<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 21 October 2009 - Volume 01<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><a href="mailto:lowlands@lowlands-l.net">lowlands@lowlands-l.net</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a></span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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===========================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: Wesley Parish <<a href="mailto:wes.parish@paradise.net.nz">wes.parish@paradise.net.nz</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.10.19 (03) [EN]</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">> From: Paul Tatum <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:ptatum@blueyonder.co.uk">ptatum@blueyonder.co.uk</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.10.18 (01) [EN]</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> From: Sandy Fleming <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sandy@fleimin.demon.co.uk">sandy@fleimin.demon.co.uk</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <mailto:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> </span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sandy@fleimin.demon.co.uk">sandy@fleimin.demon.co.uk</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">>></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.10.16 (03) [EN]</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> From: Mark Dreyer <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:mrdreyer@lantic.net">mrdreyer@lantic.net</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <mailto:</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:mrdreyer@lantic.net">mrdreyer@lantic.net</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">>></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> > Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.10.15 (01) [EN]</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> ></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> > Dear Mark, Ron & Co:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> ></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> > Subject: LL-L "Language varieties"</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> ></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<snip></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> Anyway, a question that I'm interested in seems to be going unanswered</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> here, and that is, do languages change even if there isn't contact with</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> other languages? A small island with only a few dialects of one language</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> and no outside contact would be hard to find these days, but such was</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> less unusual in the past, so would these languages still have kept</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
> changing, and in what ways?</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
That is the precise reason why Polynesian languages are so important to the</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
linguist - after the Polynesian dispersal across the Pacific, the chances of</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Hawaiians being influenced by Easter Islanders or Marquesans by Samoans or</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
New Zealand Maori by Tahitians, was rather minimal - Samoan by Tongan is</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
rather more likely - Tonga did have an empire in the easternmost islands of</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
the Fiji group; and I'll bet you didn't know that!</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
New Zealand was settled by a few separate groups speaking closely related</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
dialects about eight hundred years ago; South Island Maori now has some</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
phonological differences from most of the North Island dialects, eg k instead</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
of ng, so Kati Mamoe where the North Island dialects would say Ngati and</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
cutting the final vowel off, eg kaik' instead of kainga, though I think that</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
applies only to the Southlands and the West Coast dialects; and the</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Northlands (Te Tai Tokerau) dialect has evolved in the direction of</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
palatization of ti and si.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
FWIW, Akaloa is Whangaroa.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
We humans are a quarrelsome lot - i suspect that had a lot to do with it.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Can't go around sounding like our neighbours, can we? ;)</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Just my 0.02c worth</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Wesley Parish</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
--</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Clinersterton beademung, with all of love - RIP James Blish</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
-----</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
George Kelischek - "To impress those high-tech computer types,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
tell them what an Ocarina really is:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
an animal-activated-solid-state-</span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" id=":13j" class="ii gt">multi-frequency-sound-synthesizer."<br>
-----<br>
Mau e ki, he aha te mea nui?<br>
You ask, what is the most important thing?<br>
Maku e ki, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.<br>
I reply, it is people, it is people, it is people.</div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="http://uk.mc264.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sassisch@yahoo.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span>sassisch@yahoo.com</span></a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">><br>
Subject: Language varieties<br><br>Tēnā koe, Wes. Ka pai kē! Kia ora! Great to hear from you again.<br><br>In case your response came before you read later installments you must have found out in the meantime that I responded with like sentiment.<br>
<br>Even if one's interests are confined to a specific area, it's necessary to step out once in a while to see what theoretical knowledge can be gleaned from other areas. As you said, Polynesian is an important field in linguistics in that interference is minimal if not absent in most cases. We are assuming that the islands on which the Polynesian ancestors settled had been uninhabited (which may or may not be true in all cases). Migration waves seem to have been only Polynesian; so at least in theory we are dealing with Polynesian strata only if with any sub- and adstrata at all. There was no written language until European colonization, though there were and still are highly prestigious oratorical registers and styles that may affect the everyday varieties not unlike written languages have been doing in other cases.<br>
<br>Wes, I think that old-time dialectical diversion in a place such as New Zealand is to be expected. Until one or two centuries ago, the average person anywhere in the world did not venture far beyond his or her village, less so if water or rugged land needed to be crossed. I believe that the Polynesian languages are not immune from the generalizing influences of today's formal education and the printed and electronic media that promote one variety per language pretty much all over the world.<br>
<br>Me te aroha nui ki a koutou katoa!<br>Reinhard/Ron<br>Seattle, USA<br></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
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