Negation in the history of Low German and Dutch

This chapter looks at the progress of Jespersen’s cycle in Low German and Dutch, tracing the emergence of a new marker of negation (nicht, niet) replacing earlier preverbal ni/ne/en and the very slow process by which the original marker fell out of use. It also considers issues in language contact and variation within Low German and Dutch, including discussion of dialects, such as West Flemish, where the original marker of negation survives, in a new function, to this day. With negative indefinites, negative concord is lost in the shift from Old Low German (Old Saxon) to Middle Low German as Jespersen’s cycle proceeds