LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.04.09 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 09 April 2009 - Volume 01
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From: Hellinckx Luc <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties"

Beste John,



You wrote:



There is no doubt that this attitude stems from the Scottish situation. One
of the severest criticisms I have had from Shetland is for criticising the
statement of James Robertson that the value of Scots lies in its
unrespectability. It was apparently not acceptable for me to criticise such
an eminent figure in the Scottish literary establishment. The idea that you
can promote a dialect of a language which is characterised primarily for
being unrespectable says more about the necessity of not offending certain
Scottish literary figures than it does about elementary processes of logic.
Apparently, when my name was mentioned to a visiting Scottish promoter of
Scots, I was immediately identified as 'the man who disagrees with James.'
This implies that, in order to be acceptable to the Scots-promoting
establishment, or its Shetland tributary, it is necessary not to disagree
that these forms of speech are, and are valued for being, intrinsically
unrespectable.



I guess this is what low self-esteem brings about. Could be worse, sometimes
low self-esteem suddenly turns into quite the opposite. Truth is in the
middle of course, therefore I tend to think that very few people can
estimate the true value of their language. More often than not, their native
language feels so "warm" and is related so much to their childhood, that
they prefer to keep a pristine picture of it...forever...emotions cloud
their perception.



This static image is of course "gefundenes Fressen" for everybody who is
trying to make their language/dialect look heroic.



The same happened in the 19th and 20th century with Flemish. Afficionados
were always looking back in history...usually as far back as the "Battle of
the Golden Spurs":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Golden_Spurs(1302 AD)



Seems as if dialect speakers either want to get romantic over their speech
or...display some kind of punk-ass attitude...aaah: guess this is Northern
Europe after all *s*.



Kind greetings,



Luc Hellinckx

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