> Why does flat (low) German exist, and how far is it from Dutch (or English)? I'm not a linguist by any means but as I understand it's a separate language wit

> Why does flat (low) German exist, and how far is it from Dutch (or English)? I'm not a linguist by any means but as I understand it's a separate language with its' own dialects. Lower saxon nowadays might have a gradual dialect continuum in the West into the Netherlands but in a days of Hanse it was a widespread language around the Baltic sea and had a huge influence on other languages and cultures. Even today part of it's dialects are closer to Swedish than high German (specially Pommern which was part of Sweden for quite some time).