LL-L: "Language policies" LOWLANDS-L, 10.MAY.2000 (05) [E]

Wed May 10 20:24:35 UTC 2000

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 10.MAY.2000 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Roger Thijs [Roger.Thijs at village.uunet.be]
Subject: language policies

It happens that people are so deepely shocked by events, that they turn
completely away from the "old environment" and try starting a new life with
a completely new profile. That's what's happening with people in what we
call over here "Altbelgien".

When the dividing line was drafted in 1815 between the Netherlands and
Prussia, one tried to get a strait border line just North of the Duchy of
Luxemburg, leaving part of the dept. de l'Ourthe (the later province of
Liège): the "cantons" Kronenburg, Schleiden, Eupen, Sankt Vith and the
walloon canton of Malmedy at the East of the line to Prussia (and btw
leaving the center of Moresnet undivided for more than 100 years). In 1839
as a result of the indepency of Belgium, Luxemburg was split up in a
germanic East and a romance West. The germanic Arel-Arlon was left in the
West though, for strategic reasons, and it became the capital of the
"romance" West.

This split-up left some german speaking municipalities in Belgium:
due to the 1815 border:
- South of Aachen: the Bleiberg (now Plombières) area: 9 municipalities
(called _Northern Altbelgien_;
- further: the municipality of Bocholtz (now Beho), called central
Altbelgien_ , South-West of Malmedy.
The Arel district, that stayed in Belgium in 1839, is called _Southern
Altbelgien_.

The _alt_ is in opposition to _Neubelgien_: the cantons Eupen and Sankt
Vith (Sankt Vith was at the time part of the Kreis Malmedy in Prussia)
transferrred, together with the walloon Malmedy, to Belgium in 1919.

While the cantons Eupen and Sankt Vith preserved their German culture -
nowadays they form the German speaking region in Belgium and have their own
parliament and local government -, Alt Belgien was submitted to the strong
presence of French in whole of Belgium in the 19th century. The local
people clearly behaved belgian in the first WW, and turned their back to
Germany in 1919, especially in the North: "Bleiberg" became "Plombières",
etc. Curious are the actions by Dr. Langohr in the period 1918-1940: he
tried to show the dialects in the North were South-Limburgish, and Dutch
could be a decent alternative for German and French in this area. He left
us a rich variety of texts in the different municipal dialect varieties.

In 1940, Hitler not only annexed Eupen-Malmedy-Sankt-Vith, but also the
Plombières area (Northern Altbelgien) and Bocholz (Central Altbelgien). It
is not clear why Arel could stay in Belgium. Maybe, since it was the
capital of the province of Belgian Luxemburg, annexing it would jeopardize
the admùinistration of occupied Belgium. Actually Belgium did not have a
German Civil administration in 40-44, as the Netherlands had, but kept a
military occupation, in a joint military commandment with the French
departments Nord and Pas-de-Calais.

After the second WW, Neubelgien cleaned out it's historic germanic roots,
and did all it could to be romanized ASAP. In this proces the "germanic"
past is rubbed away as good as possible and what's left is dumped in the
waste container.

So I found a manuscript about the situation in Bocholz-Beho in 1943-1950,
left in the cover of a book about Eupen-Malmedy, I bought in a second hand
bookshop in Redu, a small village deep in the Luxemburgian Ardennes, last
weekend.

The text is in French; It is signed by the "Abbé J. Jacobs, curé".

An excerpt:
... La paroisse de Beho a été libéré le lundi 11 septembre (comment: 1944)
vers 13h30 (heure allemande)...
.. Beaucoup de gens avaient assisté aux offices du jours (comment: jour?)
de la Toussaint (comment: Nov 1, 1944) et du jour des morts. Il paraît
qu'il y a assez bien de gens mécontents de ce qu'on ne fait pas toutes les
prières et sermons en français à l'église. Pourtant le curé a certainement
fait son possible pour contenter tout le monde (13 sermons sur 3) (comment:
I guess he means 13 versus 3) en français, et Mgr. (comment: it's the
bisschop Mgr. Chaure) a manifesté clairement sa volonté: Pas de changement
brusque, a-t-il dit, le mardi 3 octobre. D'ailleurs pourrait-on, en
conscience, éliminer d'un coup les vielles traditions locales et supprimer
brusquement les anciennes manières de prier?
...
Au dire de M. le curé Müller, les adversaires de l'emploi de la langue
allemande à l'église affirment que c'est à cause de l'allemand à l'église
que Beho a été annexé au "Grand Reich".
Il réfute cette affirmation de la façon suivante:
"L'emploi de l'allemand à l'église n'est certainement pas l'unique raison
de l'annexion de Beho par l'Allemagne, ni même la principale; à preuve le
Pays d'Arlon, où on parle l'allemand, n'a pas été annexé. Comme raisons
multiples de l'annexion on peut donner:
1. Le cadastre est en langue allemande;
2. l'ancienne appartenance de Beho, presque en entier, à la cour de Thommen;
3. L'origine de la plupart des familles (au moins l'un des époux) de la
région de St. Vith, Prüm, Luxembourg.
4. Le croisement des 4 Chemins pour la facilité de contrôle par route;
5. La gare de Beho, pour le contrôle de la frontière.
...
Voilà de que dit M. le curé Müller à ce sujet.
De mon côté, quand je suis arrivé à Beho, le 5 juin 1946, je me sentis
assaili de toutes côtés en sens divers: Beaucoup de laïcs, par alleurs bien
intentionnés, me disaient: "M. le curé, vous êtes jeune; vous avez tout
pour conquérir les sympathies; mais pour les avoir, employez uniquement le
français à l'église. ...
Alors je me suis dit: "Après tout, ce n'est pas un péché de parler le
français à l'église"...

-- endquote.
I guess people will be sorry some day they have threwn away systematically
manuscripts with the history of their past.

In the Arel-Arlon area, there are still some cultural movements for
preserving the Moselle Franconian (rather Lëtzebuergesch) language. The
schools though are dumping also manuscripts of the past.

I bought for USD 20.00 the original typed paper of a regent student (in
Belgium "regents" teach kids age 12-15; (university graduated)
"licentiates" teach kids age 15-18), dumped from the library of the school
"Institut St Marie, Arlon". It's a prospection of the situation of the
dialect in Elcheroth, and it includes a description of the particularities
of the dialect:

André Rodange,
2. r. langues modernes
Elcheroth: Gesicht von Gestern und die Lage der Areler Mundart im
Nordwesten von Arel,
1968-1969,
71 pp original typing, 2 maps, 3 photographs glued in the text.

They do not actually threw it allways away, where possible they sell,
what's left of their old culture, for a couple of dimes.

In Redu I also found, not as manuscript, but printed, all in Arel in 1908,
eleven theatre plays in local dialect (from a period before the
Lëtzebuergesch of Luxembourg city became the koiné), some titles:
- Eng Zaldôteléeft ûm Dûoref
- De Krich zweschend England an dem Transwaal
etc. etc.

I bought the 11 plays together for BF 300 (USD 8). That's what one's
cultural past is worth.

Regards,
Roger

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