pre-modern standard languages

[Steven Schaufele]

maher, johnpeter wrote:

> The Upper Silesian dialect had a wide currency in many courts
> outside its own region as Kanzleisprache before Luther. That's why he
> used it.

Wasn't it also his native language/dialect?  Not that this necessarily
makes a great deal of difference (if it were already a lingua franca in
at least part of 15th-cent. Germany, that would probably have been
reason enough), but i seem to remember being told that -- by fortuitous
circumstance -- Luther happened to be a native speaker thereof.

Best,
Steven
--
Steven Schaufele, Ph.D., Asst. Prof. of Linguistics, English Department
Soochow University, Waishuanghsi Campus, Taipei 11102, Taiwan, ROC
(886)(02)2881-9471 ext. 6504     fcosw5 at mail.scu.edu.tw
Fax: (886)(02)2881-7609
http://www.prairienet.org/~fcosws/homepage.html
        ***O syntagmata linguarum liberemini humanarum!***
        ***Nihil vestris privari nisi obicibus potestis!***