LL-L 'Grammar' 2007.02.10 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 10 February 2007 - Volume 05

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From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Grammar' 2007.02.09 (08) [E]

Ron wrote:

> As a kick-off, let me just mention that not only are there numerous words
> that in Low Saxon have different genders than there cognates in Standard
> German, but there are gender assignment differences even among the Low
> Saxon dialects.

Some of them, which are significant in our Lower-Elbe dialect:

Neuter (Stand. G.)=> Masculine (LS):
'das Ende' => 'de Innen' (the end) 'foot dennen annern Innen an' (seize,
grab the other end)
'das Band' => 'de Band' (the string) 'geev mi mol dennen [also: 'dat'] Band'
(give me the string)
'das Tau'(*) => 'de Tampen'(*) (the rope) (* different words, look downwards
at 'Wiemen' vs 'Stange')

Masculine (Stand. G.) => Feminine (LS):
'der Grund' => 'de Grund' (the ground, earth) 'dat is op de Grund full'n'
(it fell to the ground)
'der Pflug' => 'de Plough' (the plough) 'hesst Du de Plough all rein mookt?'
(did you already clean the plough?)

Feminine (Stand. G.) => Masculine (LS):
'die Stange'(**) => 'de Wiemen'(**) (the perch) 'de Hoyhner sitt all opp
dennen Wiemen' (the chicken already sit on the perch) (** 'Stange' and
'Wiemen' are words of different origin, but with identical meaning in this
case; 'Wiemen' also can be used as a synonyme for E:'bed')

Very interesting I think this to be:
G:'Takel' => LS: 'Takel'/'Tokel' (block and tackle).
DUDEN (the official German dictionary for Standard G.) says 'das T.'
[neutr.], but I myself only know 'die T.' [fem.] in Stand. G., being
d'accord with the German wikipedia. In LS I could use both fem. and masc.
I guess it's a mistake of the DUDEN editors, isn't it?

And another interesting phenomene:
in LS you sometimes may shift the gender of a word.
Example: LS 'nehm Diin(_e_) Muetz' [fem.] avv'; G 'nimm Deine Muetze [fem.]
ab'; E 'take off your cap'.
You can change it into LS: 'nehm Diin(_en_) Muetzen [masc.] avv', and this
would be o.k. But there's just a couple of words allowing this, and I don't
find a rule for it at the moment.

And last, but not least:
you can watch many native Dutch speakers using the feminin gender for nearly
all nomina in German, if they learned German autodidactically. And- Dutch in
many aspects is closer to LS than Stand. G is...

Greutens/Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm

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

Thanks for carrying this some farther, Jonny.

John, Lowlanders, another way you can distinguish genders is by the way
adjectives are treated:

Masculine:
de lütte Placken (the little/small spot)
'n lütten Placken (a little/small spot)

Feminine:
de lütte Stuuv' (the little/small room)
'n lütte Stuuv' (a little/small room)

Neuter:
dat lütte Huus (the little/small house)
'n lütt(et) Huus (a little/small house)

However, it is true that there are now some dialects that omit virtually all
adjectival suffixing, thus almost arrived where English has gone before:

Masculine:
de lütt Placken (the little/small spot)
'n lütt Placken (a little/small spot)

Feminine:
de lütt Stuuv' (the little/small room)
 'n lütt Stuuv' (a little/small room)

Neuter:
 dat lütt Huus (the little/small house)
 'n lütt Huus (a little/small house)

But I notice that many people that use such constructions do suffix their
adjectives when they emphasize them.

It does occur that Low Saxon and German cognate nouns have different
genders; e.g.

'curry comb':
Low Saxon: Striegel (m)
German: Striegel (f)

There are "tons" of Low Saxon nouns that have different genders in different
dialects. Below please find a small sampling (f = feminine, m = masculine, n
= neuter, ~ = in variation with):

Baantje m~n (career, profession)
Bestick m~n ((fishing) tackle)
Bült m~n (heap, stack, pile)
Gist m~n (yeast)
Hacksel m~n (mince)
Haspel m~f (capstan, bobbin) [German Haspel f]
Hau m~f (blow, hit)
Hœg' m~f (joy, delight)
Jack f~n (jacket) [German Jacke f]
Kraam m~n (stuff, things, wares) [> German Kram m]
Laak f~n (brine) [German Lake f]
Maag' (< Mage) m~f (stomach) [German Magen m]
Maat f~n (measure) [German Maß n] (cf. LS Maat m 'mate')
Nacken m~f (nape) [German Nacken m]
Puust m~f (puff, blow, breath) [> German Puste f]
Rackelaasch f~n (stelling, trestle)
Riemel m~n ((rhyming) poem)
Smeer f~n (lubricant, gunk, gook) [German Schmiere f]
Spitt m~n (spit, stake) [German Spieß m]
Stää(d') f~n (stead, spot, place) [German Stätte f]
Steg [stEC] m~n (walk, path) [German Steg [ste:k] m]
Stellaasch f~n (stelling, trestle) [German Stellage f]
Stieg' f~n (set of 20) [German Stiege f]
Sücht m~n (addiction) [German Sucht f]
Verlööf m~n (permission)
Winnst m~f (winnings, profit, prize)
Wrist f~n (wrist, ankle)

I hope this helps, John.

I wish all online dictionaries would come with gender indication.  Don't
you?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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