LL-L "Language competency" 2005.07.21 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 21.JUL.2005 (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: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: "Language competency" [E]

> From: Holger Weigelt <platt at holger-weigelt.de>
> Subject: "Language competency"
>
> Of course: language reflects the way of life of it's speakers, their 
> special
> cultural background, their view onto their environment and the world as a
> whole. The educational background becomes a main feature if the language 
> is
> restricted to a limited social group or class. And where the language has
> been supressed or suffers from low esteem  it's development stagnates and
> looses the ability to adapt to changing concepts of life, economy and
> values. If You hear Your 'real' LS-natives it will sound quite natural if
> they for example talk about matters of rural life but if people try to
> discuss features of modern life it often will sound very strange even if
> they speak LS competently (of course with loans but no (or low)
> contamination). Moreover it will sound the more artificial the better they
> speak it.

I wonder?

This is similar in Scots but is thrown into much sharper relief in British 
Sign Language where people _have_ to learn to start signing technical 
language because they can't just resort to English as a Scots speaker might 
(or they can - but the solution in terms of fingerspelling is too clumsy in 
practice).

It's possible to observe phases in the creation of sign language vocabulary 
for technical subjects. One sign which is under creation at the moment is 
the sign for "DVD".

At first this was just fingerspelled. But the problem with fingerspelling 
lots of new terms is that it's time-consuming and difficult to "read", and 
even worse, impossible to incorporate into BSL grammar.

So some wiseacre (not a native signer, I suspect) got the idea of forming 
the fingerspelling into one sign by holding up two fingers of the left hand 
and spelling a "D" on each finger in turn. This is still unnatural - a 
"V"-shaped left hand isn't part of BSL grammar (unless it merely mimics the 
right hand), but this sign is used a lot at the moment.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a friend signing this sign with only one 
finger held up on the left hand. This is good BSL sign structure so I 
started using it. No complaints until last night when this very same friend 
who I first saw using it tried to correct me back to the original form! But 
I think what's going on is a natural process - when signing quickly the 
malformed signs tend to get replaced with more correct ones even if the 
signer doesn't notice.

I think what this means is that even although Scots and Low Saxon may seem 
artificial and perhaps too Anglicised/Germanised, there is an ongoing 
process and if people determine to use Scots and Low Saxon in these 
registers then natural forms for these registers will eventually develop.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: "Names" [E]

> From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
> Subject: "Names" [E]
>
> Remember that there's also a city called Wells in Somerset, England. So 
> the
> surname could mean "Welsh", or "from Wells" or sometimes one and sometimes
> the other!
>
> From: R. F. Hahn <lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net>
> Subject: Names
>
> Thanks for the info about Wells, Sandy.

After further thought - if "Wells" meant "Welsh" then it would seem to be a 
Scots form - like "Scottis" versus "Scottish" or "Wallace" versus "Welsh".

Since "Wells" seems to be an English rather than a Scottish surname, I'd 
suggest that it is indeed from the city of Wells rather than from Welsh.

I don't know whether the city name is from the presence of sources of water 
there - or holy wells? or whether it has itself some sort of Welsh 
connection.

I have seen a sign pointing to a village called "Wales" in Somerset! Is this 
another ex-pat driven mad by the hiraeth? But there's also a sign nearby 
pointing to a place called "Eyewell" which suggests to me "water well". So 
maybe "Wales" in the village name also refers to a source of water?

Mere ramblings!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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