LL-L "Language varieties" 2008.11.15 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 16 November 2008 - Volume 06
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From: Elsie Zinsser <ezinsser at icon.co.za>
Subject: LL-L "Language Varieties" 2008.11.15 (03) [E]

Hi all,

Thanks, Paul, for the benefit of the doubt.

One of my first theoretical linguistics lecturers asked us the interesting
question about exactly that phenomenon: Which is the easiest to learn; a
language closest to one's own or one somewhat more removed?

Learning German was less of a challenge to me than learning Dutch, simply
because I could not make assumptions about learning German but had big
assumptions about learning Dutch. I still cannot speak Dutch but read it
well.

Some of my Northern Cape cousins never passed Matric because their English
was so bad. Dutch would be like Swedish to them.

I am not so sure that 'understanding refusals' are what they seem.

1  I can simply not understand certain spoken Dutch.

2  People have language mental blocks. They think you are "English" and
hence don't register your  Afrikaans. They see you are 'White' and don't
register your Zulu greeting.

Regards,

Elsie Zinsser

 From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2008.11.15 (02) [E]

Hi Elsie,

"Deliberate refusal" was perhaps a poor choice of words! "Subconcious
resistance" might be a better explanation, altough I accept that your purely
linguistic reason probably has more significance.

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.

Paul

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