Hello,
as Bob put it, Platt is a daughter of the Saxon dialects, surely also influenced - dependent on the region, by Frisian, Danish, Jutisch and other neighboring languages.
And, yes it is true that Platt was the 'lingua franca' of the Hanse League, all over northern Europe, from London to Russia, it was at least known by most sailors, tradesmen, etc. You can still find remnants of it today in, e.g., the English sailors' language.
Later, when the Hanse lost it's influence (espeicially the Dutch took over), Platt lost much of it's importance.
Bob stated that 'Platt' = 'Low' derived from the lowlands. There is another theory saying that Platt means 'simple' (as opposed to 'refined, from the city'. When I today speak of the 'platte land', I would not mean 'lowland' (low is just the normal status of the land, here, and not worth mentioning), but 'out in the country'.
Regards
Heiko from Oldenburg
"George Poch" <gapoch@hotmail.com> schrieb: