LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.05.16 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 16.MAY.2002 (01) * 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: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Lowlanders,

Below please find a copy of an entry I found in the visitors book of "Nu
is de Welt platt!"
(http://www.sassisch.net/rhahn/low-saxon/plattewelt.htm).

<quote>
Date: 2002-05-15 15:52:32
Adelwolf ( no email / no homepage) wrote:
All forst, bidde, forgeven mie for dat Ik schrieve in user dialekt dat
Je konnen niet forstan ond ik kan niet spreken Standard Dutsch ond
Nederdutsch ond Englisch . Wie sind om twa hondred lie ond wonen in
Yozgat. Wie haven en Dutsche Sprak, spreken dat so wel. Ik denke dat dit
is en Nederdutsche sprak. Men min elderen konnen niet lesen ond
schrieven Turkisch ond Standard Dutsch. Ik ben siextig ond twa jare
gamal. De aldest in de kind. We kiepen werige less lie hier wam konnen
spreken dat sprak. twelf fra twa hondred. Ik wet niet wie dit wort men
wie sind in de Turkije, ond jet spreken en Dutsche sprak. Ik schrieve
dit for dat Ik wille ju to witen dat dar sind de dutschen ok in Anadolu.
Wes hel!!!
</quote>

My translation:
<translation>
First of all, please, forgive me for writing in our dialect that you
cannot understand, and I cannot speak Standard German and Low German and
English.  We are about two hundred people and live in Yozgat. We have a
German language, speak it so well.  I think that it is a Low German
language. But my parents cannot read and write Turkish and Standard
German.  I am 62 years old, the oldest of the children. There are fewer
and fewer people here who can speak this language, 12-200.  I do not
know how come, but we are in Turkey and yet speak a German language.  I
write this because I want you to know that there are also Germans in
Anatolia. Be well!!!
</translation>

Surely this is a hoax?!  OK, so there are lots of different ethnicities
in Turkey, including "unlisted" ones.  Yes, and some people do seriously
use pseudonyms for the sake of anonymity.  (But "Adelwolf" ("noble
wolf")?)  Descendants of Lowlandic settlers in Anatolia?  And this
language variety?!  The language seems to be a mix of (deliberately
archaic-"sounding"?) Low Saxon (Low German), Dutch, German, English and
Scandinavian (Swedish), (with Turkish, Zaza and/or Kurmanji
interference?).

What do you think?

Yozgat, by the way, is a town and a province in Central Northern
Anatolia, about halfway between Ankara and Sivas, apparently with
notable Kurdish presence.  I have looked through several websites,
including Turkish ones, from and about Yozgat but found no ethnic or
linguistic references to a "German" community of long standing.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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