Westphalia is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of 20,210 square kilometres (7,800 sq mi) and 7.9 million inhabitants.
Image: Muenster Prinzipalmarkt 09
Image: Kaiser Wilhelm Denkmal Porta Westfalica
Image: Wewelsburg 2010 b
Image: Schloss Nordkirchen Germany NRW
Low German is a West Germanic language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide.
City limit sign in Lower Saxony showing that Low German is closer to English: "Altenbruch" (Standard German) "Olenbrook" (Low German), meaning "old bog/swamp" (incorporated village of Cuxhaven).
Low German-speaking area before the expulsion of almost all Low German- and German-speakers from east of the Oder–Neisse line in 1945. Low German-speaking provinces of Germany east of the Oder, before 1945, were Pomerania with its capital Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland), where east of the Oder East Pomeranian dialects were spoken, and East Prussia with its capital Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), where Low Prussian dialects were spoken. Danzig (now
A public school in Witmarsum Colony (Paraná, Southern Brazil) teaches in the Portuguese language and in Plautdietsch.
Low German dialects around the world
