naming a language

[Östen Dahl]

Henrik, how do you get 600 hits for “Oevdalian/Övdalian”? However I try I
cannot get more than 268. And most of them are from your own group. Actually

“(oevdalian OR övdalian) AND rosenkvist” gives 179. “Elfdalian” is 1000 all
right.  

Östen

> -----Original Message-----
> From: funknet-bounces at mailman.rice.edu [mailto:funknet-
> bounces at mailman.rice.edu] On Behalf Of Henrik Rosenkvist
> Sent: den 23 mars 2009 10:04
> To: funknet at mailman.rice.edu
> Subject: [FUNKNET] naming a language
> 
> Thanks for all interesting remarks and comments!
> 
> As for my initial question, however, I conclude that me and my co-editor
> have a number of possible alternatives to think about. Except for
> "Oevdalian" and "Övdalian", an alternative is "Upper Dalian". That would
> capture the fact that the language varieties in the norther parts of
> Dalecarlia are mutually intelligible.
> 
> The term "Elfdalian" is however still not an option. The speakers are
> struggling for some kind of formal recognition for their language, and
> "Elfdalian" just has the wrong connotations. On the net, one finds
> statements like "Elfdalian sounds like something out of /Lord of the
> Rings/". Therefore, I still think that the term is inappropriate (and
> that non-native speakers of English might underestimate this semantic
> feature). Furthermore, "Elfdalian" gets about 1 000 hits on Google,
> whereas "Oevdalian/Övdalian" gets about 600. Hence there is no huge
> difference between these alternatives, and it is not entirely correct to
> state that "Elfdalian" is established, I think.
> 
> As for endonym/exonym, this particular language is severely threathened
> by Swedish, and I see no reason at all why the Swedish term should form
> the basis for the English name of the language. We are not striving to
> be politically incorrect in this case, but trying to avoid being
> politically incorrect. There is a marked difference.
> 
> A rose is a rose is a rose – who can deny that? But a language is not
> always a language, and I am convinced that if politics and prestige were
> of equal importance in the world of roses as in the world of languages,
> some of these flowers would be called "icky thorny things" and others
> "flowers of heaven". If roses could think and speak, most of them would
> probably prefer the latter term.
> 
> Henrik