LL-L: "Language varieties" 19.JUN.2000 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 19.JUN.2000 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
 Web Site: <http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/>
 User's Manual: <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html>
 Archive: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html>
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 A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German), S=Scots, Sh=Shetlandic
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Language varieties

Dear Lowlanders,

Below please find a copy of the latest message I found in the visitors book
of our LL-L homepage (http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/).
Perhaps many of you will find it interesting and will wish to discuss it.
The writer discusses his variety fairly eloquently it seems.  Personally, I
don't see much that convinces me of specifically Scandinavian origin of the
mentioned features, but I would be happy to be instructed otherwise.

The writer mentions an interest in possible Scandinavian features in
Insular Frisian (North Frisian I assume).  This reminds me of the feature d
> j (~ y), especially after nasals and liquids, in North Frisian; for
instance _lönj_ 'land', _strönj_ 'beach', 'shore' (= 'strand'), and _fälj_
'field' in Continental North Frisian of Bökingharde, Mooring dialect
(Frasch).  A similar feature is found in Southern Jutish, a North Germanic
group of varieties (usually considered part of Danish); e.g., _sænj_
'send', 'sent', _haj stanjen_ (< *_had standen_) 'had stood', _kjoljer_
'cellar' (cf. Standard Danish _kælder_).  This may not be coincidental,
considering that both languages are spoken in roughly the same area (around
today's Danish-German border).  Might this be due to a Frisian substrate in
Jutish, or might it be due to Jutish influences on Frisian?  Any opinions
and/or evidence?

Anyway, below is the message.
(By the way, 'Saturday' is 'Satdee' in Australian dialects as well.)

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

***

Date: 2000-06-19/19:20
Criostoir O Ciardha (paada_please at yahoo.co.uk / no homepage ) wrote:

This is a wonderful site. I arrived intent on learning more about insular
Frisian, particularly varieties that have been exposed to extensive
Scandinavian influence, but I found so much more. I myself was raised near
Nottingham and the language I speak is Nottingham English. From a very
early age I recognised the discrepancies between 'my' English and the
English I received from the media. Like many of the speakers of my language
I was told to speak 'properly' and was chastised when I used a
pronunciation that betrayed the Norse origins of my language.

For example, much of the phonology of Nottingham English is derived
(presumably) from archaic Danish, Nottingham having been a centre of the
Danelaw; thus 'cow' is pronounced somewhat equivalently to 'kaa' and 'out'
to 'aat' (but with rising tones); there are very special 'k' and 'g'
phonemes that I have never heard in any other language, which are
pronounced almost as a hiss, with the tongue tensed and as far back in the
mouth/throat as is possible. There is also a peculiar 'ngk' sound. Further,
there is a lingering of the tongue on 'n' and 'm' and 'v' is almost always
lost, so that 'I haven't' becomes 'Aiy yaannt', and 'you haven't' becomes
'y'aannt'. There are very, very heavy 'w' and 'y' glides on vowels
presumably reminiscient of Norse (cf: kirkjr), and vowels often have an
exceptionally clipped quality, particularly in less formal situations:
'myself' is 'misen' and 'yourself' is 'yuhsen' although 'us' is also used
for the familiar singular in some cases, particularly as an imperative:
'Give ME it' is 'Giey yus it teeya'. These sounds and grammatical
constructions make Nottingham English very distinct, although there are
even variables within this, which often betray the speaker's town of
origin: 'Saturday' is pronounced 'Sa-deh' in Beeston but 'Satdee' in Long
Eaton, towns only a two miles apart. I could complicate the issue by
mentioning the fundamental importance of tone in Nottingham English (fights
frequently begin when an accent is placed on the 'wrong' syllable), but I
won't.

Thus so many of us here, and in Yorkshire, Manchester and so on, are
bilingual without realising it. We use our own languages shamefully, having
been taught we are speaking 'bad English' in much the same way speakers of
Creole languages are told that they speak 'corrupt English' rather than
distinct languages. Of course, this has very real sociological and social
implications: our self-esteem is destroyed, particularly in the classroom
where standard English is the language of rule. Is it surprising then, that
children in Nottingham and the North often see school as somewhere where
they are made to feel lowly and stupid, where they are shown that their
family language is little more than a peasant dialect, and that they, as
its speakers, are inherently inferior to 'learned' standard English, the
language of intolerance?

It is very sad, I think. I write this in standard English because I don't
even know how to write my own first language. Imagine how much literature
has been destroyed in its poets' mind because the poet considered herself
or himself to be linguistically inept, a 'dialect speaker'. Imagine how
much cultural vibrancy has been lost or discarded ashamedly.

I for one have recognised the wonder of my language, and whenever I hear a
parent admonishing their bemused child in the street for not speaking
'proper' English, I intervene. Perhaps if we all did that, we would still
have our self-esteem.

If anyone wishes to discuss the sociology of local languages, the influence
of Norse phonology on the languages spoken in what was the Danelaw or Norn
(Shetlandic) and Frisian, please contact me at paada_please at yahoo.co.uk.

I will sign off with an attempt at writing my language: taa fuh bieyinn nuh
graet saiyt, uhn aiy misenn think yuhz zawll luh doo-winn summuht
wuthwaiyll fuh mi langwij uhn fuh ruthuhz laiyk kit. Maiynn daat, uhn
ndohnnt evuh let tuhm ge yuh daann. Seey yuh.

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