LL-L "Language use" 2005.08.24 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 24.AUG.2005 (03) * 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 (Zeeuws)
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From: "jonny" <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Language use"

Hi, Ron, Lowlanders,

last weekend I spent with my friend who comes from the area of Anglia
(Schleswig-Holstein).
It was the first time to get into contact with her father, and I was
surprised to hear that he grew up, until his first day at elementary school,
with LS.

First we made our conversation in High German, but then we both were
encouraged by my friend to switch to LS.

This has been a very interesting experience, though it didn't come
unexpectedly. Whithin just a few minutes we left the
'Höflichkeits-Anrede'(??), the German 'Sie', but started to use the more
familiar 'Du'.
At the beginning we both felt a little bit 'uneasy' with this, but then we
knew- never again we would do our talks in G!

Why did we feel so uneasy at the beginning? I think there has been some
discussion about this phenomene here, but perhaps I can make some additional
remarks.

The things going on whithin me I'd like to describe as a kind of 'loosing my
shield' when starting a language which could be described (and I several
times have done so) as a very basic way to communicate. It's nearly a kind
of intimity you won't find so immediately, directly in keeping the
'Hochdeutsch'-level.
There is some danger to become wounded, therefore- though at this grade of
being open-minded it shall be more or less unlikely that you really will be
hurt.

And, Ron, it's not only because this LS-language did 'decline' in a certain
way- I still do believe in the fact that the effect of any
coming-closer-to-each-other in using folkish languages never should be
under-estimated, still even in our globalized, multi-culti world .

On the other hand I guess it to be impossible to talk 'Platt', my way to
talk if feeling well, 'commood', as we say, to any person demanding for
distance, or I at least demand it by myself.

BTW: The same effect, a kind of immediate integration, we know from our
Dutch neighbours living in our area: their starting with 'Platt' here is
qualified to open all (mostly just apparently) closed doors.

Greutens/Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm

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

Moin, Jonny!

Thanks for sharing your observations and feelings.

I am pretty sure that many people feel like you do when they switch to Low
Saxon (Low German), myself included.  However, we should not jump to the
conclusion that this is a universal feature in the use of certain types of
language.  It certainly is not a shared feature of languages that do not
distinguish familiar and polite second person pronouns.  Interpersonal
proximity and distance can be expressed and formalized in a variety of
ways.  (This can easily be misunderstood by people who grew up with this
pronoun distinction, for instance by assuming that using "you" and first
names in English is tantamount to permission to be very chummy.)

I believe that what is at the root of it is the fact that Low Saxon had
been a suppressed and thus virtually hidden language, limited to circles
of family and friends, thus to circles that are by definition intimate. 
When the use of the language then comes to be extended beyond such
intimate circles it may feel as though that degree of intimacy is extended
with it.  In other words, it feels as though you are talking to people in
a somewhat intimate way, as if they were kin or close friends, whereas
there would be a formalized distance if German were used.  My prediction
is that, should Low Saxon continue, flourish and turn into a genuine
alternative code outside traditional contexts, this novel feeling would
fade away and shades of social distance and proximity would become
apparent.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron

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