Lit would know, indeed.
Didn't he post at Al's place for a while?
Yes, he still posts there once in a while. I've seen him lurking here too.
As for my previous post, I'm just going off of what I learned in German class 30 some odd years ago. From what I remember, Plattdeutsch has changed the least from its early midieval origins whereas English and Hochdeutsch evolved in different directions but share the same root language.
I think you are right here.
Dutch was constructed partly after the joining of the provinces. It is somewhat "synthetic" because of that. The first protestant bible translation had a big influence on the creation of Dutch too. Don't know how it is with Hochdeutsch, but something similar would not surprise me.
"Plat", "Lower Saxon", "Nedersaxisch" or "Plattduuts", whatever you call it still is a living language. My government wants to take the status of language away from it. When it is still being used in a large area. It is very close to Dutch, it is very close to German, but it has it's own vocabulary and grammar. It is not Dutch or German with an accent.
It is the language I am raised in, I wish I had some schooling in how to write it.