Dutch Low Saxon

Dutch Low Saxon is the group of Low Saxon dialects of the Low German branch of West Germanic spoken in the northeastern Netherlands, historically rooted in Northern Low Saxon and Friso-Saxon varieties. Linguists debate its classification: historically it was treated simply as Low Saxon native to Dutch rather than German territory, while some contemporary scholars group it within the Dutch language sphere, and mutual intelligibility with German Low Saxon dialects is not necessarily impaired despite centuries of separate influence from their respective standard languages since the seventeenth century. The Netherlands has officially recognized Dutch Low Saxon as a minority language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages since 1996. A 2005 study found about 2.15 million people could speak it reasonably well or better, with 1.6 million using it at home, but UNESCO classifies it as vulnerable, noting the share of parents transmitting it to children fell from 34 percent in 1995 to 15 percent in 2011.