LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.09.01 (16) [E]

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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

Luc said:
>Tacitus distinguishes different tribes and mixes already Celtic and
Germanic speakers. So German tribes were there  before the so-called
'Migratory  Period'.<
Sorry if I'm being dense but where is "there"?

>When the monks from Ireland came to christianise the people in Flanders, in
the seventh century, they must have been well understood by the locals. I
assume that the languages were very close.<
But we can't ignore the possibility that a few of them were linguists or
that they employed interpreters. Why would Irish monks have spoken OE? In
the course of his missionary journeys in the first half of the 8th century
the Anglo-Saxon St Boniface (the 'Apostle of Germany') first went to
Friesland and later to Thuringia, Bavaria, Hesse and Saxony. Since it is
contrary to all linguistic knowledge to suggest that there are close
similarities between the High German of Bavaria and Frisian or Saxon the
success of Christian missions to the Continent is not in itself any kind of
evidence for the mutual intelligibility of languages. In the other
direction, St Augustine converted England even though he was from the
Italian peninsula. "Hatte er nicht wenigstens _einen_ Dolmetscher bei sich?"

>With this oldest Flemish sentence i quoted before (and i found two
different spellings of it) my point was that some scholars believe that the
languages in Kent and Flanders in that particular time,  were almost
identical. There was a lot of trading in this part of Western Europe, and
the separation of the two regions is only a few miles.<

OK, so long as they're the sort of scholars you'd invite round for tea. But:
- Have there been major discoveries of early West Flemish documents in the
last 30 years which have established its similarity with Kentish?
- If so, what special significance does this little text now have?
- If the original dating is right the sentence is from the end of C11, right
at the end of the OE period and (without a lot more information) of dubious
relevance to the situation in C6.
- Separation in miles or km is of little relevance where transport is by
sea.
- If the languages were very close how do we know that the text is not in
Kentish?
- If this very short text exists in different spellings (Why?) is it not
plausible that it is merely a matter of chance that one of them matches one
of a number of similar languages?

Sorry to be a spoilsport but I'd just like to know.

 John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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