Editing Southern Schleswig (section)

==Modern day==
Southern Schleswig is part of the German [[states of Germany|state]] (''{{lang|de|Bundesland}}'') of [[Schleswig-Holstein]], thus its denotation as ''{{lang|de|Landesteil Schleswig}}''. It does not, however, form an administrative entity, but instead consists of the [[districts of Germany|districts]] (''{{lang|de|Landkreise}}'') of [[Schleswig-Flensburg]], [[Nordfriesland]], the [[urban districts of Germany|urban district]] (''{{lang|de|Kreisfreie Stadt}}'') of [[Flensburg]] and the northern part of [[Rendsburg-Eckernförde]] (former district of ''Eckernförde'' plus the historic ''Hohner [[Hundred (county division)|Harde]]'').

[[File:Learn Danish in Germany, 2012, ubt.JPG|thumb|''Learn Danish'' banner in [[Flensburg]], one of the major cities of Southern Schleswig]]
Besides Standard German, [[West Low German|Low Saxon]] dialects ([[Schleswigsch]]) are spoken, as well as [[Danish language|Danish]] (Standard Danish or South Schleswig Danish) and its [[South Jutlandic]] variant, plus [[North Frisian language|North Frisian]] in the west.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.region.de/index.php?id=219&L=0%252C%252C| title = Region Sønderjylland-Schleswig: ''Sprachen und Dialekte südlich der Grenze''{{in lang{{!}}de}}}}</ref> Danish and North Frisian are official minority languages. Many of the inhabitants who speak only German and not Danish do not consider the region any different from the rest of Schleswig-Holstein. This notion is disputed by those defining themselves as [[Danes]], South Schleswigans or Schleswigans, particularly historians and people organised in the institutions of the [[Danish minority of Southern Schleswig]], such as the [[South Schleswig Voter Federation]], a political party representing the Danish and North Frisian minorities in the [[Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein]] and exempted from the 5% [[Election threshold|electoral threshold]]. Many of the last names found in the region are very often of Scandinavian or Danish form, with the ''-sen'' endings like Petersen.

The major cities of Southern Schleswig are [[Flensburg]], the city of [[Schleswig (city)|Schleswig]], [[Eckernförde]] and [[Husum]].