<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 April 2007 - Volume 01</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_Karl-Heinz.Lorenz@gmx.net" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Karl-Heinz Lorenz <<a href="mailto:Karl-Heinz.Lorenz@gmx.net">
Karl-Heinz.Lorenz@gmx.net</a>></span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg"></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Language maintenance"
2007.03.24 (05) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Hallo Gabriele, you wrote:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> As to language maintenance... what I have seen here in my home area in the</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
> last two years just hurts too much to describe, really. Old ladies in the</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> church choir trying to "speak Platt", discussing vocabulary, sounding like
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> early "le jardin de ma tante" lessons - using some watered-down form of</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> Eastphalian instead of "real" Sollinger Platt - I wish they would just</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
> forget about it pronto, and let it rest in peace. Young people doing</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> amateur</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> plays in "Platt" - I had to leave because it was so awful, they all</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
> sounded</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> like second-year foreign language students and barely knew what they were</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> saying.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
What do you think of this "Krippenspeel"?</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XTYo1gQVX8&mode=related&search=" target="_blank">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XTYo1gQVX8&mode=related&search=</a><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">And I found this song:
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wNXtl8VIYU" target="_blank">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wNXtl8VIYU</a><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">It's also quite charming. I tried to write down the refrain, putting the words I'm not sure about in capital letters:
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Mien Mann is in FRÖAM (=in der Fremde?)</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">un(d) hier is so veel Arbeit</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Heel week is he op reis</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">dat maokt mi REIN VERGRELLT</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Ik heb ALLAN(G) (HE)M (it sounds like: allan' (u)m) seggt
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Wenn du SCH'MO (schon mal?) so lang weg büst</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Denn must du di nich wunnern wenn ik mi sülben help</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Denn must du di nich wunnern wenn ik mi sülben help</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
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From: </span><span id="_user_Karl-Heinz.Lorenz@gmx.net" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Karl-Heinz Lorenz <<a href="mailto:Karl-Heinz.Lorenz@gmx.net">Karl-Heinz.Lorenz@gmx.net</a>></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg"></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Language maintenance" 2007.03.25
(05) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">When I entered "plattdeutsch", "plattdüütsch" etc. in the youtube
search machine about a month ago, there were only two or three results
(the two wiehnachtsansprachen and some others). Now there are fifteen
anyway.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=plattdeutsch" target="_blank">
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=plattdeutsch</a><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Some
of them can't be taken seriously, but about young people talking or
singing LS there is this group 'de drangduewels'. I think they are
quite good:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I_hJ2i8cuc" target="_blank">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I_hJ2i8cuc</a><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">And the other samples of their music:</span>
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=drangd%C3%BCwels" target="_blank">
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=drangd%C3%BCwels</a><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
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From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: Language maintenance</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Just some thoughts:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
As most of you know, I'm as little in favor of tokenism as the next guy. But lately I've come to think that "song and dance routines" may have some positive effects on kids (of the human kind) regarding language image, provided the routines are pulled off well,
i.e. are fun.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I recently compared notes with a couple of people in similar situations to mine, and our experiences and observations turned to be pretty much the same.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">My younger (not youngest) sister, seven years my junior, still had a fair few Low Saxon activities in school, mostly things like Christmas songs and comedy sketches, and the teacher in charge of those activities projected and generated a fair bit of enthusiasm. My sister remembers those activities as fun, and she still remembers most of the things they learned and did. She now wishes she could speak the language better than she can and she was very excited when she told me that at work there were two new employees that were genuine LS speakers and regularly used the language with each other even at work. (She: "I had my desk moved so I could listen to them as much as possible.")
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">My youngest sister, fifteen years my junior, did not have any Low Saxon activities in school. By then the language had truly gone underground in the city. She heard the language spoken mostly within contexts and settings that she associated with "vulgarity" or "not her scene." This includes inebriated people, mostly in and around pubs or bothering folks waiting for trains and buses, or at home when the "oldies" celebrated or watched televised parochial theater plays that to a teenager seemed the height of "uncool." Even now she just barely tolerates the use of the language around her, even when relatives use it, and she now does so mostly to humor us "oldies." She still seems to think that "Platt" and "educated" make an odd pair.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">The age difference seems to be significant on other levels as well. My middle sister and I still got a good dose of the rebelliousness of the 1960s and 1970s, and we were aware that the way the language was treated was unfair. So we had this "So, jetzt ja gerade!" in-your-face attitude. That had pretty much blown over by the time our youngest sister was in her teens, and the competitive rat race was in full swing again, which meant that you didn't want to be associated with anything "un-chic" and "low-class." Her idea of "cool" was French and visits to Paris. And ... English? Well, it was necessary and prestigeous, even though it seemed suspiciously similar to ... well, you know what.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">The point I'm trying to make is that positive language-related activities may at least serve to weaken prejudices based on negative associations, and this may increase the survival chances of a minority language. After all, attitude is of fundamental importance, isn't it?
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">In Guangdong province of Mainland China, Cantonese got added prestige -- more prestige than other non-Mandarin language of China -- in great part because of its association with Hong Kong, formerly under British rule and with a mostly booming economy. Most young people in and from Hong Kong are seen as "way cool," and they speak Cantonese with abandon and great stylistic skill. Previously, most of them knew little or no Mandarin, nor did they care about it. Hong Kong media were mostly world-class and used mostly Cantonese, including in elaborate TV shows that appealed to people of all walks of life. In other words, Cantonese "behaved" like the real language that it is, and it did so with much confidence. And this spilled over into Guangdong province. (I should also mention that Cantonese traditional "opera" has been quite independent, not beholden to Beijing "opera," for a long time.) Now that Hong Kong has been returned to China I hear talk of a weaking process regarding the status of Cantonese. I can't verify this as a fact, but it makes sense. Learning Mandarin is all the rage in Hong Kong now. Will it take over, and will Cantonese be relegated to the back seat in Hong Kong itself? However, I can say that at least here in North America the Cantonese-speaking community is still rather independent and confident, and their TV shows tend to be better than Mandarin shows. In Taiwan, on the other hand, the Minnan (Hokkien) dialects of the "natives" (Chinese, not the Oceanian-speaking aboriginals) do not enjoy as much prestige, mostly because the government has a "Mainlander" base that, according to the "natives," looks down on them (and this matches, by and large, my observations.) However, I have noticed an increase in Taiwanese Minnan activities lately (also at Wikipedia), and I am under the impression that it is a political backlash similar to what we witnessed when Catalan, Valencian, Asturian, Galician etc. reasserted themselves after the fall of Spanish fascism. Perhaps the increasing confidence in Frisian reassertion falls into this category.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Any thoughts about this?</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Regards,</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;">