<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 - 26 April 2007 - Volume 03</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_globalmoose@t-online.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Global Moose Translations <<a href="mailto:globalmoose@t-online.de">
globalmoose@t-online.de</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 "History"
2007.04.25 (05) [E/LS/German/Latin]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span class="q">Karl-Heinz wrote:
<br>>Du liebäugelst also mit dem Schweizer Modell: Den ganzen Dag blot<br>>Plattdüütsch im Fernseher. Das würde funktionieren: die Glotze ruiniert<br>>die Regionalsprachen, sie kann sie aber auch erhalten wie die Schweiz
<br>>zeigt und man könnte auch Regionalsprachen wiederbeleben. Schweizer<br>>Verhältnisse sind utopisch: Stell dir vor, das würde für euch bedeuten,<br>>ARD, ZDF und NDR nur auf Platt. Aber wenn es auch nur ein einziges
<br>>ausschließlich niederdeutsches Fernsehprogramm gäbe, würde das Wunder bewirken.<br><br></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">A
TV programme in nothing but Platt? And who would the speakers be? Where
would they find enough people to dub everything who all speak the same
flavour of Platt, and are at the same time talented enough for the job?
And how would they pay for it all? It would probably sound horrible
because to most of them, Platt would be a foreign language they would
try to imitate. And even if it worked, we would be stuck with a
standardized version which could wipe out regional dialects.<br></div><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span class="q"><br>Reinhard wrote:<br>>I am sure that the spirits of the millions and millions of medieval
<br>>people that were tortured, burnt, quartered or whatever horrible thing for<br>>believing differently or not at all would agree with your assessment, Karl-Heinz.<br>>And we still haven't really come to terms with the atrociousness of that European
<br>>past. Most of us still find the witchhunts kind of amusing, and it was one of the<br>>greatest holocausts, primarily directed at women, mostly disenfranchised women.<br>>Any type of minority (ethnic, sexual, physically and mentally handicapped ...)
<br>>could be persecuted with impunity by virtually anyone.<br><br></span></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Most
of us still find the witchhunts kind of amusing? I should hope not!
Maybe you're thinking of Monty Python, but they also found WWII
amusing...</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Well, yes, all of the above. But also death in
childbirth, broken limbs that never mend, horrible toothaches that last
for years, no eyeglasses, dentures or hearing aids, infant mortality,
untreatable appendicitis, no toilets, showers or washing machines, no
human rights, no health insurance, no birth control, no divorce, no
fresh food for months at a time, no books... but what is all that
compared to the privilege of speaking your own little regional dialect
and nothing else all your life? When even that fact was turned against
you because Latin was the language of the church, so you were kept in
ignorance and dependence all your life?</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Actually, I'm part of a
medieval reenactment group, but we all do it for fun and none of us
would really want to go back to that time. I think I could do without
bearing thirteen children to somebody I don't even care for, only to
see nine of them die before they reach adulthood, another crippled for
life because he fell out of a tree, and the remaining three... well,
who knows.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Gabriele Kahn</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: 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;">Gabriele:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">> And even if it worked, we would be stuck with a
standardized version which could wipe out regional dialects.</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Is this based on theor or precedence? If there are cases of standard dialects wiping out other dialects, in what languages did that happen?</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><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;">