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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">===========================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 23 August 2008 - Volume 02<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br>
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From: <span class="ep8xu"><span><span style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Sandy Fleming</span></span></span><span class="hccdpe"> </span><span class="ldacoc"><<a href="mailto:sandy@scotstext.org">sandy@scotstext.org</a>></span><br>
Subject: <span class="hccdpe">LL-L "Language use" 2008.08.22 (01) [E]</span><br>
<br>
> From: <a href="mailto:clarkedavid8@aol.com">clarkedavid8@aol.com</a><br>
> Subject: LL-L "Language use" 2008.08.21 (02) [E<br>
><br>
> From: Paul Finlow-Bates <<a href="mailto:wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk">wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk</a>><br>
> Subject: LL-L "Art" 2008.08.19 (01) [E]<br>
><br>
> I've often wondered what language(s) Holbein spoke when he first came<br>
> to England.
Certainly no English; nobody outside the Anglo-Scots area<br>
> of Britain
did. Would he have used Latin, or some form of Court<br>
> French? or maybe a Continental lowlands language would have been<br>
> similar enough until he learned English?<br>
<br>
I wonder if attitudes to languages and dialects have changed over the<br>
centuries to the point where they're much more compartmentalised now,<br>
and the perceived communication difficulties worse than they really are?<br>
<br>
What about people like Komensky (Comenius) who travelled Europe
trying<br>
to get support from various courts for political causes? A Czech scholar<br>
could turn up in London only to discover that
the king spoke Scots and<br>
his Latin was kind of theoretical, or in Sweden to discover that the<br>
queen was only comfortable in Russian and bad Swedish. Of course such<br>
journeys were long and many dialects were heard, and sometimes had to be<br>
used, on the way. Was a continuous language learning process more taken<br>
for granted by travellers in those days? Were they used to listening<br>
harder and more desperately trying to understand? Were they hungrier in<br>
the evening some of us are now?<br>
<br>
These days I think we tend to say "I know French, Swedish, Japanese and,<br>
er... Scots and English if those count. And I know a very little Russian<br>
but don't quote me on that." But in reading Byron's journals and<br>
letters, I sometimes wonder about his approach to languages. He had his<br>
school Greek and Latin, but he seems to approach living languages as<br>
dialects. There's a strong impression that, at least outside of England,<br>
he tried to speak to people the way they spoke to him, and didn't worry<br>
about what it actually was.<br>
<br>
In the Deaf community even now, many people are keen on swapping signs<br>
and having several signs for a thing but choosing the one that they know<br>
their listener prefers. Of course you get the other sort of person who<br>
fears his brain will reach capacity and tries to keep himself down to<br>
one sign per thing, but bits and bobs of "foreign" dialects and<br>
languages are generally valued knowledge, whereas in Hearing communities<br>
there's more of a tendency to want all of a language or nothing.<br>
<br>
On top of this I think you have to remember the invisible people of<br>
history, for example the interpreters, or even just friends,<br>
acquaintances and even strangers who happened to have some proficiency<br>
in both languages.<br>
<span style="color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><br>
Sandy Fleming<br>
<a href="http://scotstext.org/" target="_blank">http://scotstext.org/</a><br style="">
<br style="">
</span></span></p>
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