LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.08.03 (07) [EN]

Tue Aug 4 03:45:19 UTC 2009

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L O W L A N D S - L - 03 August 2009 - Volume 07
lowlands at lowlands-l.net - http://lowlands-l.net/
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Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
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From: R. F. Hahn
<sassisch at yahoo.com<http://uk.mc264.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sassisch@yahoo.com>
>
Subject: Language varieties

Hi, Ronald!

You wrote:

From: Ronald Veenker <veenker at atmc.net>
Subject: LL-L "Resources" 2009.08.03 (01) [EN]

Dear Lowlanders,

My granddaughter made a trip to the Island of FÃ¶hr in May.  She described
the languages spoken there as High German, Low German and Frisian.  I see
that the island is near the Danish/German border.  What do you think might
be the language known as Low German and what srort of Frisian is spoken on
that island?

Thank you for your kindness,

Ronald Veenker
Holden Beach NC
USA

The "original" language of the Island, called *Feer* in Frisian, is Frisian,
specifically an insular North Frisian variety called *Fering*.

We have a Fering version of our Wren story:
http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/fering.php

You can find a map and a list of Frisian varieties here:
http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/frysk-info.php

Most Frisian areas in Germany lost their Frisian varieties at various times
in history, and the people adopted Low Saxon ("Low German") instead, which
lately has been to a high degree replaced by (High) German. Frisian speakers
also tend to speak Low Saxon, and nowadays also German. These Low Saxon
varieties are regional dialects with added local Frisian "color".

Schleswig-Holstein, and Northern Friesland in particular, is an area in
Germany where the largest number of autochtonous languages and cultures rub
shoulder and people are traditional conversant in more than one local
language. Schleswig-Holstein, now Germany's northernmost state, is the
southernmost part of the Jutland Peninsula and has seen both German and
Danish rule. Danish proficiency is, or at least used to be, fairly
widespread, especially in Schleswig, the northern half of the state close to
the Danish border. On top of it, there is a good number of native speakers
of Southern Jutish, which is also used or at least understood by some
non-Jutish people.

Many places on both sides of the border have more than one version of their
names; e.g.

   - *Feer *(Frisian), *FÃ¶hr *(L.Sax., German), *FÃ¸r *(Danish)
   - *Eiderstedt* (L.Sax., German), *Ejdersted* (Danish), *Ã„Ã¤derstÃ¤Ã¤*(Frisian)
   - *DagebÃ¼ll *(L.Sax., German), *DagebÃ¸l *(Danish), *Doogebel *(Frisian)
   - *Wraksem *(Frisian), *Wrixum *(L.Sax., German), *Vriksum *(Danish)
   - *Neukirchen ** *(German), *Niekarken* (L.Sax.), *Nykirke
*(Danish), *NaischÃ¶spel
   *(Frisian)
   - *Sleswig *(L.Sax.), *Schleswig *(German), *SÃ¸nderjylland ~
Slesvig*(Danish),
   *Synnejylland ~ Slesvig* (S.Jut.),  *Slaswik ~ Sleesweg* (Frisian)
   - *AffenrÃ¥e *(S.Jut.), *Aabenraa ~ Ã…benrÃ¥* (Danish), *Apenraad' ~ Apenrae
   * (L.Saxon), *Apenrade *(German)
   - *Tynne* (S.Jut.), *TÃ¸nder* (Danish), *TÃ¶nnern* (L.Sax.), *Tondern
*(German),
   *Tuner *(Frisian)
   - *Flensborg* (L.Sax.)*, *Flensborg* (Danish)*, *Flensborre *(S.Jut.), *
   Flensburg* (German), *Flansborj *(Frisian)

(* same spelling but different pronunciation)

Demographic statistics deal with labels, and the official labels are
"German", "Danish" and "Frisian". But in Schleswig on the German side and
Slesvig on the Danish side the linguistic and ethnic picture is difficult to
devide up into labels. Yet, forced labeling has had some effect. Many people
in the region have intermarried or grown up with more than one language as
products of such intermarriages and multilingual communities. Some people
labeled "German" would have preferred Danish rule in their area on the now
German side. Some switched from the "German" label to the "Danish" label
especially in the years following World War II. It was easy to do in that
they could speak Danish, probably had some Danish, specially Jutish,
ancestors, maybe married Danes and sent their children to Danish-speaking
schools in Germany. Besides, surnames like Petersen and Johansen are
commonplace in the region and give you no information about language and
culture.

There is an agreement between Denmark and Germany: ethnic "Germans" in
Denmark and ethnic "Danes" in Germany enjoy minority status and are entitled
to schooling in "their languages". So government-run or -supported Danish
and German schools were established on both sides of the border. Many
children that visit(ed) these had as their home languages neither (Standard)
German nor (Standard) Danish but Low Saxon, Southern Jutish or North
Frisian. In some western areas on the German side there are or used to be
Frisian schools. But otherwise German and Danish are the languages of
education. (The schools use both but emphasize one or the other according to
their official labels.) As a result of this and the power of the media,
multi-lingualism in the area is being eroded, German and Danish winning out
and Low Saxon, Southern Jutish and Frisian going down the drain. This is
particularly so on the Danish side where Low Saxon and Frisian have all but
disappeared in the meantime.

What I have learned particularly about Schleswig on the German side is that
many homegrown people of the region are still difficult to label and that
some of them are "nationally ambiguous", have at most loose emotional
association with Germany or with Germany *and* Denmark. It has always been a
linguistic and cultural crossroads, and I personally believe that makes for
its special charm.

Furthermore personally, I would have loved it if the European Union declared
this one of a few officially European "Crossroads Regions", regions that
link countries and ethnicities.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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