LL-L "Language politics" 2002.05.16 (12) [E/F/LS/Danish]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 16.MAY.2002 (12) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "Nigel Smith" <RNigelSmith at hotmail.com>
Subject: Language politics (was: History)

Ron Hahn wrote (quoting Helge Tietz):

HT> introduction page of the "Nahverkehrgesellschaft
HT> Schleswig-Holstein", it is impressively written in
HT> five languages, four of them are the officially
HT> recognized German, Low Saxon, Frisian and Danish, the
HT> other is English, the link is:
HT> http://www.lvs-sh.de/0_frames/frame_lvs.htm.

RH>>Very impressive and exemplary indeed!

This has to be one of the VERY rare occasions when I disagree with
something
Ron has written. In my view, the inclusion of Plattdütsch, Friisk and
Dansk
on the LVS is pure tokenism.

At the end of the 'introductory page' (what in English would be called a
home page) we read:

"Join us throughout the next pages and find out who we are, what we are
trying to achieve, how to contact us and much more"
"Kiek man mol op de wiedere Sieden nah. Denn warrst Du wies, wokeen wi
sünd,
wat wi in'e Gang bringen wöllt, wo Du uns tofaten kriggst un veles mehr"
"Luke'em üüb a naist sidjen efter. Diar kön jam ütjfinj, hoker wi san,
wat
wi uun a gang saat maad, hü jam üs tupaak fu kön an ööder saagen muar"
"Vær venlig at ledsage os gennem de næste sider. Find ud af, hvem vi er,
hvilke forandringer, vi ønsker at foretage, hvordan De kan komme i
forbindeldse med os og meget mere"

Fine words indeed -- but they hide the fact that the rest of the site is
in
High German only. So what we actually have is a fancy 'mission
statement'-like section, a sop to the linguistic minorities, before the
actual important material of the site is presented and it is made clear
to
these strange speakers of mini-languages that they are going to just
have to
buckle down and read the rest of the site in 'normal' German.

I suppose having even one page of Plattdütsch, Friisk and Dansk (not to
mention the ubiquitous English) is better than nothing, but to my mind
it is
a VERY long way from being 'impressive and exemplary' -- especially if
the
quality of the Plattdütsch, Friisk and Dansk (none of which I am
qualified
to judge) is as poor as that of the English, which has clearly been
written
by a German who thinks s/he can write English, rather than by a
professional translator.

To earn the label 'impressive and exemplary' in my view the site would
have
to be more like the best of the bilingual Welsh-language sites: the best
example I can find that is at least related to the LVS example is:

http://www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/locserv_cym/travel.html
http://www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/locserv_eng/travel.html

No doubt I am just being idealistic, especially when the website of the
parliament of the Brave new Scotland doesn't even mention Scots.

Nigel Smith

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

Nigel,

You are *absolutely* right to disagree with my reaction.  Unlike you,
Helge and I were duped, i.e., impressed at first sight.  I should have
looked further, as you did.  Once you do, the tokenism is obvious.
Thanks for pointing that out, and thanks for the links to a true
bilingual site.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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