The Key Linguistic Features

Linguistic features fall into three main categories, as follows: phonology, grammar, and vocabulary. These features help us understand how languages relate to each other and how they have changed over the years. In so doing, we are able to appreciate our regional identities and histories even more, which helps us preserve our languages.

Besides the walk down memory lane, linguistic features serve another purpose, such that if you are learning a language, you need to master its key features to be fluent in the said language. So, how does each feature work?

Phonology

Languages sound different because they have different sound patterns and pronunciation, which is what phonology studies. For example, when you compare Low German to High German, you will notice that most of the differences come down to how they pronounce some consonants. But why is this the case?

When it comes down to it, German and English share the same linguistic family. But at some point, High German, which is used in southern Germany and the Alps, underwent a consonant shift. This shift was a change in pronunciation such that sounds like ‘p’ became ‘pf’ and those like ‘t’ became ‘ts’ or ‘z.’ Low German, on the other hand, did not. Instead, it emerged as a mix of languages that were spoken around the coastal areas in Northern Europe, where English, Dutch, and German merchants and sailors would converge to trade. As a result, it sounds a lot more like English and Dutch as it borrowed a lot from the two while still preserving its German roots.

Let’s use some examples to highlight these differences:

The Sound	English	Low German	High German
p-pf	Apple	Appel	Apfel
k-ch	Make	Maken	Machen

Thanks to these changes, Low German sounds a lot like English and Dutch. For example, ‘maken’ in Dutch is the same as ‘maken’ in Low German, and they both sound a lot like ‘make’ in English. But the ‘machen’ in High German sounds quite different from all these versions of ‘make.’

But the differences are not just in the consonants. Low German leans more on older and simpler vowel sounds such as ‘a,’ ‘o,’ and ‘u.’ But High German uses ‘ä’, ‘ö’, and ‘ü.’ So, if you want to say that something looks beautiful in High German, you will call it ‘schön’, yet if you were to use Low German, you would call it ‘schoon.’ The latter sounds more like Dutch.

Grammar

The other thing that people learn when taking on a new language is how to organize the words in sentences, how verbs can change, and how nouns behave. Verb conjugation (how verbs change depending on the subject) is especially important as it forms the basis of communicating in a language. Let’s see how this works in Low German, High German, and English.

Person’s Actions	English	Low German	High German
I go	I go	Ik gah	Ich gehe
He goes	He goes	He gah	Er geht

Once again, it’s clear that Low German sounds much more like English. After all, if someone says ‘ik gah,’ it sounds a lot like ‘I go’ compared to if they were to say ‘ich gehe.’

Case Use

Another complex part of learning any language is understanding how the cases work, i.e., nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object), and genitive (possession). In High German, you will find that the language uses all of these cases, which makes the language quite rich. But with Low German, genitive cases are rarely used, and in most cases, the dative and accusative cases are used together. This merging makes it much easier to learn the language and form sentences. Again, let’s use an example in a sentence.

Suppose you want to say that a book belongs to a man. In High German, you will say Das Buch des Manne, which is genitive. But in Low German, you would say Dat Book von den Mann, thus doing away with the genitive case. As you can see, this is much easier. And it sounds a lot like that book from the man, which is its literal English translation.

Vocabulary

The meanings of words and how they are used change from one language to another. So, when we talk about the vocabulary of a language, we refer to these collections of words. And since German, English, and Dutch have a similar ancestry and belong to the Germanic family, they have quite a lot in common. Let’s use some examples to showcase this similarity.

English	Low German	Dutch	High German
Bread	Brood	Brood	Brot
Water	Water	Water	Wasser
Day	Dag	Dag	Tag
To eat	Eten	Eten	Essen

Looking at these common words, it’s quite easy to see the similarities between Low German, Dutch, and English, which makes it easy for natives of these languages to learn the others in this family. While High German does share some similarities with these languages, it’s clear that its evolution makes it stand out more from its counterparts.