Low German

Low German (Plattdeutsch or Niederdeutsch), also called Lower Saxon, is a language consisting of the dialects of the northern and central part of Germany and some border provinces of the Netherlands. Although a variation of German, in many aspects it is more closely related to Dutch, which started life as a Low German dialect - German as we now know it is a mixture of dialects, but mostly High German. However, Low German was once much more widespread than today, being used as a lingua franca throughout the Baltic region.