LL-L "Language varieties" 2010.01.16 (04) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

===============================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 16 January 2010 - Volume 04
lowlands.list at gmail.com - http://lowlands-l.net/
Archive: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)
Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
===============================================

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

Lowlanders,

Yesterday I had three conversations *in Afrikaans* (in my case "approximate
Afrikaans") with a young man that works in a building across from mine. I
run into him occasionally and by his name and accent assumed he was an
Afrikaans speaker.

Yesterday I finally mustered the courage to address him in Afrikaans to ask
him something like “Jy kom uit Suid-Afrika, nè?” He was flabbergasted, not
only because it was unexpected, but in part also because I didn't sound
native. I gave him a mini-lecture about the old Low-Frankish-Low-Saxon
language and culture continuum. At one point he wanted me to answer in Low
Saxon, then said that he could definitely catch the gist of it, a bit like
in in cases of certain speakers of Dutch ("Sommige woorde is 'n bietjie
moeilik om te verstaan.") He further said about Low Saxon that it certainly
doesn't seem to be a type of German.

Later he came back twice to chat some more. He comes from a place in the
southern part of Johannisburg, very close to our Elsie's place.

Maybe I'll be getting some real practice with time. I really enjoy listening
to native Afrikaans.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

==============================END===================================

 * Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.

 * Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.

 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.

 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l")

   are to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at

   http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.

*********************************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20100116/8b3fa6f5/attachment.htm>