Mennonites and Low German

• Importantly, most Mennonites fleeing to the Danzig area were presumably not Low German speakers

• • Rather, most Mennonite emigrants likely spoke varieties of Flemish, Dutch, and Frisian, and, to a lesser extent, some varieties of High German
  • Mennonite schools and churches maintained Dutch as their language of the pulpit and of writing

• The persecution which drove Mennonites to Poland and the 200 year sojourn which followed thus provided the first real catalyst for the emergence of a unique Mennonite Low German