Symbols
72Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Gronings alphabet
The 26 Latin letters, capital and small, with the accented vowels Gronings uses lined up by accent. Sounds like ie, oe, oa and ai are spelled with ordinary letters.
Apostrophe and quotation marks
’ is the apostrophe of ’t, ’k and d’Olle Grieze; ‘…’ and “…” are the common quotation marks, „…” the traditional Dutch pair.
Currency
Gronings is spoken in the Netherlands, which pays in euros: € 2,50.
Where it's spoken
The province of Groningen and nearby parts of Drenthe, in the Netherlands. There is no emoji for the flag of Groningen.
Gronings in emoji
The wave of Moi, the white and green of the city and FC Groningen, and the red and blue that join them on the provincial flag.
On the map
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Gronings language: Low Saxon from the far north of the Netherlands
Gronings, in the language itself usually Grunnegs, is the regional language of the province of Groningen and of nearby parts of Drenthe. It is not a dialect of Dutch but a branch of Low Saxon, the same family as the Low German of northern Germany. Its closest relative lives just across the Dollard and the Ems: the East Frisian Low German of Ostfriesland, which shares much of its vocabulary and sound system with Gronings. In the Middle Ages the countryside around the city, the Ommelanden, spoke Frisian, and Gronings still carries Frisian words and sounds from that time, which sets it apart from the Low Saxon of Drenthe, Twente and the Achterhoek.
By CLDR's estimate about 640,000 people speak Gronings, nearly all of them in the Netherlands . Like the other Low Saxon varieties, it is protected as a regional language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which the Netherlands applied to Low Saxon in 1996. Almost every speaker also speaks and writes standard Dutch, and switches between the two all day.
Gronings spelling and accent marks
Gronings is written with the 26 Latin letters, from A a to Z z, the same set as Dutch, and its own vowel spellings give it its look. Where Dutch writes ij, Gronings often writes ie: mien (my), tied (time). In many Gronings varieties Dutch ui appears as oe: hoes (house), while others use huus. Dutch long aa often corresponds to oa, as in moar (but). Dutch ij often corresponds to ie, while Dutch ei can appear as ai or aai; nait and noit are variants of Dutch niet. None of these needs a special character; they are spelled with ordinary letters.
Gronings spelling uses accent marks sparingly to clarify pronunciation or meaning: ó, ò and ö appear in examples, and a grave accent can mark a short o, as in bòk against hòk. For the vowel corresponding to Dutch aa, the spelling rules use oa even where speakers pronounce it like “ò”. Gronings has no single binding spelling, and words vary from village to village, so writers differ in how often they use these accents; in quick messages many people leave them out. The grid above pairs the characters with their plain letters; Gronings accents are selective aids, not a fixed additional set of alphabet letters.
In Gronings spelling, an apostrophe marks some clipped endings: d’ for the article de, as in d’kinder (‘the children’); initial short forms such as t and k are written without an apostrophe. The Martinitoren is locally called d’Olle Grieze, ‘the old grey one’.
How to type Gronings accent marks and special characters
With the US-International layout on Windows, press " then o for ö, then e for è, ^ (Shift+6) then e for ê, and then o for ò; add Shift to the letter for the capitals Ö È Ê Ò. On a Mac, OptionU then o gives ö, Option then e gives è, Option+I then e gives ê, and Option+ then o gives ò. On a phone, hold down the e or the o and slide to the accented letter.
Without US-International, hold Alt and type on the number pad: Alt0246 ö, Alt0214 Ö, Alt0232 è, Alt0200 È, Alt0234 ê, Alt0202 Ê, Alt0242 ò, Alt0210 Ò, Alt0146 for the apostrophe ’ and Alt0128 for . In HTML the named entities are ö è ê ò ’ and €, or simply copy the characters from this page.
Gronings quotation marks, the euro and Groningen in emoji
Gronings follows Dutch typography. Quotations are set in ‘…’ or “…”, or in the older Dutch pair „…” that opens low and closes high. Money is the euro, written before the amount with a decimal comma: 2,50.
There is no emoji for the flag of the province or the city of Groningen; emoji flags exist for countries, and for England, Scotland and Wales, but not for Dutch provinces. People use or the colours instead: for the white and green of the city and of FC Groningen, and for the provincial flag, which joins the city’s green and white to the red, white and blue of the Ommelanden. And a word every visitor to Groningen soon hears is Moi , the everyday greeting.
For the neighbours of Gronings see the Dutch, Western Frisian and Low German collections, the regional languages Zeelandic, Limburgish and West Flemish, and the Netherlands collection for the country’s flag, food and emoji.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyGronings Alphabet & Letters combos
11Worth knowing
- Moi, Groningen's everyday hello, is also an everyday hello in Finnish, a language with no relation to Gronings at all.
- The Martinitoren, the great church tower of the city of Groningen, is known in Gronings as d’Olle Grieze, ‘the old grey one’.
- On 28 August the city of Groningen celebrates Gronings Ontzet, the day in 1672 when the troops of the Bishop of Münster, nicknamed Bommen Berend, gave up their siege of the city.
- Before Low Saxon spread out from the city, the countryside of Groningen spoke Frisian, which is why Gronings keeps Frisian words that its Low Saxon neighbours in Drenthe do not have.
Questions people ask
7Is Gronings a language or a dialect?
Gronings is a variety of Low Saxon, not a dialect of Dutch. The Netherlands recognises Low Saxon, including Gronings, as a regional language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Within Low Saxon, Gronings is one of the regional varieties, and its speakers often simply call it their language, Grunnegs.
Does Gronings have its own alphabet?
No, it uses the 26 Latin letters, with spelling close to Dutch. Accent marks such as ó, ò and ö can be used sparingly to clarify pronunciation or meaning; they are not a separate fixed set of alphabet letters.
What does moi mean in Gronings?
Moi means hello. It is the everyday greeting in Groningen and across the north of the Netherlands.
Is moi Gronings or Drents?
Both. Moi is said all over Groningen and Drenthe and across much of the north of the Netherlands, so it belongs to Gronings as much as to Drents.
Is there a Groningen flag emoji?
No. Emoji flags exist for countries and for England, Scotland and Wales, not for Dutch provinces or cities. Use , or the colours: for the city and for the provincial flag.
How to type ö?
On Windows with US-International press " and then o, or hold Alt and type 0246 on the number pad (0214 for Ö). On a Mac press OptionU, then o. On a phone, hold the o key and pick ö.
How do I copy and paste Gronings letters?
Click or tap any letter on this page to copy it, then paste with CtrlV, CmdV, or a long-press and Paste on a phone.
