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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 - 25 January 2009 - Volume 03<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>
Subject: Language varieties<br>
<br>
Dear Lowlanders,<br>
<br>
There are several schemes in which the Low Saxon language has been divided into
dialect groups. Common to pretty much all of them is an east-west division that
more or less coincides with the former Iron Curtain, and in addition there is a
north-south division on each side. Roughly speaking, this looks as follows:<br style="">
<br style="">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 42pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";"><span style="">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><span dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Western:</span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><span dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Northwestern<br>
(Jutland Peninsula,
most of Lower Saxony, Groningen, Northern Drenthe)</span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><span dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Southwestern<br>
(Westphalian [including all other Low Saxon dialects of the Netherlands], Eastphalian)</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 42pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";"><span style="">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><span dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Eastern:</span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><span dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Northeastern<br>
(Mecklenburg, Western Pomerania, Eastern Pomerania
[a.k.a. West Prussian, incl. Mennonite Low Saxon], East Prussian ["Low
Prussian"])</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><span dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Southeastern<br>
(Brandenburg)</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
You can see a more detailed list and also a map here:<br>
<a href="http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/nds-info.php">http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/nds-info.php</a><br>
<br>
While I recognize some eastern features, by and large I have a problem with the
east-west division. I do not see it as all that clear a division as it has been
made to look. In the south, the Eastphalian dialect continuum seems to be on a
continuum with the Brandenburg
dialects. The well-known g > j shift occurs among the latter a good deal
farther to the east. Coming from the Lower Elbe region in the eastern part of
the northwestern range, the neighboring Mecklenburg
dialects seem very familiar and close to me, certainly more familiar and closer
than seem the West- and Eastphalian dialects on the western side. It is only
once we get into the Pomeranian and Prussian (in today's Poland and Kaliningrad,
Russia) areas
that things begin to "get weird."<br>
<br>
It is well-known that the previously mostly West-Slavic-speaking eastern
regions came to be settled by speakers of Germanic varieties with the
Frankish-lead conquest, not only by neighboring Saxons but by German and Dutch
speakers as well, and I have once mentioned additional Scottish immigration. By
and large, language and culture of those eastern regions show signs of West
Slavic substrata, and these tend to be considered a hallmark of Eastern Low
Saxon (and Eastern German). However, there used to be considerable numbers of
Slavic speakers west of this dividing line as well, such as in Eastern Holstein
(including the Island of Fehmarn, also the Danish island of Funen [Fyn]), the
area eastward from today's Hamburg's eastern suburbs, and some eastern parts of
the Lunenburg Heath (where the last Polabian speakers died at the end of the
18th century). Among other things, place names are witnesses of this. This is whence
Northern Low Saxon got words like <i>Dööns</i> for 'living-room', 'parlor'. (I used
to think that it came from Polabian for 'door' [Draven dialect <i>dwar</i>], but
these days I am inclined to assume it comes from Polabian for 'courtyard' [Draven
dialect <i>dör</i>, cf. Sorbian <i>dwór</i>, Polish <i>po<u>dwór</u>ze</i>, Czech
<i>dvůr</i>], thus originally *<i>dörnice</i> < *<i>dwůrnica</i> '(room) by the
yard', 'front room'.)<br>
<br>
In addition, we have to consider the fact that there has been a lot of communication
and migration across the supposed east-west line. Traditionally, speakers of Holstein, Hamburg and Mecklenburg have been in close contact, have intermarried
and are well aware of each other's relatively insignificant dialect features. This
alone ought to be assumed to have had a softening effect on the dividing line.<br>
<br>
Anyway, I wonder what others think about these dialectological divisions.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron</span></p>
<p>
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