LL-L "Language varieties" 2001.11.01 (03) [E]

Lowlands-L sassisch at yahoo.com
Thu Nov 1 21:25:56 UTC 2001


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 L O W L A N D S - L * 01.NOV.2001 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Dl7bk at aol.com
Subject: Language varieties

Dear Lowlanders,

Críostóir O Ciardha wrote:
> I would very much appreciate a short core-vocabulary wordlist of
>comparisons between Standard Dutch and the Low Saxon variants, if possible.

Thank you Ron and Holger for your statements about Low Saxon and Dutch. Since
I live right at the Dutch border, I'd like to give some brief examples of the
different dialects/languages. The first part of the table shows from west to
east:

Standard Dutch  Dutch LS    Emsl. LS    East. Frisia LS Oldenb./Bremen LS

praten              proten          proten          proten
snacken

mooi                mooi            mooi            mooi
schön/scheun

klein               klein           lüttket         lüttjet
lütt

vandaag             vandaag     vandage     vandaag             vandaag

meisje              wicht           wicht           wicht
wicht/deern

zaterdag            zaterdag        saterdag        saterdag
sünnavend

woensdag            (w)oensdag  gaunsdag    midweek         midweek
                                        (younger: also midweek)
roken               roken           roken/röken     roken           smöken

hij heeft               hij heff            he haff         he
hett
he hett

wachten             wachten     wachten     wachten             töven

The second part of the table goes farther to the east
(Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein) and High German and English (Ron, please correct
me if you find any mistake):

Hamburg LS      German          English

snacken             sprechen            to speak, to talk

scheun              schön               beatiful, pretty, nice

lütt                    klein               small, little

hüüt                    heute               today

deern               Mädchen             girl

sünnavend           Sonnabend/      Saturday
                    Samstag

?                   Mittwoch             Wednesday

smöken          rauchen             to smoke

he hett             er hat                  he has

töven               warten              to wait

As one can see, there is a gradual transition from Dutch to forms which are
seen as "typical" Low Saxon and finally to German, where the influence of
High German seems to have been stronger (e.g. Schleswig Holstein "woch"
instead of "week" or the example in the table: "vandaag" vs. "hüüt"). This is
just to give an impression for those who are not familiar with Dutch and/or
Low Saxon. As Ron already pointed out, there is no strict language border
between the Netherlands and Germany. It becomes more and more perceptible,
however, since Low Saxon words on both sides of the border are being replaced
by words from the respective "standard language" (i.e. Dutch and German).

Kind regards

Hyazinth (Zintus) Sievering
Wippingen/Emsland

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Dear Hyazinth, Lowlanders,

Thanks for the list (above), Hyazinth.  Yours is a great vantage point there
near the border, so things must seem very clear to you.

As for your list, please allow me to substitute the orthographic LS
representations with *phonemic* (underlying) ones.  As you and most
subscribers know, Low Saxon (Low German) has no standard orthography, only a
muddle of half-baked systems that in Germany are designed to make them look
German, and that thus ignore important detail.  In other words, the written
forms are misleading.  For one thing, they do not represent differences
between monophthongs and diphthongs where the latter are "un-German."
Furthermore, at least in most dialects, it is incorrect to write "o" in words
such as _proten_.  The phoneme is /aa/; thus _praten_ is correct.  Because
this long, between somewhat and strongly rounded /aa/ (> [Q:] ~ [o:]) sounds
different from the Standard Dutch and Standard German realizations of long
/a/, people want to distinguish the LS one and write it "ao", "oa", "å" or
"o".  "O" is the most unfortunate choice because it coincides with genuine "o"
and /aa/ and /oo/ are thus not distinguished, neither is /ou/ in German
orthographies, where it is also written as "o" or "oo".  For the sake of
consistency, I will write Standard Dutch phonemically as well.

(1)

St.Dutch    NL LS     Emsl.LS       E.Fries.LS   Oldenb./Bremen LS

praate(n)   praaten   praaten       praaten      snaken

mo(o)i      moi       moi           moi          schöün**

klein       klein*    lütk(et)      lütj(et)     lüt

vandaag     vandaag'  vandage       vandaag'     vandaag'

meisje      wicht     wicht         wicht        wicht/deirn****

zaaterdag   zaaterdag zaaterdag     zaaterdag    sünaavend

wuunsdag   (w)uunsdag gaunsdag      midweek      midweek

rooke(n)*** rouken    rouken/röüken rouken       smöüken

hei heeft   hij hef   hei haf       hei het      hei het

wachte(n)   wachten   wachten       wachten      töüven**

_______
* Groningen /klain/
** /öü/ -> [OI] in Lower Elbe dialects
*** Many Dutch dialects diphthongize, thus /rouke(n)/
**** _Wicht_ may be Frisian-derived.


Below, German is phonemic also.

(2)

Hamburg LS    German             English

snaken        sprechen/reeden    to speak/talk

schöün*       schöön             beautiful/pretty/nice

lüt           klain              small/little

hüüt          hoite              today

deirn**       meedchen           girl

sünaavend***  zonaabend/zamstaag Saturday

mid(e)week    mitwoch            Wednesday

smöüken*      rauchen            to smoke

hei het       e(e)r hat          he has

töüven* ***   warten             to wait

_______
* In Hamburg and other Lower Elbe areas, /öü/ -> [OI], thus written _scheun_,
_smeuken_ or _smäuken_ and _teuben_ or _täuben_

** In Hamburg and other Lower Elbe areas, /ei/ before /r/ -> /ii/, thus
written _Diern_

*** Dialects of Hamburg and other Lower Elbe areas have intervocalic [b] where
most other dialects have intervocalic [v], thus written _Sünnobend_ and
_teuben_ or _täuben_.

Again, in the same sequence, the Hamburg dialect words as they tend to be
written.  After ">" or "=" I'll add the equivalents in Hamburg Missingsch
(German with Low Saxon substrate).

/snaken/: snacken  >  snacken ~ schnacken
/schöün/: scheun  =  schön
/lüt/: lütt  >  lütt (~ klein)
/hüüt/: hüüt  =  heute ['hO.It@] ~ ['hO.Id@]
/deirn/: Diern  =  Deern ~ Diern (= Meechng)
/sünaavend/: Sünnobend ~ Sünnomd  =  Sonnaamd
/mid(e)week/: Mid(de)week  =  Mittwoch
/smöüken/: smeuken ~ smäuken  >  smeukng ~ schmeukng (= rauchng)
/hei het/: he hett  =  ää hat
/töüven/: teuben ~ täuben  >  teubm (= waatn)

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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