Symbols
80Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Low German alphabet
The 26 letters of A–Z with the umlauts Ä Ö Ü and the ring letter Å lined up by mark. Dictionaries file ä, ö and ü with a, o and u, as German ones do; long vowels are written doubled (aa, ee, oo, üü, öö) rather than with letters of their own.
Quotation marks and apostrophe
In Germany Platt is set like German, „so“ and ‚so‘, or »so« in books; in the Netherlands like Dutch, “so” and ‘so’. ’ is the apostrophe of ’n, ’t and to’n.
Currency
Both countries where Low German is spoken pay in euros.
Where it's spoken
Northern Germany first, then the north-east of the Netherlands, where it is called Nedersaksisch.
Platt in emoji
The wave of Moin, the Hanseatic ports and the North Sea, sheep on the dikes and cows on the marsh, the horse heads on farmhouse gables, East Frisian tea and the fish roll of the harbour.
On the map
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The Low German alphabet: A to Z plus Ä, Ö, Ü and Å
The Low German alphabet is the Latin alphabet from A a to Z z, the same 26 letters as English, with the umlauts Ä Ö Ü (ä ö ü) and, in some spellings, the ring letter Å å. Low German, called Plattdüütsch, Platt or Nedderdüütsch by its speakers and Plattdeutsch in German, has no single official spelling. In Germany many writers, dictionaries and schools follow the rules named after Johannes Saß, which build on German spelling habits; in the Netherlands writers use spellings built on Dutch habits instead. Either way the letters needed are the ones on this page.
Like German, Low German in Germany capitalises every noun: dat Huus (the house), de Straat (the street), de Lüüd (the people). Q, X and Y turn up mainly in names and borrowed words; C also appears in native words in digraphs such as sch and ck, which work as in German: ik (I), Schipp (ship), plietsch (clever).
One major difference between Low German and High German is the history of their consonants. It never took part in the High German consonant shift, so where German has ss, ß, z or pf, Platt usually keeps the old t, p and k, much like English and Dutch: Water (Wasser), Straat (Straße), Foot (Fuß), groot (groß), Tiet (Zeit), Appel (Apfel), Peerd (Pferd), maken (machen), Dorp (Dorf).
Low German letters: long vowels and umlauts (Huus, Book, Böker, Plattdüütsch)
Low German has many long vowels, and the usual way to show them is to double the letter: Huus, Book, Straat, Lüüd, schöön (beautiful), Plattdüütsch. In the Saß spelling the double letter is used in closed syllables; in an open syllable one letter is enough, as in maken or Böker. That is why ü and ö so often come in pairs, üü and öö, and why a Platt text can look full of dots.
The umlauts sound much as they do in German: ö is an e said with rounded lips, ü an i said with rounded lips, and ä an open e. They also change a word, often in the plural: Book, Böker (book, books); Foot, Fööt (foot, feet). Leaving the dots off turns one word into another, so they belong in names, signs and messages as much as in books.
Å is part of the Low German alphabet in the Unicode CLDR data that keyboards and phones use. It is not a Saß letter: some regional spellings use it for the dark, o-coloured long a heard in many dialects, a sound that other writers spell aa or a. It is the same character as the å of Danish and Swedish.
Apostrophes and quotation marks in Platt
Spoken Platt runs small words together, and writing shows it with the apostrophe ’: ’n for the article en (a), ’t for dat (it), to’n for to den (to the), op’n, in’n, wat’s. The typographic apostrophe ’ is the right character; the straight ' of the keyboard is the typewriter stand-in.
Quotation marks follow the country. Low German printed in Germany uses German marks, opening low and closing high, „so“, with ‚so‘ inside, or the inward-pointing guillemets »so« that many German books prefer. Nedersaksisch in the Netherlands is set like Dutch, “so” and ‘so’. Money is the same on both sides of the border: .
How to type Low German letters (ä ö ü å) on keyboard and phone
On a German keyboard ä, ö and ü have their own keys, is AltGrE, and only å needs a trick. On Windows, the Alt codes are Alt0228 ä, Alt0246 ö, Alt0252 ü, Alt0196 Ä, Alt0214 Ö, Alt0220 Ü, Alt0229 å and Alt0197 Å, typed on the number pad. With the US-International layout, common in the Netherlands, press " and then a, o or u for ä ö ü, and Right AltW for å.
On a Mac press OptionU and then the vowel for ä ö ü, and OptionA for å (ShiftOptionA for Å). On iPhone and Android phones hold the a, o or u key and pick the letter from the row that pops up. In HTML the entities are ä, ö, ü and å.
For quotation marks, Windows Alt codes give „ Alt0132, “ Alt0147, ” Alt0148, ‚ Alt0130, ‘ Alt0145, ’ Alt0146, » Alt0187 and « Alt0171. Word processors set to German turn straight quotes into „ “ by themselves; or copy any of them from this page.
Where Low German is spoken, and its neighbours
Low German is the language of the north German plain, from the Dutch border to the Baltic coast: Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the northern parts of the states further south. Across the border it is spoken in the north-east of the Netherlands, in Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel and the Achterhoek, as Nedersaksisch. CLDR’s roughly 12 million figure estimates its literate, functional Low German population—about 10 million in Germany and 2 million in the Netherlands—not all speakers; surveys asking who speaks it well give lower numbers. Both countries recognise it as a regional language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
In the Middle Ages, Middle Low German was the common language of the Hanseatic League, the trading network of Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen and their partners around the North Sea and the Baltic, and Danish, Swedish and Norwegian took a great many words from it. Today it lives on stage at Hamburg’s Ohnsorg-Theater, on public radio and in school lessons in several northern states.
Its closest relatives have their own pages here: German Letters & Umlauts for High German with ß and ẞ, Dutch for the Netherlands’ national language, Frisian for West Frisian with its â ê ô û, and Danish for the neighbour north of the border with æ ø å. For flags and emoji of the two countries, see the Germany and Netherlands collections.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyLow German Alphabet & Letters combos
15Worth knowing
- Moin is not short for Guten Morgen: it is said all day long, and it most likely comes from the Low German and Dutch word for nice or good, moi.
- Middle Low German was the business language of the Hanseatic League, which is why Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are full of words borrowed from it.
- Low German sits closer to English than High German does on many everyday words, because it skipped the High German consonant shift: Water, Appel, Schipp and Book against German Wasser, Apfel, Schiff and Buch.
- Hamburg’s street greeting Hummel Hummel is answered with Mors Mors, Platt for a rude word about the backside, from the legend of a water carrier called Hummel teased by the city’s children.
- Plautdietsch, the language of Mennonite communities in Canada, Mexico, Paraguay, Bolivia and beyond, grew out of the Low German of the Vistula delta and is now written with spellings of its own.
Questions people ask
8What is Low German?
Low German, Plattdeutsch or Plattdüütsch, is a West Germanic language of northern Germany and the north-east Netherlands. It is a language of its own, not a dialect of standard German, and both countries recognise it as a regional language. CLDR estimates around 12 million speakers.
What letters are in the Low German alphabet?
A to Z plus the umlauts Ä Ö Ü (ä ö ü) and Å å, which some regional spellings use. Long vowels are written by doubling the letter, as in Huus, Book and Plattdüütsch, so no further letters are needed.
What is the difference between Low German and High German?
Low German never went through the High German consonant shift, so it keeps t, p and k where German has z, ss, ß, f or pf: Water for Wasser, Tiet for Zeit, Appel for Apfel, Dorp for Dorf. It also has its own grammar and vocabulary; German and Platt speakers do not understand each other without practice.
Is Plattdeutsch the same as Low German?
Yes. Plattdeutsch is the German name, Plattdüütsch or simply Platt the name in the language itself, and Low German or Low Saxon the English names. In the Netherlands it is called Nedersaksisch.
Does Low German use ß?
The CLDR Low German alphabet has no ß, and many words that have ß in German have t in Platt: Straat, Foot, groot. If a text you are copying does use it, ß and the capital ẞ are on the German letters page.
How do you type ü, ö and ä for Low German?
On Windows use Alt0252 ü, Alt0246 ö, Alt0228 ä (Alt0220, Alt0214, Alt0196 for capitals), or US-International: " then the vowel. On a Mac press OptionU, then the vowel. On a phone hold the vowel key. Or copy them from this page.
Is Plautdietsch Low German?
Plautdietsch, Mennonite Low German, comes from the Low German once spoken in the Vistula delta and is closely related, but centuries apart in the Americas have made it a language of its own with its own spellings.
What does Moin mean?
Moin is the everyday greeting of northern Germany: hello, at any time of day. Moin moin is the longer form.
