LL-L "Language varieties" 2008.11.15 (05) [E]

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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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L O W L A N D S - L - 16 November 2008 - Volume 05
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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2008.11.15 (03) [E]

At 02:27 PM 16/11/2008, Paul Finlow-Bates wrote:
However I have encountered similar "understanding refusals"; I once
suggested to some Cook Islanders that they might find Tahitian fairly easy
to follow and the idea was dismissed with comments suggesting that they
disliked the very idea.  Yet Cook's Tahitian cabin boy could apparently
converse with New Zealand Maori, and Rarotongans readily admit similarity
with that.  I only know a little of any of them, but I don't see too much
difference.


Whether or not Afrikaans/Dutch is a good example, I still believe that such
nationalistic emphasis of difference over similarity is a real phenomenon.



I have told this story here before.  My wife teaches in a Catholic high
school.  As the only Protestant there, they once put her in charge of
getting various students to say the Hail Mary over the P.A. at the beginning
of the school day.  She ramped this up by having students from different
language groups do it in their native language.  One day, she had a Serbian
student do it.  Later in the day, she encountered a small group of Croation
students who asked her who was that speaking Croatian with that funny
accent?  When she told them that it was a Serb, they were absolutely
incredulous, because, "as everyone knows, there are no Serbian Catholics."
 Even though the "two" languages are (I am told) about as far apart as the
two dialects (based on religion) spoken in Ulster, they are written in two
different alphabets!

Ed Alexander, Hamilton, Canada

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