LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.08.15 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 15.AUG.2004 (02) * 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) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: john feather <johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: Language varieties

Somebody mentioned Eddie Izzard trying to show affinities between Modern
Frisian and Anglo-Saxon/Old English. (There ought to be a linguistic joke
about Eddie and the pair "shirt/skirt"). Sorry, I've mislaid the original
posting.

The vocabulary-matching trick is just a trick. I have seen it done on TV
with Modern Frisian and English. You can do it with English and Dutch and, I
would guess, any two Germanic languages. There are just so many possible
pairs of words. It is pretty obvious that the number of pairs which don't
match (words with the same meaning but different forms and words with the
same form but different meanings) is much greater.

Consider words for "man" = adult male person. In Mod Frisian "man" is used.
Two of the most common terms in OE ("were" and "guma") have become extinct
though they leave traces in "werewolf" and "bridegroom". OE also has the
words "manna", "mann/monn" and the plural "menn". "Manna" is a false friend
and potentially misleading. "Mann" is comprehensible if you're Frisian and
leave off one "n" though "man" also means "husband" to you. Unfortunately OE
also has two words even closer to your "man": "man/mon" is the impersonal
"one" and there is also "man" with a long "a" meaning "crime", "wickedness".
As a Frisian you have some mutated vowel plurals but if you are not a
linguist you probably don't have the concept to apply in a strange
situation. Since the plural of "man" in your language is "mannen" there is
no clue to guide you there. "Men" in Frisian actually means something like
"people" in phrases such as "people nowadays" where the speaker is included
in the category. If you do work out that "menn" in OE is the (nom/acc) pl of
"manna" you will then have great problems when you meet it as the dative
sing, especially because you don't know what a dative is let alone what
something exotic like an instrumental dative is.

My Frisian examples have been taken from Van Goor's "Klein Fries
Woordenboek" (bilingual Dutch/Frisian).

A final point: the idea that there is special relationship between Frisian
and OE, which is where this all started, is not reinforced but _undermined_
by claims that there are also close connexions between OE and West Flemish
or Low Saxon.

John Feather
johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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