Altona, Hamburg surrounding cities) with the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in 1938. On 1 February 2007 the "Ortsämter" (precincts) in Hamburg were dissolved. In Altona the precincts of Blankenese, Lurup and Osdorf had existed and had local offices. On 1 March 2008 the Schanzenviertel neighborhood, which had spanned across parts of the boroughs of Altona, Eimsbüttel and Hamburg-Mitte, became the Sternschanze quarter, the entirety of which is now in the Altona borough. The border of Altona to the south is the River Elbe, and across the river the state Lower Saxony and the boroughs Harburg and Hamburg-Mitte. To the east
Hamburg German "eu" (pronounced "oi") for the diphthong (written "öö", "öh" or "ö"), e.g. However, as in most other Low Saxon (Low German) dialects, the long monophthong is pronounced (as in French "peu"), for instance "Kööm" ~ "Kœm" ‘caraway’. The Low Saxon language in Hamburg is divided in several subdialects, e.g. The Hamborger Veermaster is a famous sea shanty sung in the regional dialect. Hamburg German Hamburg German, also known as Hamburg or Hamburger dialect (), is a group of Northern Low Saxon varieties spoken in Hamburg, Germany. Occasionally, the term "Hamburgisch" is also used for Hamburg "Missingsch", a variety of standard