Low Saxon is the direct descendent of the Old Saxon language which was to a high degree mutually intelligible with Old English. It is a North Sea West Germanic language that is closely related to English, Scots, Frisian, Dutch and Afrikaans. There is a rather high degree of mutual intelligibility between Low Saxon and the Low-Franconian-derived languages Dutch and Afrikaans. (Linguists tend to assign all of them to the "Low German" branch of Germanic languages.) Low Saxon is also relatively closely related to German, Yiddish and other "High" and "Middle" or "Central" German language varieties, which tend to be classified as "West Germanic" as well but might be viewed as making up a southern branch of the Germanic languages. However, most speakers of these "High" and "Middle" or "Central" German language varieties do not readily understand Low Saxon without extended exposure to it. There are significant phonological, morphological and lexical-semantic differences between Low Saxon and actual German language varieties, even if the most German-influenced Low Saxon varieties of Germany are taken into account. In the Netherlands, differences between Low Saxon and Dutch are far less significant but are significant enough to help maintain a general awareness of a definite distinction between the two.

It has been estimated that there are about 10 million Low Saxon speakers in Germany (possibly including people with mostly passive knowledge of the language and those who use German-Low Saxon hybrid varieties) and one and two million speakers in the Netherlands. It is only since recently that Low Saxon has been enjoying official recognition in both countries.

Outside the original "homeland," there are communities of Low Saxon speakers in Eastern Europe, Siberia, Central Asia, the Americas and other areas in which there are sizeable communities with roots in Northern Germany and the Eastern Netherlands. This includes speakers of Mennonite Low Saxon (Plautdietsch) and other varieties that have lost their homelands in Europe.

All speakers of Low Saxon in Germany know German at least as a second language. This is because "High" German is the absolutely dominant language in that country. Furthermore, Germany's language policies so far have made no provisions for Low Saxon to serve as a primary educational language in place of German, and such provisions are not likely to be forthcoming anytime in the future. Low Saxon has rarely been used in formal education. In post-medieval times it has been banned from schools more often than not. The language is being taught only in some North German schools and traditionally mostly only as a peripheral, negligible subject as a part of Heimatkunde, namely of local history and culture, rarely going beyond learning some well-known poems or songs. Hopefully, official recognition will facilitate reintroduction of the language in kindergartens, schools and universities. Recently established bilingual (German-Low Saxon) kindergarten programs in Eastern Friesland (Germany) have been successful. Furthermore, Low Saxon is now being offered as a minor field of study at a few North German teachers colleges.

Low Saxon used to be the language of the medieval Hanseatic (Hansa) Trading League that began in the mid-13th century as a protective alliance of several port cities along the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. In those days Low Saxon served as a powerful international lingua franca, especially in business communication, as far afield as in the port cities of Belgium, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries, Poland, Russia, and the British Isles. Low Saxon influenced the Scandinavian, Finnic (especially Estonian) and Baltic languages to a considerable degree. In Livonia (which roughly encompasses today's Estonia and Lithuania) it used to be the first language of the aristocracy and the first or second language of the urban middle class, being gradually replaced by German and Swedish and being eventually abandoned by the 18th century. Speakers of Low Saxon were also among Dutch and German seafarers and colonists throughout the world. It is highly probable that there were some Low Saxon influences in the creation and early development of Southern Africa's Afrikaans language (which is often simplistically viewed as an offshoot off Dutch but which has had input from a large number of European, African and Asian languages).

Low Saxon lost its influence with the decline of the Hanseatic League in the late 16th century. In Northern Germany, "High" German began to encroach from the south and, spreading from the urban centers, eventually usurping linguistic and cultural dominance over the entire region. In what are now the eastern parts of the Netherlands, Low Saxon gradually came to be overshadowed by Standard Dutch. However, till this day Low Saxon in Germany and the Netherlands has survived suppression, oppression, denigration, marginalization, and lack of administrative support. If recent official recognition of Low Saxon as a regional language in Germany, the Netherlands and on the European Community level is able to prevent the language from becoming extinct needs yet to be seen.

A complicating factor in the assertion of linguistic rights is that Low Saxon is not perceived as being the language of a specific, separate ethnicity, while in Eurasia the most wide-spread, if not predominant views are based upon "one ethnicity = one language" if not even "one country = one language." Low Saxon speakers in Germany tend to consider themselves ethnic Germans. Low Saxon speakers in the Netherlands do not regard themselves as being ethnic Germans but as being Netherlanders with Low Saxon rather than "Dutch" (Hollandic) heritage. While they sometimes refer to Low Saxon used in Germany as "Low German" (Nederduits or Platduits in Dutch), they refer to their own dialects collectively as "Low Saxon" (Nedersaksisch in Dutch), and most would reject any suggestion of it being "German." Pre-contemporary names for the language throughout the Low-Saxon-speaking areas include saksysch, sassisch ('Saxon'), nedersaksysch, and neddersassisch ('Low Saxon'). "Low Saxon" (Niedersächsisch in German) is also one of several names used by German linguists. It is therefore advisable and all-inclusive to use the name "Low Saxon" to refer to the language in all countries, while the name "Low German" is inherently divisive. (Simply "Saxon" or "Modern Saxon" cannot be used because the German name Sächsisch has come to denote a German dialect group with a Saxon substratum used in the state of Saxony.) However, acceptance of the all-embracing, internationally more appropriate name Neddersassisch (German Niedersächsisch) by the general public in Northern Germany appears to be doubtful at this time, considering that until recently the general line was that the language was a part of German, considering also that most Germans are still unaware that the language is used by non-Germans as well.

In Germany, Low Saxon -- "the Saxon language of the Lowlands," not to be confused with the German state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) -- is usually referred to as "Low German" (Niederdeutsch or Plattdeutsch in German), and this usually includes Low Franconian, namely those non-Saxon varieties in the area of Krefeld that, despite Germanization, are genealogically closer to the Dutch group. This label has been symbolically convenient in denying Low Saxon separate language status by creating the impression that it is a dialect group contained within German, aided by the fact that its speakers in Germany consider themselves ethnic Germans. At least in the past, this view tended to be supported by Germany's mainstream linguistic community as well. A commonly used argument, focusing primarily on sound shift criteria, has been that there is no abrupt cut between Low Saxon and German, namely that there are seemingly intermediate varieties between the two. Obviously it would be highly unrealistic to expect to find in the absence of a political border a clearly defined border between any two relatively closely related languages that have been in close contact for centuries.

Some German linguists and those that follow them have been contending that Low Saxon and German used to be two separate languages at one time but that Low Saxon somehow lost its separate language status in its more recent history. This has been another convenient excuse for denying public support to benefit the survival of the language. Its primary basis is the traditional European assumption that a language can only be a language if it enjoys "power," if it is a Kultursprache ("culture-bearing language") with a standardized literary variety that functions as a supreme language. At the bottom of this lies the old Eurasian premise that only a written language variety is worthy of attention as a bona fide "language" in that it constitutes a basic ingredient of what defines "culture." Low Saxon has been a literary language for centuries, but it never developed a standardized literary or spoken form, in more recent times mostly due to administrative neglect, if not indeed opposition.

There is no standard form of Low Saxon, nor does the language have a standard orthography as yet (though there are some orthographic regulation movements). Despite this, there is a vast body of Low Saxon literature from all ages. Nowadays, Low Saxon authors tend to write their works in their home dialects, rendering them orthographically as they please, in Germany always using German-based systems with inconsistently applying rules. The majority of modern works has parochial themes and is intended as "folksy" entertainment. This has not been helping to improve the image of the language, which is often unfairly associated with lack of education and urbaneness, being regarded as a "peasants' language" by many Germans and Netherlanders. However, there is quite a number of Low Saxon works of high literary value, including non-traditional prose and poetry. Low Saxon works are still being published in Germany and in the Netherlands, particularly short stories and poetry, virtually never anything even vaguely "technical" and rarely anything "serious." Anthologies are especially popular. Most German publishers of printed Low Saxon anthologies and presenters of Low Saxon material online still use as the principal language German rather than Low Saxon itself, for instance in their introductions and annotations. This goes to show that even among many, if not most interested and well-meaning people the indoctrinated idea that Low Saxon is dependent upon and subservient to German or Dutch still persists.