LL-L "Language varieties" 2006.02.09 (01) [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 (Zeeuws)
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09 February 2006 * Volume 01
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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2006.02.06 (08) [E]

Hi, everyone,

Sandy wrote:
> I would say that those outside the culture should certainly research and
> study all they want to. But in the end I think it should be up to those
> within the culture to say what, if anything, should be done within the
> culture as a result of this body of knowledge that everyone has built up.

Oh yes- and I wrote about my thoughts in this topic several times before.
It's a matter of respect, a matter of dignity to those people who really 
*live* (and love, too!) a culture and its unseperatable language.
Why do so many genuine LS-speakers feel uneasy with writers who give 
themselves airs being able to improve and even save their language? Their 
questions always are the same: where is the justification and legitimation 
of those people to build new windows into an old house? They're always aware 
of the fact that most of these self-styled rescuers don't speak[*] that 
language, that their knowledge *not* depends on a really *hearsay* ;-), but 
just is built on a theoretical base taken out of (partly bad, often 
disfiguring) books.
[*](Let me add a truism here: a speaker immediately has a critical feed-back 
from the sound of his own words, compared with the sound of his vis-à-vis. 
He's forced to improve himself at once. That's what I'd aspect to be the 
normal way to learn a language, though there may be some exceptional 
*linguistical athletes* (as Ingmar called them some time ago) being capable 
to go different ways.)

Yes- there have to be made researches by linguists, as completely as 
possible. But they have to be made with greatest care and caution, due to 
the well-known scientific handicap that an investigation already can change 
the investigated object. And (in accordance with Gabriele, Sandy and others) 
no-one from outsides ever should try to improve a local sociolect, even if 
there are legitimated etymological doubts. It'd be the same like pouring 
water into a good old wine.

Greutens/Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm 

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