The Lusatian dialects (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

: ''Lausitzisch'') are East Central German ( High German) dialects spoken in southern Brandenburg and eastern Saxony. The name "Lusatian" derives from the term Lusatia, meaning the dialects of Lusatia. They are most closely related to Silesian German. Berlin and Brandenburg originally lay in the

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

language area. Through immigration to Berlin from (then)

Central German Central German or Middle German (german: mitteldeutsche Dialekte, mitteldeutsche Mundarten, Mitteldeutsch) is a group of High German dialects spoken from the Rhineland in the west to the former eastern territories of Germany. Central German di ...

-speaking regions like Silesia and Saxony, the city's Low German dialect has been strongly influenced by Central German, so that it evolved from a Low German into a Central German (High German) variant, which then spread from Berlin to the surrounding areas of Brandenburg. The Slavic languages of Lower and

Upper Sorbian Upper Sorbian (), occasionally referred to as "Wendish", is a minority language spoken by Sorbs in Germany in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, which is today part of Saxony. It is grouped in the West Slavic language branch, together ...

, which are spoken in Lusatia as well, are also sometimes referred to as

Lusatian languages The Sorbian languages ( hsb, serbska rěč, dsb, serbska rěc) are the Upper Sorbian language and Lower Sorbian language, two closely related and partially mutually intelligible languages spoken by the Sorbs, a West Slavic ethno-cultural minor ...

Main dialect groups

* Eastern Lusatian (spoken in Eastern Upper Lusatia) *

Low Lusatian Low Lusatian German (in German: ''Niederlausitzer Mundart'' (also English: Low Lusatian dialect)) is a variety of Central German spoken in northern Saxony and southern Brandenburg within the regions of Lower Lusatia (Cottbus) and the northern part ...

(spoken in Lower Lusatia and northern Upper Lusatia) * New Lusatian (spoken in the area of settlement of the Sorbs; influenced by the Sorbian languages) * Upper Lusatian (spoken in southern Upper Lusatia; with an

American r The voiced alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolar and postalveolar approximants is , a lowercase letter ''r'' rotated 180 ...

) * Western Lusatian (spoken in Western Upper Lusatia)

References

{{Germanic languages Brandenburg Central German languages German dialects Languages of Germany