LL-L "Introductions" 2002.08.01 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 01.AUG.2002 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Web Site: <http://www.lowlands-l.net>
 Rules & Guidelines: <http://www.lowlands-l.net/rules.htm>
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
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 Archive: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html>
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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: "botas(club)" <botas at club-internet.fr>
Subject: newcomer´s message

2002 07 31

Dear lowlander friends,

I'm a newcomer to this group and feel a self-introduction is in order.
My mother tongue is Saxon.
My parents speak it fluently but never to me. It's a peasant dialect,
they say. It´s a peasant
dialect, said the teacher in school. Deutsch lets you communicate all
over Deutschland, she
explained. When I grew up up, I realized that this advantage ended after
a few 100 km in every
direction. Why didn't they put us in a position to communicate
world-wide? Without destroying
our mother tongue? In high school it's name was never even mentioned,
and I forgot it, although I
heard it spoken around me from time to time. We concentrated on Latin
and Greek. After
university I went to work in Ohio, Holland, Ontario, Occitània. Here our
neighbor spoke French to
her younger brother and ??? to her older brother. "Oh, it's our local
patois, a deformation of
French," she explained. I began to inquire, ask, read, study... the
richness of Occitan culture and
language unfolded before my eyes, and my brain washed in school began to
be contaminated by the
thought that my childhood Plat might also be the carrier of a culture,
an identity. I realized that
my own language had been equally neglected, despised, slandered as a
peasant dialect. I joined
militant Occitanist circles. Here it does not mean throwing bombs
(that's why nobody takes
notice), it means printing literature, running schools, practicing the
language. My children attend
an Occitan school, tolerated, reluctantly, rattened at every occasion.

I joined Lowlands-L for two reasons:

1. I am intrigued by everything that has to do with languages,
vernaculars in particular, and with
the cultures they carry. I am fascinated by the discussions in
Lowlands-L in the few weeks since I
joined.

2. I want to discuss ways how we, you and me, can improve the desolate
situations most regional
languages find themselves in, in Europe and all over the world. Ways to
give these languages the
status they deserve, and need to survive. To my mind, this requires
culturally independent regions,
where the regional language gets, not an equal status to, but a priority
status over the "national"
language of the state, in schools, in the media, in public life. Some
put their hopes on Europe. What
I've seen over 50 years, Charter or not, makes me skeptical.
Counter-example Switzerland, sic, to
my mind still the most valid model in the world, in spite (or because?)
of the absence of a common
"national" language (English increasingly fulfilling that function).

Let's discuss! I can read most of the Lowlands languages, interference
with Dutch has destroyed
what remained of my ability to speak Saxon.

I am glad to be part of Lowlands-L.

Mike Wintzer

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