Linguistic Cleanliness is Next to Godliness – But Not for Conservative Anabaptists

Conservative Anabaptist groups (like the Old Order Mennonites and Amish) offer an interesting perspective on prescription, standardization and the maintenance of marginalized languages. Here we have a nonstandard, non-written language, associated with rurality, lack of sophistication and with no official recognition – and yet it has been holding its own alongside English for many years now. The question of formal maintenance efforts never arises; there is no likelihood of these speakers ever actively propagating the language, and there is no desire for standardization. The Old Orders are interested in retaining their language, to be sure, but they have no urge to