<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">===============================================<br><b>L O W L A N D S - L - 16 March 2010 - Volume 07</b><br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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===============================================<br></font></div><font size="2"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(91, 16, 148);">Mark Dreyer</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:mrdreyer@lantic.net">mrdreyer@lantic.net</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI">LL-L "Language varieties" 2010.03.15 (06) [EN]</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></font><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" id=":1ex" class="ii gt">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2">Dear John Tait:</font></div><font size="2">
<div><br>Subject: LL-L "Language
varieties" <br><br>The lurker rises from his
sarcophagus, his tongue stirs the dust of ages in his mouth; he clears
his
throat with a hollow rattle & speaks: "Welcome, Spectre."</div>
<div> </div>
<div>John, your letter on the living tongue of the
Shetland
Isles was the saddest thing I have read in a long time. Forgive me that I
clothe
my distress in black mockery. What is this undead thing you speak that
you will
not name? Is it a cadaver that lean & hungry linguists in stained
robes must
call back with Dark Art to give tongue from half-forgotten grimoires or
forbidden books? Or else is it a babe new-born, nurtured in a creed
outworn,
babbling its wants uncaring of scholars' dainty sensibilities, only so
long as
it is heard!</div>
<div> </div>
<div>As my Taal ooit so in die sorg van sy eie volk
so
afgesloof is, dan was dit lank gelede heen, vergete, en met reg.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>John, <strong>not unless</strong> those hard,
enchanted
storm-girt islands, the strong, thrawn folk they nurtured & the warm
kinship
Life brought all these together are wholly <strong>beneath
contempt</strong>, is the dialect you speak the same.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>& is 'dialect' the best term you (the plural
you) can
offer? Not unlike the word 'cadaver' it is a generic covering most
handily
the study of linguistic anatomists, augers of the Dead
stirring fly-blown
entrails that so recently brought the posessors all things good, &
now not
even auspices. Put it behind you.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>All the names, now, & there are many (if I
may
refer to my Own in this context) of Afrikaans, Afrikaners or This Our
Land
started out as derogatory. but we have an attitude we share with our
near kin
the Flemings & the Dutch, we revel in self-depricatory mockery,
& the
scorn of our enemies furnishes our trophies. Once we were called Beggers
(Sea-Beggers we were) & we did not repudiate the name, but took it
for our
own. We taught our enemies that named us so to use it in awe &
terror. So
also the word 'Boer' & its cognates in related tongues are evocative
of shameful rusticity, but not to us. We wear the name with pride, even
some who do not speak Afrikaans as a mother-tongue either, & whose
fathers never did. The same for Afrikaner. You could do the same.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>But you don't have to. Make your own name;
develop your
own terminology & study your own language yourselves. Letting
strangers call
the shots on what you say or how you say it is the road to
extinction.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>But it's not important. As I read the
not-so-sub-text of
your letter, the same dislike applies to nearly every operation of this
'dialect', your speech from man to man in his daily occasions, & any
study
of its properties. As I see it, you have two options:</div>
<div> </div>
<div>If the dialect you speak is
so undistinguished that you will not clothe your thoughts in it, both
spoken & written, then dump it. Go over to the Queen's English,
which you
<strong>do not</strong> speak (this I know, but I will not now share my
reasons).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>If you cannot do that, then it will have to be
on account
of necessary merits of the dialect. Go back to that, build on it &
write in
it. Write your memories & dreams, in poetry & prose, & set
out
your history & that of your fathers & grandfathers for your sons
& grandsons. If you do not do so your language will be forgotton,
you will
be forgotten & your islands become the dwelling-place of strangers.
Perhaps
you would prefer that.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>More than anything else build up & collect
your own
literature. There is a singular example from a people native to your own
sceptered archipelago, the Welsh. It's not in a spirit of wimsy that
Afrikaners
hold eisteddfods. Our teachers were the Welsh, & they are good
teachers,
because they teach by example. Their example is to survive &
flourish. So
may you.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>By the way, what is a Sheltie?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Yours Sincerely,</div>
<div>Mark</div></font></div>
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