'Heart palpitation' is Low Saxon word of year
June 17, 2018
"Hartpuckern" ― "Herzklopfen" in German and "heart palpitation" in English ― is the Low Saxon language's word of the year.
Marco Zabel, the director of the Fritz-Reuter Literature Museum in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, announced the decision on Sunday, according to local media.
Read more: Northern German states pledge to protect vulnerable Low Saxon language
Zabel said representatives from the museum and the state's cultural association selected the word from more than 98 entries.
Winners in previous years include "Dwarsdriewer" ("obstructionist"), "Ackerschnacker" ("mobile phone"), "Lämmerhüppen" ("disco") and "kommodig" ("comfortable").
The 2018 award for the best new word in the regional language was "Ankiekbook" ("Facebook"), while the award for the best idiom went to "Stoh fast, kiek weit und röög di!" ("stand tall, look to the distance and do something!").
Read more: How a dictionary aims to expand standardized variants of German
Low Saxon, also known as Low German, is spoken by some 4.8 million people, according to UNESCO's latest estimate, with around 3 million located in the western and northern states of Germany and the rest in the Netherlands and far southern Denmark.
The German author and poet Fritz Reuter wrote many of his works in the language during the nineteenth century.