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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West) Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 04 March 2007 - Volume 06</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span><span id="_user_sandy@scotstext.org" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Sandy Fleming</span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg">
<<a href="mailto:sandy@scotstext.org">sandy@scotstext.org</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2007.03.03 (04) [E]
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">
sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> Subject: Language varieties</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> I take it she isn't originally from the Dresden area. If she were, it</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
> wouldn't be surprising that she doesn't know any Low Saxon, because</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> the area is well south of the Low-Saxon-speaking region. It is were
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> mostly so-called "Central German" varieties are spoken, the ones of</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> this particular area being referred to as "Saxon," with many special</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
> features, including "fronting" ( i.e. centralization) of back vowels,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> which gives them a unique sound.</span>
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Ron,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Yes, as she said, her family lived near the Dutch border - well, that</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">could be anywhere almost! - she was just at university in the Dresden
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">area.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
It might be that she took it to mean those dialects when I said Low</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Saxon, of course. I suppose my sign for "Low" could have been
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">interpreted as meaning "in the south" or something, I'm not sure.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I must say, though, I've met Germans from places like Lubeck and Hamburg</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
who don't seem very clear about what I mean by "Low Saxon" and that's</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">just speaking with them in English.</span>
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="sg"><br>Sandy<br><br>----------<br><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">
sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: Language varieties</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Sandy,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
"Too true, mate," to use an Australianism.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Most people, even in the north, know only the names
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Platt</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> and </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Plattdeutsch</span>
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, few (including native speakers) know what the more "scientific" version </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Niederdeutsch</span>
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> means or that the two are synonymous, and only a small minority knows that the language descended from Old Saxons (renamed "Old Low German" for popular consumption) and that dialects of it are used in the Netherlands. (Most of those that are aware of the latter fact choose to pretend it's a different language.)
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">In other words: ignorance abounds. Not surprisingly so, since imparting such basic knowledge, and certainly presenting diverging views, has never been a part of the general education curriculum even in the north. It is at best limited to a (
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">numerus clausus</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">) select tertiary education circle of budding Germanists, and they ain't gonna bite the hand that feeds them. And Germanics departments outside the country tend to be dominated by German-educated faculty members that in part rely on German funding.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Kumpelmenten,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
•
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