<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">===============================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 08 January 2010 - Volume 03<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>From: R. F.
Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>
Subject: Language promotion</span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>Thank you
very much for your interesting comments today, David and Marcus. Here are just
a couple of comments of mine in return.<br>
<br>
Marcus:</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The most recent developments in Catalonia are quite
stunning, at least to me. On 13 September 2009 the municipality Arenys de Munt
held an inofficial local referendum in which the voters were asked: "Do
you agree on Catalonia
becoming an independent, democratic and social State of law, integrated in the
European Union?"<br>
<br>
It resulted in 96.2% voting Yes, only 2.3% voting No, with a participation rate
of 41%. After this many more municipalities held inofficial referendums. So far
168 municipalities have done so. There was not a single one where less than 80%
voted Yes. The outcome so far is 94.89% Yes and 3.21% No. Other municipalities
will vote in two more rounds in February and April.<br>
<br>
Of course the participation rate is rather low with 27.41% (the vote is totally
unofficial) and the voting areas so far are mostly rural (e.g. Barcelona has not yet agreed to hold a vote).
But it's still quite impressive: almost 95% support for full independance!</span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>Far be it
from me to rain on this parade, but ... I have read these reports and I must
say that the percentages seem suspect to me. For one thing, large numbers of
residents in these areas are from other parts of Spain or have roots there, and
among these must be a good percentage that does not use and care about Catalan
and/or endorse Catalonian independence. (Note differentiation between “Catalan”
and “Catalonian”, the latter referring to the region with its ethnically
diverse population.) After all, throughout the eastern area you get by with
Castilian, although not knowing Catalan probably keeps you out of certain
social circles. 95% voting for full independence? Hmm ... I don’t know about
that. I expect that Barcelona with have very different results.</span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>Marcus
about Low Saxon orthography:</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">This problem can only be overcome when more
people learn to read or write Low Saxon (by media exposition or in school) and
people start to realize that the (Dutch or German) set of phonetic mapping
rules they learned in school is not the only possible set of phonetic mapping
rules. </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>Amen and halleluiah,
brother!</span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>And Marcus
wrote:</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The Low Saxon house was another example of an
ethnic element that clearly suggests that the North formed an ethnic unit. The
southern border of the distribution area of the traditional Low Saxon house exactly
coincides with the language border. Of course traditional house types have
absolutely no meaning for today's life, but they still show, that there was
some kind of ethnic border that certain "memes" (to use a very
generic term) were unable to cross.</span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>For the benefit of others: Marcus is talking about a type of half-timbered farmhouse (German <i>(nieder)sächsisches (Fach-)Hallenhaus > niederdeutsches (Fach-)Hallenhaus</i>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_German_house">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_German_house</a>)
that is specific to the old Saxon-speaking region. It used to house humans and
animals under one large (originally thatched) roof. I read somewhere in an old
report (and I wish I remembered which) that at the western end of its geographic
distribution, occurrence of this architectural style peters out around the old overlap
of the Low-Frankish- and Low-Saxon-speaking regions in what are now the
Netherlands. Going eastward, it used to be the standard well into Mecklenburg,
but it can be found in Pomerania as well. In
the north, its boundary is the Eider
River, the old Saxon-Jutish
borderline. In the south, distribution ends in Northern
Hesse. By and large all this coincides with the old Saxon-speaking
area. Peripheral sparseness assumedly coincides with colonial overlaps with Dutch
(Low Frankish), German (Central Frankish) and Slavic cultures and languages. The
only iffy area is a southeastern sliver from southeastern Lower Saxony via Berlin to Eastern Pomerania.
My assumption is that in terms of rural population those areas retained a good
deal of Slavic (i.e. Pomeranian and Sorbian) cultural dominance, a large
percentage of the population having been Slavs that adopted the Saxon language
while retaining much of Slavic culture.</span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>You might
argue that all this is academic, is merely historical background. However, catching
sight of these buildings (many of which survive) signals “homeland” to many
North Germans. (I feel this whenever I travel back into Northern Germany.) It is perhaps just another piece of
the fading picture.</span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>If some
sort of dedicated medium for Low Saxon did come about, the tricky part would be
to appeal to “Northern Pride” (Hey! How about that as a title? But don’t
translate it, since <i>stolt</i> > <i>stout</i> tends to mean ‘audacious’, ‘naughty’
or ‘intrepid’ in the far west.) without falling into the old rut of <i>Heimattümelei</i>, the old
down-home-on-the-farm-back-when-things-where-still-right tradition to which Low
Saxon has pretty much been relegated by publishers and media directors catering
only to “codgers.” Such a medium would have to cater to a spectrum of tastes
and requirements and would have to be a broadening catalyst by pushing the
envelop outward and forward, thus “recruiting” the next generation while also accommodating
people with more traditional tastes.</span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron<br>
Seattle, USA</span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span>P.S.: That’s
a really nice overview you posted (below), Marcus!</span></font></p>
<font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" size="2"><br>----------<br><br>From: <span class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Marcus Buck</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:list@marcusbuck.org">list@marcusbuck.org</a>></span></span><br>
Subject: <span class="gI">LL-L "Language promotion" 2010.01.08 (02) [EN]</span><br><br>From: DAVID COWLEY <<a href="mailto:DavidCowley@anglesey.gov.uk" target="_blank">DavidCowley@anglesey.gov.uk</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:DavidCowley@anglesey.gov.uk" target="_blank">DavidCowley@anglesey.gov.uk</a>>></font><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="im">
<font size="2"><br></font>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><font size="2">
Subject: LL-L "Language promotion" 2010.01.07 (03) [EN]<br><br>
Some very interesting bits on Low Saxon, Welsh, Catalonian. Here are a few more thoughts for the pot ...<br><br>
A factor which is often rightly said to have been very important for
Welsh lang is translation of Bible in 1500s: not only did this come as
an officially, royally approved translation, but Welsh HAD to be used
in churches in Welsh speaking areas, by law. This was to be a key
factor in the later high literacy and written tradition that was to
develop in Wales over the next several hundred years. I understand that
Luther's translation of the Bible helped form a basis for modern 'High'
German. Had there been a Low Saxon version at the time, this tongue
would have been a lot stronger. It seems sad that an independent Low
Saxony (nor Friesland) didn't develop, or that 'Low German' didn't get
to be the basis for standard German - it would have been that much
closer to English (and maybe these states would have been as much
against the Nazis as were the Dutch).<br></font>
</blockquote></div><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" size="2">
<br>There actually were Low Saxon bibles before Luther and also some Low
Saxon translations of the Luther bible, e.g. the Bugenhagen bible. A
list can be found under <<a href="http://nds.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibel#Bibel_op_Plattd.C3.BC.C3.BCtsch" target="_blank">http://nds.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibel#Bibel_op_Plattd.C3.BC.C3.BCtsch</a>>.
What we had not was a high quality translation of the original
Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic text. This only came in the 20th century.<br><br>
There are several reasons why Low Saxon got replaced by German. None of
them was the sole reason but their interaction led to this development.<br><br>
First, let me note that Low Saxon was a very powerful language from the
13th to 16th century. It was the language of the Hanseatic League and
they traded from the Atlantic coast of France and from Iceland to the
Russian streams emptying in the Baltic Sea, in all the Northern and
Baltic Sea. The language was so powerful that today almost 50% of the
vocabulary of the (continental) Scandinavian languages is derived from
Hanseatic Low Saxon. The language has left imprints on all the Northern
languages, like Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, and English and Russian
too.<br><br>
But since Charlemagne and the failure of the Stellinga the Saxons were
part of the Empire of the Franks. The emperor resided in the south and
had no maritime ambitions. So when the new world was discovered and all
the seafaring nations established the Age of Discoveries, there was no
coordinated state-led effort to participate from the Saxon/German part.
The Hanseatic League continued business as usual in the North and
Baltic Sea. Soon they were outperformed by the more powerful nations.<br><br>
In the south of the German Empire merchants like the Fuggers
concentrated on the continental trade. This trade flourished and this
improved the power of the emperor. The emperor was never really able to
execute his power in all parts of the Empire. But with the flourising
economy in the south and the recent improvements that allowed better
administration (e.g. Gutenberg's printing press) the emperor's power
was consolidated. All important institutions of the Empire were
concentrated in the south and the chancelleries in the north had to do
all their business with the Empire in the Emperor's language.<br><br>
Luther cannot be blamed for Low Saxon's fate directly. E.g. the number
of printed books in Low Saxon peaked in 1550, after Luther's death. The
printing craze of the Reformation actually helped Low Saxon. But the
main problem with Luther is, that his bible helped to consolidate a
German standard when at the same time the Low Saxon areas struggled
economically and were not able to establish a similar consolidation
process. Although Luther's language was based on the language of the
south and the centre, the south remained Catholic while the Lutheran
faith had much success in the North. So the Low Saxons had to deal with
Luther's teachings written down in German much. This further weakened
the position of Low Saxon as written language. While the number of
German prints exploded, the number of Low Saxon slowly dropped
beginning in 1550. About 1650 German had replaced Low Saxon as written
language almost completely. There were still Low Saxon prints but most
of them were e.g. poems commemorating a wedding and stuff like that, no
serious books. As there were no books printed in Low Saxon,
universities were German now too. Any higher education, anything
calling for knowledge from books, was now conducted in German. Primary
education and any oral communication was still completely Low Saxon.
Except for immigrants from the south there were no native German
speakers at this time.<br><br>
But merchants wrote their accounts in German now, doctors their recipes
etc.. This dichotomy persisted for over 100 years. In the Age of
Enlightenment at the end of the 18th century this dichotomy "anything
educated German - anything where education is not necessary Low Saxon"
was so internalized that the ruling classes in the cities extended this
situative dichotomy to a class dichotomy. So instead of using German
when writing books or discussing philosophy at the university and using
Low Saxon at the marketplace the most educated class now started to use
German all the time. Of course when the market-woman didn't understand
their German they were still perfectly able to switch to Low Saxon.<br><br>
100 years later at the end of the 19th century the class dichotomy was
fully established. There were still some native Low Saxons in the
highest ranks of society but most of the people who attended university
were native German-speaking by now. But as about 98% of the population
had no university degree, Low Saxon was still uncontested.<br><br>
This only changed in the 20th century with higher mobility, improved
German-only education, more and more administrative and office jobs,
the expulsion and integration of millions of people after WW II and
finally German-only mass media.<br><br>
Two examples to give an idea about when the drift towards German
happened: A (German nationalist) author writing about 1925 complained
about his homeland Masuria (which was predominantly Slavic, Masurian
being a German/Low Saxon-influenced variety of Polish) that the
"Germanisation" of the area does not work out well cause the uneducated
Masurians adopted the local Low Saxon instead of - as he had hoped -
the German language.<br>
A survey about the language of pupils in the schools of the Kreis
Wesermünde in 1938 gave a number of about 95% native speakers of Low
Saxon.<br><br>
More than 400 years of not printing Low Saxon did not much harm to the
language. But 50 years in a society in which public communication and
mass media are more important than communication in the family and
locally and the language is at the verge of extinction.<br></font>
<font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" color="#888888" size="2">
<br>
Marcus Buck</font><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" size="2"><br></font>
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