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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 - 16 November 2008 - Volume 06<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
From: <span class="ep8xu"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Elsie Zinsser</span></span></span><span class="hccdpe"> </span><span class="ldacoc"><<a href="mailto:ezinsser@icon.co.za">ezinsser@icon.co.za</a>></span><br>
Subject: <span class="hccdpe">LL-L "Language Varieties" 2008.11.15 (03)
[E]</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Hi all,</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Thanks, Paul,
for the benefit of the doubt. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">One of my first
theoretical linguistics lecturers asked us the interesting question about
exactly that phenomenon: Which is the easiest to learn; a language closest to
one's own or one somewhat more removed? </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Learning German
was less of a challenge to me than learning Dutch, simply because I could not
make assumptions about learning German but had big assumptions about learning
Dutch. I still cannot speak Dutch but read it well. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Some of my Northern Cape cousins
never passed Matric because their English was so bad. Dutch would be like
Swedish to them. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">I am not so sure
that 'understanding refusals' are what they seem. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">1<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span>I can simply not understand certain spoken Dutch. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">2<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span>People have language mental blocks. They think you are "English" and
hence don't register your
Afrikaans. They see you are 'White' and don't register your Zulu greeting.
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Regards, </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Elsie Zinsser
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> F</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">rom: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Paul Finlow-Bates</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;"> <<a href="mailto:wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk" target="_blank">wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk</a>><br>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2008.11.15 (02) [E]</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">Hi Elsie,</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">"Deliberate refusal" was perhaps a poor choice of
words! "Subconcious resistance" might be a better
explanation, altough I accept that your purely linguistic reason probably has
more significance.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">However I have encountered similar "understanding
refusals"; I once suggested to some Cook Islanders that they might find
Tahitian fairly easy to follow and the idea was dismissed with comments
suggesting that they disliked the very idea. Yet
Cook's Tahitian cabin boy could apparently converse with New Zealand
Maori, and Rarotongans readily admit similarity with that. I only know a
little of any of them, but I don't see too much difference.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">Whether or not Afrikaans/Dutch is a good example, I still
believe that such nationalistic emphasis of difference over similarity is a
real phenomenon.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">Paul</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>