Plattdüütsch/Grammar

Parts of Speech

Nouns

Plurals

-er

ey, eyer ("eggs")

kind, kinder ("children")

veld, velder ("fields")

kalf, kalver ("calves")

-en

see, seen ("lakes")

daal, dalen ("valleys")

ring, ringen ("rings")

knecht, knechten ("servant")

-s

morgen, morgens ("mornings")

engel, engels ("angels")

penning, pennings ("pennies")

vader, vaders ("fathers")

-e

dag /dax/ - dage /dɔːːɣ/ ("days")

Umlaut

boom /boːm/, boeme /bøːːm/ ("trees")

hals /haɫs/, helse /hɛːːɫz/ ("necks")

smid /smɪt/, smêde /smɛːːd/ ("smiths")

wulf /vʊɫf/, wülve /vʏːːɫv/ ("wolves")

Umlaut + -er

dorp, dörper ("villages")

land, lender ("lands")

book, boeker ("books")

Umlaut + -e

wald, welde ("forests")

stad, stêde ("cities")

Umlaut + loss of final d

hand, hen ("hands")

band, ben ("bands")

hund, hün ("dogs") (attested but rare form)

No change

wapen, wapen ("coats of arms")

swyn, swyn ("pigs")

knee, knee ("knees")

Adjectives

Regular Adjectives

Indefinite adjective endings (North Low Saxon)

m	f	n
-en (sing.), -e (pl.)	-e	-

Definite adjective endings (North Low Saxon)

m	f	n	pl
-e (nom.), -en (obl.)	-e	-e	-en

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns (North Low Saxon)

	1st sg	1st pl	2nd sg	2nd pl	3rd sg	3rd pl (and 2nd formal)
Nom.	ik	wi	du	ji	he (m), se (f), it (n)	se
Obl.	mi	us	di	ju	em, er, it	em

We can see for the first person pronouns that there are two distinctions to note, oblique-ness and plurality.

1st person Pronoun 'ik' (North Low Saxon)

	1st sg.	1st pl.
Nom.	ik<prn><nom><pers><p1><sg> ↔ ik	ik<prn>}<nom><pers><p1><pl> ↔ wi
Obl.	ik<prn><obl><pers><p1><sg> ↔ mi	ik<prn><obl><pers><p1><pl> ↔ us

Posssessive Pronouns (North Low Saxon)

1st sg	1st pl	2nd sg	2nd pl	3rd sg	3rd pl (and 2nd formal)
mien	us	dien	juw/joon/juun	sien (m/n), e(h)r (f)	e(h)r

Determiners

Articles (North Low Saxon)

	m	f/pl	n
Nom.	de	de	dat
Acc.	(d)en	de	(d)en
Dat.	(d)en	de	dat

In Plattdüütsch determiners take on gender and case markings, as can be seen in the table above. In the examples below we can see how we handle dative.

de<det><m><dat><sg> ↔ den

de<det><nt><dat><sg> ↔ dat

In the following we can see that Plattdüütsch uses a 'vun'+nomDet form for genitive clauses.

de<det><m><gen><sg> ↔ vun den

de<det><nt><gen><sg> ↔ vun dat

de<det><nt><gen><sg> ↔ vun dat

de<det><m><gen><pl> ↔ vun de

Accusative:

de<det><nt><acc><sg> ↔ (d)en

de<det><m><acc><sg> ↔ (d)en

de<det><f><acc><sg> ↔ de

Plurals:

de<det><m><acc><pl> ↔ de

de<det><nt><dat><pl> ↔ de

de<det><f><nom><pl> ↔ de

In the chart below we can see what every variation of this looks like in Plattdüütsch.

Tagged Articles (North Low Saxon)

	m	f	pl	nt
Nom.	: de<det><m><nom><sg> ↔ de	: de<det><f><nom><sg> ↔ de	: de<det><gd><nom><pl> ↔ de	: de<det><nt><nom><sg> ↔ dat
Acc.	: de<det><m><acc><sg> ↔ (d)en	: de<det><f><acc><sg> ↔ de	: de<det><gd><acc><pl> ↔ de	: de<det><nt><acc><sg> ↔ (d)en
Dat.	: de<det><m><dat><sg> ↔ (d)en	: de<det><f><dat><sg> ↔ de	: de<det><gd><dat><pl> ↔ de	: de<det><nt><dat><sg> ↔ dat
Gen.	: de<det><m><gen><sg> ↔ vun de	: de<det><f><gen><sg> ↔ vun de	: de<det><gd><gen><pl> ↔ vun de	: de<det><nt><gen><sg> ↔ vun dat