LL-L "Language survival" 2002.10.31 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 31.OCT.2002 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic
               V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Marco Evenhuis <evenhuis at zeelandnet.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2002.10.31 (01) [E]

Ron wrote:

> Dutch as an immigrant language is still used in the very north here in
> Washington State (the northwesternmost of the USA), at the border with
> British Columbia, also north of the border.  The center is Lyndon on the
US
> side, a bit northeast of Bellingham, stretching all the way up to the
> Canadian border.  I have heard it spoken myself by locals in the streets
and
> shops of the town.  It is supposed to be also spoken in the surrounding
> farming country (which is also a center for horseback riding enthusiasts).
> I have been told that Lowlands Saxon (of the Eastern Netherlands) and
> Westerlauwer Frisian are spoken there as well.

That's great to hear. Lynden is one of the few
places with a largely Dutch population that I
did not know of yet. The fact that Dutch is still
spoken there sets it apart from a lot of other
Dutch American communities.
Dutch as an immigrant language is as far as I
know only still spoken in Pella (Iowa), Zeeland
& Holland (Michigan), the Amsterdam-Churchill
area (Montana) and Prinsburg (Minnesota). The
latter being the town with the highest percentage
of Dutch descended people in the US census of
2000: about 75%.
Zeelandic is still spoken in the vicinity of Zeeland
(Michigan) and a few places in county Wayne (NY)
(Marion, Arcadia, Williamson...). The latter being
probably the only few villages were Zeelanders
form the biggest "ethnic" group in the USA.

But bear in mind that we're talking about relatively
recent immigrants and their language here. Most
of the towns I mentioned above, were founded
between about 1840 and 1910. Older people and
newcomers may still speak the language, but the
lifecycle of the language will probably follow the
usual pattern of dying out within three or four
generations.

The Jersey Dutch language variety that we discussed
earlier on this list, is something completely different.
It derived from the Dutch spoken by the very first
colonists in New York and New Jersey around 1630.
So it has a history of some 300 years and it developed
completely independently from Dutch as a separate
language variety. I think you can to some extend com-
pare it with Pennsylvania Dutch , a language that de-
veloped from the High German dialects of the Pfalz
area and has been spoken in the USA for about 300
years now.

Regards,

Marco

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

Thanks for spelling the name of the place correctly as "Lynden," Marco.  I
always misspell it for some reason, probably because of the men's name
Lyndon.

(http://www.ehpweb.com/lynden/main.htm)

I have long been under the impression that language loyalty among Dutch and
other North European immigrants is generally weak.

When I was living in Western Australia, there were many Indonesian-born
"Dutch" people there.  I knew several couples in which both partners had
Dutch as their primary language.  They did not teach their children and
grandchildren Dutch (at least not enough to make them competent speakers),
and in one of the couples the partners even spoke English with each other
most of the time.

Here in the US I know a Belgian couple.  He is from Brussels, and she is
from Antwerp.  Both of them have Dutch as their primary lamguage and use it
with each other in relative privacy.  They have never made an attempt to
teach their daughter Dutch, so that the girl's grandparents have to talk
English with her when they visit here or she visits them in Belgium.
Recently the girl expressed an interest in learning a second foreign
language (after French).  I pointed out Dutch study resources, but they
steered their daughter in the direction of German, saying that "Dutch is
useless."

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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