From 1500 onwards, Old East Frisian slowly had to give way in the face of the severe pressure put on it by the surrounding Low German dialects, and nowadays it is all but extinct.

[citation needed] In this dialect, referred to in Standard German as Ostfriesisch, the Frisian substratum is still evident, despite heavy Germanisation.

Saterland (Seelterlound in the local language), which is believed to have been colonised by Frisians from East Frisia in the eleventh century, was for a long time surrounded by impassable moors.

This, together with the fact that Sater Frisian always had a status superior to Low German among the inhabitants of the area, accounts for the preservation of the language throughout the centuries.

As a consequence, it was brought back under control of the Catholic Church, resulting in social separation from Protestant East Frisia since about 1630.