LL-L "Language maintenance" 2008.04.18 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

=========================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L  - 18 April 2008 - Volume 04
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).
If viewing this in a web browser, please click on
the html toggle at the bottom of the archived page.
=========================================================================

From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Media" 2008.04.17 (02) [E]

Beste Marcus,

'Ehre, wem Ehre gebühret' ('honor to whom honor is due').
In Platt: "Graod'leyr ouk, miin Jung! Hesst' reell verdeynt!!"

Though I (because of -by professional reasons- lack of time) am more or less
off-line LL-L I  cannot keep silent this time. Very best, Alter!
Congratulations! And appearing specially in my/our regional paper! Great!

But- considering the last sentences of the interview in which you gave
way to your legal wishes X-AntiVirus: checked by AntiVir MailGuard (Version:
8.0.0.18; AVE: 8.1.0.30; VDF: 7.0.3.178) to activate more (native,
LS-native) people to take part in nds.wikipedia (the wiki-project in [German
based] Low Saxon) I felt forced to react. At this point I have to add my
comment, I fear:
*"Ut Cuxhoben, ut Land Hodeln oder Kehdingen oder Wursten oder wo se ans
noch herkomen möögt..."*

You mention some regions perhaps famous for having kept a respectable level,
even skill of Low Saxon language, there possibly being alive and somehow in
everyday's use.
I fear your animation could go into vacuity because of the fact that the
greater part of all the folks you consider to be able to *speak* Low Saxon
(still, but dying out!) are not at all interested to *write* it.

Sorry, man- this is no animosity I want to express or overcover you with,
but: the majority of these people (of about my age or older) you might bear
in mind to take part never have learned Low Saxon, Neddersassisch or
Nedersaksisch. All of them just have learned 'Platt', so as I have done.

And that is very different from any artificial written, Old- or Middle-Saxon
derived language. These people are not interested to describe scientifically
how the wheel had been invented...

Well- let me once again try to explain my own point of view.
When (6?) years ago I had started in posting on LL-L I had been convinced
here I might be able to preserve the relics of a language I am watching
going to die, and I started to write, to write and to write again- 'as mi de
Snuut wussen weyr' ('by guess and by gosh').
And at the same time I tried to do similar actions on nds.wiki- a good year
or two before a young 'notorious' ;-) M.B. came across this new project.
And there I quit when the western neighbours were forced to make up their
own, seperatistical project.
And here I quit because of some dissonances with a certain R.F.H. ;-)...

And then I came back here and tried continuing to write Low Saxon
with letters according to my own spelling style- German-based-, and later
became encouraged and this time also enlighted  by an (again 'certain') R.F.
Hahn to even go one step further, namely to adapt some effects near to the
Hanse style of typing. (First I did hate it, but today my [written] Platt
would be poor without it, beste Reinhard!)

And then- within a period of about four years- I realized that my home
language got spoiled. Often when I talked (in LS, better: 'Platt') to my
friends and neighbours they asked me: "What the hell is the matter with your
'Platt'? Have you been in Ostfriesland (Eastern Frisian) again?" And-
believe it or don't: I was (and still am) unable to read aloud my own
textes, if they were/are not written *exactly* describing my regional
pronunciation!

And now I'm definitely aware of the fact that it could be a sin to
*write*Low Saxon if you are (as me) a real, practised
*speaker* of a definated regional dialect.

(Sorry for those about twenty uses of 'I's'/'me's' above, but all of that is
a summary of long talks and discussions with like-minded persons and
mentors.)

Why do you think that 'güstern' is a better spelled word for 'yesterday'
than 'güsstern'? In German and LS a 'Güster' (pl: 'Güstern') is a fish, and
it is pronounced with a long '_ü_'-umlaut!
And over here is no chance for a wren to (heavily) 'böör opp' its miniscule
leg in our Platt- it always has to 'lüch' (='leicht') opp' that pintsized
tootsy!
And 'geel snacken' here does mean 'to speak Standard (='high') German', too,
but in the first and basic meaning it still is 'gestelzt reden', 'to speak
stiltedly' (MG: 'yelp'=gellend).
I know, you perhaps might know, but - later generations *don't* and could
miss this information!!!

And so on...

Sometimes I think Marless [Marlou Lessing] and Gabriele [Kahn] seem to be
the only ones having grasped my personal point of view.

I cannot *write* Low Saxon because I am used to *speak* Lower Elbe *Platt*.
And that is, by all means and the hell, not a language to be written.

Please, try to understand my position and don't worry and 'quorry';-)!

My duty and intention as far as LS is concerned is to collect words and
important idioms , to write them down (e.g. here, on LL-L) in descriptive
letters and thus to hand them down to later generations (for whatever
use...).
And to be a keeper of the purity and 'smell of dung' as often as it could
be necessary ;-).

And all of that I'll do in awareness of the imperfection inherent to me as
well (more than!) as to all human beings...

Allerbest; houl Dii hattig!

Jonny Meibohm
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20080418/ed805d4f/attachment.htm>