LL-L "Language policies" 2002.08.20 (09) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L * 20.AUG.2002 (09) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Web Site: <http://www.lowlands-l.net> Email: admin at lowlands-l.net
 Rules & Guidelines: <http://www.lowlands-l.net/rules.htm>
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
 Server Manual: <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html>
 Archive: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html>
=======================================================================
 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
=======================================================================

From: erek gass <egass at caribline.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language policies"

Colin Wilson's comment "Today if I were to speak in this same language
[Scots]
at work I would be both mocked and reprimanded or if a School pupli was
to speak in this way he also would (be) disciplined." is at the very
heart
of why languages are being exterminated.  This level of official
disrespect
needs to be countered effectively.  The European Community's attempt to
save existing languages is a start, but as long as school teachers
verbally
(or worse) abuse students speaking their local language, and languages
are
suppessed in the workplace, and socially, languages will be figuratively
"lead the block" and actually slaughtered by attrition.

I will share with you my view of the words "dialect", "mundart",
"variant",
and other such which have come to have the implied subterranean meaning
of "inferior".  The recent list of words Ron supplied demonstrates, for
example, that Scots IS a language in large descended from continental
West
Germanic languages brought to Britain by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes,
Frisians,
asf., and that it has evolved, in part, separately from "English", and,
in many respects is closer to the original than is "English".

When I
see these various so-called "dialects" being discussed AS dialects, it
demonstrates
to me that some have come to think of these LANGUAGES as some
second-rate
offshoot of some other language.  This generally is not the case;
rather,
a separate language has simply evolved locally and is a full sister
tongue,
not a poor relation to be viewed as worthy of little except extinction.
This kind of snobbery should be called exactly that, and toleration of
such
is and should be vexing.

I happen to be a school director here in PA.  Several years ago, I
reviewed
a geography textbook.  Like so many American schoolbooks is was riddled
with errors.  One that remains embedded in my mind was a review of
Spain's
languages.  It noted that "Catalan is a mixture of Spanish and French".
Immediately, I realised that the textbook had, in the minds of its Jr
High
readers, inculcated the misconception that this great language (with a
literary
tradition as long and strong as that of any other Romance language) was
nothing but a creole or patois, hence inherently beneath the quality of
the languages from which it was (erroneously, of course) "derived".

Perhaps, it should not be astonishing that so much of the work on
preserving
endangered languages is coming from within the Catalan-speaking
community.
Although we treat all of our interest areas with great respect, I intend
to treat them as equals in my verbage.  If there is a Brabantish, for
instance,
it is a language.  Period.

==================================END===================================
 You have received this because your account has been subscribed upon
 request. To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l"
 as message text from the same account to
 <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or sign off at
 <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
=======================================================================
 * Please submit postings to <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>.
 * Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
   to be sent to <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or at
   <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 * Please use only Plain Text format, not Rich Text (HTML) or any other
   type of format, in your submissions
=======================================================================