LL-L "Language survival" 2010.12.29 (06) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

=====================================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 29 December 2010 - Volume 06
lowlands.list at gmail.com - http://lowlands-l.net/
Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
Archive: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)
Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
=====================================================



From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>

Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2010.12.29 (05) [EN]



From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>

As many of you probably know by now, Low Saxon (Low German) is used in
various parts of the Americas as well, and not only by Mennonite. In the USA
there are still older people for whom it is their first language. Their
children and grandchildren tend to know it poorly or not at all, and of
those many learn (Standard) German in school, probably because Low Saxon has
never been made an educational subject. (I believe a similar situation led
to the demise of Low Saxon in Denmark where the "German" minority can only
choose between Standard German and Standard Danish as their primary
languages of education.)


I found a video recording of a Low Saxon conversation of an American couple.
According to their grandson, they know only Low Saxon and English, not
German, which seems to indicate that they are American-born.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMiElxOaHIo



Nice find! From the sound of their speech I would agree that they were
exposed to English for a long time but not exposed to Standard German or
"Media Low Saxon" in any way that affected their way of speaking. Aside from
the English interferences they seem to speak a decent and native Low Saxon.
When I try to pin-point the dialect to a specific region, I'd guess they are
from the Land Oldenburg. This is mostly based on the last word "Froolüe". In
the north the final "e" would be lost. In the south it would be "fru(g)"
instead of "froo". In the west it would be "viele" or "völe" instead of
"väle". And in the east it would be "Froonslüe". A further lead is the first
name "Josef" which is a typical Catholic
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Verbreitung_der_Konfessionen_im_deutschen_Reich.jpg>name.
That would hint at the region around Vechta, Cloppenburg, Wildeshausen. If
the pronunciation "froo" instead of "frau" is true to their ancestral home
dialect, we can further narrow it down to the region around Wildeshausen
(I'd guess less than 15km away from it). But that's very hypothetical from a
1 min clip that immediately cuts after the most significant word.

Marcus Buck



=========================================================
Send posting submissions to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
Send commands (including "signoff lowlands-l") to
listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or lowlands.list at gmail.com
http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=118916521473498<http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#%21/group.php?gid=118916521473498>
===============================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20101229/5ebdadde/attachment.htm>