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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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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 - 08 October 2007 - Volume 02</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Song Contest: <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/contest/">lowlands-l.net/contest/</a> (- 31 Dec. 2007)</span><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_wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Paul Finlow-Bates <<a href="mailto:wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk">wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2007.10.07 (04) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
I've kept out of the North German debate so far, as I don't think it's an Englishman's business.</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">But as a native speaker of the most widely spoken Lowlands language, might I cautiously warn:</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">"Beware of what you wish for".</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Expansion
of your language doesn't strengthen your identity, it dilutes it .
Most speakers of English aren't from England, and many couldn't find
England on a map. (OK, many English people couldn't either!)</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">But
my point is that the Lowlands/Norse character of English has steadily
eroded away under its international and scientific status.</div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Paul</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_jonny.meibohm@arcor.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">jonny</span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg">
<<a href="mailto:jonny.meibohm@arcor.de">jonny.meibohm@arcor.de</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2007.10.07
(04) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" id="mb_1">
<div>
<div><font size="2"><span>Dear Sandy,</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span></span> </font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>you wrote:</span></font></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><span class="q">> > 1st: No money!<br>>>
2nd: No teachers!<br>>> 3d: No space [...]<br>>>
4th: No pupils! [...]<br><br>> Ah, you sound a lovely death knell for
your language, which any goth <br>> would be proud of! Perhaps, Jonny, this
is what you will be remembered<br>> for.<br></span><font size="2">Maybe I'd be proud
if...</font></span></div><span class="q">
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font size="4"><font size="3">> But maybe you
missed out a "No": <br><br>> 5th: No Jonny!</font><br></font></span></div></span>
<div><font size="2"><span>Or the 6th: No,
Sandy-Sir!</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>if you continue to argue this
way:</span></font></div><span class="q">
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span>> However, you (and Gabriele) seem to me
always to put the priority not on <br>> having the language taught but on
preserving all the dialects as they<br>> are. I agree that this is hopeless,
but its only your lack of realism<br>> that makes it an issue.</span></div></span>
<div><font size="2"><span>Lack of realism? Another 'No'.
That IS realistic- all the different, laudable ideas and attempts how to save a
language are dreams, far away from today's situation.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>I don't know if you're aware of
the fact that the dialects of LS are extremely different- an average LS-speaker
of the Lunenburg-area in Germany is definitely unable to understand his
LS-collegue from Groningen/Netherl. spontaneously. They probably would
understand each other much better if they tried to do their conversations in
German vs Dutch. If you might find this too extreme let me add that I
myself have great difficulties to understand native LS-speakers of the
Westfalian dialects.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>So- what medium-dialect should
we call Low Saxon worth to preserve it 'as the leading, only one' for the
future? Who should make a decision about it? Should there be any scale of values
I've never heard about before?</span></font></div><span class="q">
<div> </div>
<div><font size="4"><font size="3"><span>> </span>It
doesn't matter whether it's Welsh, Cornish, Hebrew, English,<br><span>> </span>Icelandic, Low Saxon or even Esperanto,
language constancy is something <br><span>>
</span>that just doesn't happen.</font><br></font></div></span>
<div><font size="2"><span>I'm just able to speak for LS,
no matter if in Germany or The Netherlands.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>I see the incredible fast loss
of real Low Saxon vocabulary in favor of 'saxonised' words of the leading
languages, e.g. Dutch and Standard German. No- these words aren't really lost,
but the mass of self-proclaimed users are unable to use them any
more.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>If there are made interviews in
Northern Germany asking people how familiar they are with LS you'll hear very
often: "Yes- I am!" But when you try to talk with them, using the real and
correct vocabulary you'll just hear: "Hem? What?
Kannitverstaan!"</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>A language giving up its
vocabulary and its natural manifoldness is no longer a living language but
an artificial, 'dry' medium to communicate.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>Yes- you could argue this
should be the duty and aim of the schools, to make pupils learn the vocabulary.
But then you just solve one problem but not the sum of them. And then you
even didn't solve the conflict: which vocabulary???</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span></span> </font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>Just a little Ingvaeonic
slang is not Low Saxon, for my opinion.</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span></span> </font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span>Perhaps we should turn the
clock back to the time of Middle Low Saxon- that could become a very interesting
affair...</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"> </font></div><div align="left"><font size="2"><span>Best
regards</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font size="2"> </font></div>
<div align="left"><font size="2">Jonny Meibohm</font></div></div>
</div><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
•
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