Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit, or, for instance, in modern Icelandic or Russian. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender.
German
High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and parts of Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German.