The Emergence of Mennonite
Low German

• Over two centuries in Poland, Mennonites came to adopt the local Lower Prussian Low German (Niederpreußisch) - but didn’t give up their native languages entirely in the process

• • Like many other settlers from the northwestern lowlands, Mennonites integrated words and phrases from Dutch, Flemish, and Frisian into Low German
  • Distinctive feature of these varieties, changing them considerably from the other forms of Low German which surrounded it - the first real independent linguistic development in Mennonite Low German on record