Platt-Deutsch, or LOW GERMAN, the direct descendant of Old Saxon, and a sister-tongue of High German, is spoken to-day in different dialects by the peasantry of north Germany from the Rhine to Pomerania. It belongs to the same group as Dutch, Flemish, and Frisian. Low German softens the consonants, but avoids the deep sibilants of High German as spoken in the south, and has simple grammatical rules. It is very appropriate in the mouths of the people who use it, their chief characteristics being naïveté, a childlike good-nature, and sturdy honesty; and it lends itself readily as a vehicle for fairy-tales, folk-tales, and simple folk-songs, such as those collected in Firmenich's Germaniens Völkerstimmen. Klaus Groth (q.v.) and Fritz Reuter (q.v.) have given it a high literary standing. Minor writers in Low German are Bornemann, Burmeister, Giesebrecht, and Brinckmann.
See Groth, Briefe über Hochdeutsch und Plattdeutsch (1858); and Gaedertz, Das Niederdeutsche Schauspiel (2 vols. 1884). See also the articles GERMANY (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE), GRIMM'S LAW, EULENSPIEGEL, REYNARD THE FOX.