LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.01.05 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 05 January 2007 - Volume 03
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From: Mathias Rösel <Mathias.Roesel at T-Online.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.01.05 (02) [E]

 From: Hugo Zweep <Zweep at bigpond.com>
Subject: LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.01.04 (02) [E/LS]
Mathias, I looked up the Wiki reference you gave and see a contribution by
someone called Harm saying he recalls "moi" being used in n/e Groningen. So
maybe my memory of 50+ years and out of the depths of my childhood is right.

My question then is - has it always been "moin" in other LL areas or has it
changed into this, subtly, over time. I can now actually hear, in my mind,
my granfather saying "moi" to people he passed when he visited us in
Australia in the early 1950s.

Hugo Zweep

  Dear Hugo,

unfortunately, I'm not old enough so as to answer your question properly
(born in 1964). However, in older Low Saxon books like e. g. Georg Droste's
novel Ottchen Alldag, which is supposed to play shortly before 1900 in
Bremen, people do not use Moin! as a greeting. Instead, they say Morgen! in
the morning or anything else during other times of day, but not Moin.
-- 
Best,

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

Mathias,

I'm pretty confident you're on the right track.  The greeting "Moin" seems
to have spread from Eastern Friesland in more recent times.  This would
explain why in other parts of Northern Germany it is used mostly by younger
people, probably because at one point it came to be regarded as being hip,
with-it, chic, perhaps because younger East Frisians were heard using it.

Apart from the etymological reanalysis that "Moin" means "Morgen" (which it
doesn't) there is the widespread assumption that people in Eastern Friesland
speak the "best" or "real" Low Saxon in Northern Germany.  I believe that
this is based on the impression that the dialects in those parts are
relatively intact, being still spoken by more young people than are other
dialects.  What most people don't know is that those dialects have
noticeable Frisian substrates, which accounts for "weird" terms like moi.
Because of this they are more difficult to understand to the average North
German, and this may lead them to believe that these dialects are more
intact, authentic, because they seem less German than others.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron
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