It might be ASB but, what if Frederick the Great tried to standardize Low German or even Old Prussian?

[Neoteros]

It's no secret that the guy hated the standard German language and literature, and preferred to speak and write in French while in private.

Now, Frederick the Great imposing French on Prussia would be a step too far even for him, but what if he sponsored efforts to codify and standardize Low German - a process that had begun under the Hansa, only to fall apart - or even Old Prussian, since the language had not gone completely extinct by then yet? On a scale of linguistic curiosity to language revival, his efforts would probably fall more towards the former side but, who knows?

 

[JD180]

It's no secret that the guy hated the standard German language and literature, and preferred to speak and write in French while in private.

Now, Frederick the Great imposing French on Prussia would be a step too far even for him, but what if he sponsored efforts to codify and standardize Low German - a process that had begun under the Hansa, only to fall apart - or even Old Prussian, since the language had not gone completely extinct by then yet? On a scale of linguistic curiosity to language revival, his efforts would probably fall more towards the former side but, who knows?

I’d imagine that there’d be much more a ethno -cultural north/south split of Germany than there was OTL, with the low German speaking regions (and Prussian influenced states) of North Germany becoming more culturally divergent to their Southern German brethren.

This might have long term political affects, perhaps German nationalism is splintered into Northern (Prussian) and Southern (Austrian) factions.

 

[Aghasverov]

Well, as the nearest living languages to Old Prussian are Lithuanian and Latvian, which are quite dissimilar from Germanic languages structurally and grammatically (and a bit more complex than Low German IMO - but being a native English speaker maybe I'm a bit biased), I'd say the "learning curve" for the average German of the time to learn a standardized Old Prussian would be quite steep.
Fred Der Grosse would've had to loathe the German language even more than he already did, if possible

 

[LeCHVCK]

It's too late to standardize low german in the 18th century. This would need to happen in the 16th century with a bible translation.

 

[pompejus]

It's too late to standardize low german in the 18th century. This would need to happen in the 16th century with a bible translation.

I could even see it happening in the 17th century durung the 30 year war. And yes you need a new bible translation for Low German, but the first Dutch bible was not made until the 17th century (1635).

 

[alexmilman]

It's no secret that the guy hated the standard German language and literature, and preferred to speak and write in French while in private.

Now, Frederick the Great imposing French on Prussia would be a step too far even for him, but what if he sponsored efforts to codify and standardize Low German - a process that had begun under the Hansa, only to fall apart - or even Old Prussian, since the language had not gone completely extinct by then yet? On a scale of linguistic curiosity to language revival, his efforts would probably fall more towards the former side but, who knows?

Why would he bothered? In his expressed opinion German was a language of the soldiers and prostitutes and the cultured people used French. Everybody was happy. 😂

 

[stevej713]

As stated before, standardizing Low German in the 18th century is too late. In order to standardize a language, you need a community of literate people who can speak AND write in the language and need the language standardized to conduct their professions efficiently. This comes in the form of priests, merchants, or the nobility/bureaucracy. For all three groups, the preferred languages were Latin, French, and High German (as a rather distant third). It's too late to change this in Frederick's days. As you hint to in the OP, the only way to change this would be to wank the Hansa or to somehow create a scenario where a Low German dynasty gains control of the Holy Roman Empire long enough for Low German to be considered a language worth speaking/writing in higher circles. Standardizing Old Prussian is simply ASB.

 

[Aghasverov]

Why would he bothered? In his expressed opinion German was a language of the soldiers and prostitutes and the cultured people used French. Everybody was happy. 😂

For some reason, I am reminded of the movie "Hook", where Dustin Hoffman's Capt. Hook walks out on deck, with the crew chanting his name....
"My Crew!... (whispers) how I loathe them..."

 

[Aghasverov]

For some reason, I am reminded of the movie "Hook", where Dustin Hoffman's Capt. Hook walks out on deck, with the crew chanting his name....
"My Crew!... (whispers) how I loathe them..."

Of course, Fred loathed many things... the German language, Poles, Jews, bathing, women (except of course for his dear sister)... can't say that I agree with him on any of those counts

 

[Claudius]

But he did admire Bach. So he's at least got that