LL-L: "Linguistic zones" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 21.AUG.1999 (01)

[Sandy Fleming]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 21.AUG.1999 (01) * ISSN 1089-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
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From: Pepijn Hendriks [pepijnh at bigfoot.com]
Subject: "Linguistic zones"

Georg Deutsch wrote:

>Whilst I find the suggested answers very strange, I think the question as
>such is interesting. I doubt that there is such an expression in/for
English,
>Frisian, Lowsaxon or Afrikaans. But I wonder, is there such a term in
Dutch? I
>am not aware of. Is anybody else?

To the best of my knowledge, the area of the Netherlands and Flanders, in
both of which Dutch is the official language, is in the literature referred
to as 'het Nederlandse taalgebied'. (This excludes that parts of Northern
France where Dutchs dialects are still spoken, and Surinam. Whether Fryslân
is included or not, I actually don't know.)

Do I understand the original message correctly that the person that made
the request considers the two major languages in the area are Dutch and
Flemish? Strange, because, according to him, 'Deutschland' would refer to
Austria and parts of Switzerland too, which are linguistically at least as
far apart, if not farther, than the dialects of the Netherlands and those
of Flanders. I cannot stress enough that, IMHO, there is only one Dutch.

Then what does he mean with 'conventional auxiliary language'? In all the
parts where Frisian is spoken, there other languages serve as 'conventional
auxiliary languages' (viz. Dutch, German and Danish).

What the person didn't make clear either, is what he understands under
mutual intelligibility. Mutual intellegibility of the standard language is
not the same as that of the dialects spoken in the same area. There is a
dialect continuum from Den Helder to Zürich out there, in which people
living in each of two neighbouring villages can understand eachother, but a
person from Den Helder would have a hard time trying to understand what a
Zuricher wants to say to him in his native tongue.

Well, enough of these ramblings for the moment. Comments are of course
appreciated, as I find the subject very interesting.

-Pepijn


--
 pepijnh at bigfoot.com -- http://www.bigfoot.com/~pepijnh -- ICQ - 6033220

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