Middle Low German (ISO 639-3 code gml) is a language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern Low German. ISO 639 is the set of international standards that lists short codes for Language names A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German ( ISO 639 -3 code osx) is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 9th century Low German or Low Saxon (in Germany: Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch; in Netherlands: Nedersaksisch or Nederduuts It served as the international lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hansa) was an alliance of trading cities and their Guilds that established and maintained trade It was spoken from about 1100 to 1600.

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. A dialect continuum is a range of Dialects spoken across a large geographical area differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close and gradually decreasing The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of Languages and include languages such as English Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects (whose ancestor was Old Dutch) which were spoken and written between 1150 Middle High German (MHG German Mittelhochdeutsch) is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350 Early New High German (ENHG is a term for the period in the history of the German language, generally defined following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period 1350

Middle Low German provided a large number of loanwords to the Nordic languages as a result of the activities of Hanseatic traders. It is considered the largest single source of loanwords in the continental Scandinavian languages. The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages

History

Northern Europe in 1400, showing the extent of the Hansa

Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League, spoken all around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hansa) was an alliance of trading cities and their Guilds that established and maintained trade The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf. The Baltic Sea is a Brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N Latitude and from 20°E to 26°E Longitude. Based on the language of Lübeck, a standardized written language was developing, though it was never codified. Lübeck ( is the second largest City in Schleswig-Holstein, in Northern Germany, and one of the major

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. The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States

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. The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time

Literature

• The Sachsenspiegel