LL-L "History" 2010.07.08 (02) [DE-EN]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 08 July 2010 - Volume 01*
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From: Jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>

Subject: LL-L "History" 2010.07.07 (06) [EN]



Beste Marcus,



answering to my previous posting



>> ...still living at "Bederkesa", which in Low Saxon has become damaged to
"Beers".



you wrote:



> I'd prefer the wording "has evolved into" instead of "has become damaged
to". Being able to transport the same amount

> of  information in one syllable instead of four syllables seems to be a
sign of superior language efficiency to me.

("Fabelhafter Kerl!", sagte einst der österreichische Kaiser Franz-Joseph
über einen besonders schneidigen preußischen General. "Fa-bel-haft, der
Mann! Kann *'Euer kaiserliche Majestät'* in einer Silbe aussprechen!")



Same amount of information? I'm sorry, I'm completely unable to pick out *
any* sense from this deformed word *'Beers'*(spoken similar to ['black] *
bears*'). The true origin probably is *"Bederiks-a",* which, translated,
means *'(Knight) Bederiks water'* (Schiller-Lübben, first page, "a").

Even a very capable etymologist, using all his knowledge and phantasy,
would hardly find out this connection. It's a kind of dialectical
encryption, a slang word in its purest sense, which doesn't become
automatically better just because it is used by some poorly educated Low
Saxon 'Nuschel-Brüdern' ('mumble-brothers').

And if you just mean the exclusive information *'a location, near
Bremerhaven'* - who on earth is able to find out this when he is living, let
me say, more than 50 kilometres away from that village? Not very useful,
don't you think?



Who allows people to abuse Low Saxon so heftyly? Aren't there anylonger
any rules at all? Is it fancy, trendy? What are we doing here? Are we trying
to save any local family-slang or a great language, with all its norms and
principles that make up a 'universal' language?

In my youth I've met a lot of Low Saxon speakers which I was completely
unable to understand. These guys had their very own and special way
to communicate, because they never had left their families, their closest
surrounding, or, if you want, their cows and pigs. They had never been
forced to deal with a greater world, and for their small ambit they didn't
need  much syntax and grammar. (They were horrible, but I'm pretty sure
today we still could learn a lot of them ;-)!)

By all means - let us keep up this important difference between local color
and the varieties of the Low Saxon language!



You see - I'm still fighting for the conservation of our good old location
names. Sometimes I think this is even more important (and perhaps with more
prospect of success) than to keep 'Platt' alive, because these over 1.000
years old 'jewels' often allow us to open etymological and historical doors
which seemed to be locked.



(*BTW:* If you like you should have a look into de.wiki at 'Bederkesa'.
Perhaps a good example for my sorrows: in his trial to explain the meaning
of the name any 'Spoykenkieker' ('seer') came to 'ahe', which he breezily
translated into 'Herrenwald'.)



Allerbest ;-)!



Jonny Meibohm



Lower Saxony, Germany



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