Low Prussian dialect

Simon Dach's poem Anke van Tharaw was written in Low Prussian.

Excluding Plautdietsch, Low Prussian can be considered moribund due to the evacuation and forced expulsion of Germans from East Prussia after World War II.

Plautdietsch, however, has several thousand speakers throughout the world, most notably in South America, Canada and Germany.

Most of the Low Prussian speakers not expelled after World War II relocated from Poland to Western Germany in the 1970s and 1980s and from Russia in the 1990s as so-called late repatriates (Spätaussiedler).

Today, the language is almost extinct, as its use is restricted to communication within the family and gatherings of expellees, where they are spoken out of nostalgia.

In both countries, the High Prussian dialects were not transmitted to the next generation, therefore, few elderly speakers remain.

It shares some features with High Prussian, differentiating it from neighbouring Low German dialects.

Words are often shortened, in a manner similar to that of the neighboring East Pomeranian dialect, giving beet (beten, little bit) and baakove ('bakåben', bake oven).

Low Prussian also has a number of words in common with Plautdietsch, such as Klemp (cow), Klopps (lump, ball of earth) and Tsoagel (tail).

[11] In addition to the words of Old Prussian origin, another source of Baltic loans [lt; lv] was Lithuanian.

[11] The writer Erminia von Olfers-Batocki (1876-1954) from Natangia wrote the following poem in Low Prussian:[13] Ek häbb e kleen Perdke, ek häbb ok e Pitsch, Un e jrinlachtje Schleede, jewt dat e Jejlitsch!

Nu lustig, ju Kinder, inne Schleede krupt rin, To Gast kimmt de Winder, dem klingre wi in.