LL-L: "Low Saxon" LOWLANDS-L, 19.NOV.1999 (03) [E/German]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 19.NOV.1999 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Eldo Neufeld [greneuf at interchange.ubc.ca]
Subject: Low Saxon grammar

I have received a message from The Institut für niederdeutsche Sprache in
Bremen which reads as follows:  "Insofern ist es naheliegend, in den
Niederlanden eine Grammatik zum Nedersaksischen herauszubringen."  Does
anyone have any information on this?

Eldo Neufeld
4040 Blenheim St.
Vancouver, BC   V6L 2Y9
Tel: (604) 738-4378
e-mail: greneuf at interchange.ubc.ca

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Low Saxon

Dear Eldo,

Thanks for the information and question (above).

It seems to me that we are missing a vital piece of information that supposedly
came before that sentence, some type of statement or reasoning why it is
justified to come up with a grammar of Low Saxon of the Netherlands.  (And it
does not sound as though such an effort is underway.)

Personally I hold the Institute in high esteem.  However, I can not agree with
an attitude on the German side that separates "Low Saxon" in the Netherlands
from "Low German" in Germany, and I regret hearing this attitude expressed from
the otherwise trailblazing Institute as well.

It is true that centuries of fragmentation and Neerlandization vs Germanization
(lexically, orthographically, and at times politically) have caused a certain
rift between the two speech communities.  However, I find fault with the attempt
to keep the communities apart by treating them as though they spoke two
different languages.  By labeling the dialects on the Netherlands side as
_Nedersaksisch_ in German (!!! where the correct name would be
_Niedersächsisch_, which however would evoke realizations of inseparability) and
the ones on the German side as "Low German" (_Niederdeutsch,_/_Plattdeutsch_)
they seem to be attempting to symbolize or formalize this and thus to continue
to pretend that "Low German" abruptly ends on the German side of the border,
when in reality we are dealing with varieties of the same language that happens
to have an international border run through its community and whose speakers do
not consider themselves ethnically identical.  I suspect that ethnic identity,
besides citizenship, continues to be an underlying issue in people's heads, even
though the world has by now realized that language and ethnicity do not always
coincide nor need to coincide.

As a Low Saxon contact in Germany recently said to me [my translation], "People
in Northern Germany have got to wake up and start looking beyond the edges of
their plates."  Centuries of fragmentation, isolation and "High" German
domination have taken their toll.  They still believe that their home language
and its struggle to survive are unique to them when in reality the language is
used and endangered in various communities, not only in Germany and the
Netherlands but also in Eastern Europe, Siberia, Central Asia and the Americas,
that the key to survival is unification.

Will we ever see the day when a Low Saxon (Low German) grammar will be published
that deals with the *entire* language?

Thanks again, and best regards.

Reinhard/Ron

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