LL-L "Language loyalty" 2003.02.24 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 24.FEB.2003 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: David Wilson <dxx.wilson at virgin.net>
Subject:  survey shows gap between command and usage at home

Ron,

I'm on digest at the moment (on Lowlands-L) and am not quite sure if this
study has been mentioned on-list before. However, I hope it's of
interest.....

David

Lower Saxon: survey shows gap between command and usage at home
http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4108
Groningen  24/02/03, by Onno P. Falkena

There is a wide gap between the command of Lower Saxon in the Netherlands
and the usage of the language at home. This is the main conclusion of the
first results of a large survey on Lower Saxon in the north-eastern
provinces in the Netherlands. For this survey of the University of Groningen
2500 people were interviewed. In the Lower Saxon area the command of the
language varies from 77 percent in the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe to
48 provinces in the Veluwe region in the centre of the Netherlands.

Everywhere the percentage of people who speak the language at home is much
lower. In Groningen and Drenthe only 46 and 53 percent of the population
speaks Lower Saxon in the house, while more than three quarters of the
population is able to speak the language. In the Veluwe 37 percent of the
population speaks Lower Saxon at home. Professor of Lower Saxon Siemon Reker
has the impression that especially families with children prefer to speak
Dutch at home instead of one of the Lower Saxon languages. 'But in order to
be completely sure about this, we need to analyse the survey further.' A
second conclusion is that Lower Saxon is losing ground more rapidly in the
regions closer to large cities in the region of Holland.

One of the aims of the language survey is to help regional authorities to
make a start with a language policy on behalf of Lower Saxon. The language
is recognised in the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages,
which has been in force in the Netherlands since March 1998. The full survey
with all the analyses will be published later this year in the manual for
Lower Saxon languages. (EL)

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