Lowland

[David Bergdahl]

"Uh, all the Germanic languages participated in the 1st Sound Shift--that is
what sets the Germanic langs apart from the rest of IE."  Correct

 Any standard chart will show the Germanic family divided into three
branches: North (Scandanavian), West (our group) and East (all extinct but
once included Gothic & Burgundian).  West Gmc is further subdivided into
"Platt" (flat or lowlands) German and "Hoch" (or mountainous) German
although the terms "north" for the flatlanders and "south" for the hilljacks
could just as easily be used.  Since "Hochdeutsch" is a subdivision of West
Germanic (defined by participation in Grimm's 2nd Sound Shift) the statement
"As far as the 2nd Sound Shift goes, it's not West Germanic, but High
German--that's what sets High German off from Low German and the rest of the
West Germanic languages" means that the Scandanavian languages are neither
"high" nor "low" since they belong to a different branch, nicht wahr?
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"Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber Boshaft ist er nicht"
--Albert Einstein