddish:	Ik zogs oyf niderdaytsh. (.איך זאָגס אױף נידערדײַטש)
English:	I say it in Low German/Flat German.

Note: English is not a Low Germanic language but an Anglo-Frisian language.

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Family tree

Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible by listeners and more separated ones not. In particular, there is not thought to have been any single "Proto-Low German". The earliest recorded form of Low German is known as Old Saxon, a member of the Low German branch.