grouping may be regarded as an alternative to Anglo-Frisian, or as ancestral to it.

Since Anglo-Frisian features occur in Low Germanespecially in its older stages such as Old Saxonsome scholars regard the North Sea Germanic classification as more meaningful than a sharp division into Anglo-Frisian and Low German. In other words, because Old Saxon came under strong Old High German and Old Low Franconian influence at an early stage, it lost some North Sea Germanic features, that it had previously shared with Old English and Old Frisian.