LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.09.06 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 06.SEP.2004 (07) * 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: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.09.06 (04) [E]

Grietje wrote:
>I tested Ingmar's introduction to Lowland-L on my partner Martin, who's
>monolingual but has a fine appreciation of other language. Even though I
>gave him forewarning he started reading without giving much pause to the
>language the introduction was written in.

I showed the text my four available guinea pigs. Only relevant languages are
mentioned:

1) Male, 42, American, speaks English and German, and is somewhat acquainted
with Dutch, Swedish and Scots.
2) Female, 20, Dutch/German, speaks English, German, Dutch, a little Lower
Saxon, and has been exposed to Scots, Swedish and Danish.
3) Female, 18, Dutch/German, speaks English, German and Dutch, a little
Lower Saxon, and has been exposed to Swedish.
4) Female, 11, American/German, speaks English and German, taught herself a
little Dutch and Swedish.

They could all read it without any problems, and thought it was fun. I'll
try some of my daughters' friends next, who speak only German and some
English (as far as Germanic languages go).

Sandy wrote:
> I'd be interested in learning your method for computing the temperature of
a
> language, however.

Let it suffice to say that the scale ranges from Inuit (coldest) to Swahili
(hottest)... I'll leave it to your circuits to figure out the rest. :-)

But, since you appear to be a Trekkie... would you, by any chance, happen to
be one of those people who learn to speak Klingon, just for the heck of it?

Gabriele Kahn

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From: Grietje MENGER <grietje at menger.fsnet.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.09.06 (04) [E]

I first considered my question to Sandy to be off-topic, but he suggested I
post it to the list anyway and let Ron decide ;-))

 Hello Sandy,

 I was interested to read that you're a BSL user. At one point I was a
deaf-and-blind guide in The Netherlands and as there were many deaf guides,
sign language (which had my interest before that time already) was part of
the package. Unfortunately my only contact with sign language now is the
fact that my office in Edinburgh is right across Donaldson House. (for those
not familiar with Edinburgh, that's the school for the deaf, but not for
long anymore.)

What I was thinking of, and I hope you don't mind me picking your brain like
this, that maybe you can help me to a concise explanation (one A4 or
something) of the BSL notation. I edit a newsletter called LinguaSIGnal for
a special interest group of British Mensa. In the last edition, I wrote an
article on sign language and put some nice drawings in on the many ways "I"
or "me" can be 'signed'. One reaction said: "Funny how people always think
you can only depict signs with drawings or photographs; why haven't they got
a code to do that". Now, you and I know that there is such a code, but I
would guess it may be even harder to learn than IPA. I want to write an
small bit about that, but I actually lack the time to do so, so I'm looking
for a nice source.

By the way, I'm a bit of a collector of sign language dictionaries, BSL
(Faber and Faber), ASL, NGT (Nederlandse Gebarentaal) and one of Norwegian
signs, mostly directed to kids. Got to get myself some others as well.

 If you can help me out, I'd highly appreciate that!

Cheers.
Grietje Menger
Scotland

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

Grietje, Sandy gave you good advice.  The matter may be of interest to
others on the List as well.

Sandy, I found your description about British Sign Language sign etymology
typology ("opaque," "translucent" and "transparent") very interesting, will
go through it in detail again when I have more time.

In the meantime, could you tell us, under "Etymology" or whatever might be
appropriate, if you can see any analogous etymology typology in spoken
languages?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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