During World War II, an enclave of Kansans who spoke what is called Low German refrained from speaking it in public for fear of being associated with Adolf Hitler.

Fifty years later, there is a move to preserve the dialect, brought to Kansas by Lutherans and Mennonites who moved from northern Germany in the late 1880s.

This weekend, a Kansas radio station kicked off a broadcast in Low German.

“It has been a lot of fun and nice to see that our roots are still alive,” Bruce Dierking, president of KNDY-1570 AM in Marysville, said Monday.

Dierking’s station sponsored a new weekly feature; a five-minute Sunday broadcast of stories in Low German that are then translated to English.

“We see this as a great way to reach an audience,” Dierking said.

The broadcast represents the latest effort to preserve the dialect, an effort that stemmed from the work of Kansas University doctoral student Scott Seeger.

Seeger has worked with residents of Marshall and Washington counties to preserve Low German, which is considered the second-most used language in those two counties.

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After exploring why certain languages disappear, Seeger found that older people feared Low German would vanish, and young people lamented that they hadn’t learned it.

So, the KU student helped organize free, monthly Low German classes that are held alternately in Linn and Hanover. The classes are attracting about 100 people per meeting.

He received a $3,285 grant from the Kansas Humanities Council and hopes the radio broadcast will also increase interest in the project to preserve the language and heritage of the German ancestors.

In addition to writing his dissertation, Seeger serves as a German language adviser for incoming freshmen, while also writing lesson plans and editing the Low German project newsletter.

Since the classes started in February, Seeger said there had been no letdown in support.

“You can really feel the community interest and the care that they have for their heritage, and their interest in passing this to younger generations,” he said.

Don and Dorian Bisping did the first broadcast, which included announcements about the Low German Heritage Society, local sports, weather and news.

“It brought back a lot of emotions from years and years ago,” Don Bisping said.

He said he had gotten several telephone calls from people who heard the broadcast and were excited by it.

“A lot of people really want to hear this,” he said.