LL-L: "Language policies" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 13.MAY.1999 (01)

[sassisch]

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From: "Ian James Parsley" <I.J.Parsley at newcastle.ac.uk>
Subject: Language policies

Ron and John,

This is an extremely tricky question - I've seen Austrians write
Austrian-German with a moreorless standardised orthography, yet none
of them would deny it was a dialect of "German".

However, in the West at least, it is very difficult for a language to
become recognised as such without a (standard) orthography. As there
is no recognised Ulster standard of Scots for example, Scots speakers
in Ulster have often looked towards standard English for guidance,
which has led to much confusion.
--------
Ian.

----------

From: "R. F. Hahn" <sassisch at geocities.com>
Subject: Language policies

Ian wrote:

> However, in the West at least, it is very difficult for a language to
> become recognised as such without a (standard) orthography. As there
> is no recognised Ulster standard of Scots for example, Scots speakers
> in Ulster have often looked towards standard English for guidance,
> which has led to much confusion.

Ian, I totally agree.  I did not disagree with John either, just appealed for a
more globally based view, even though we mostly deal with European and
European-derived situations here on Lowlands-L.

To say that language recognition and language survival depend on written
standards is technically speaking too sweeping a statement in my opinion.  It is
reality in what we call the "West."  The main reason for this is the "Western"
obsession with what has been presented to us as the concept of all-powerful
"civilization" whose main pillar is writing.  My point was that it is not
universally correct and that the make-believe continent of Europe does not live
in isolation.  In other words, I don't think it is wise to pretend that other
realities do not exist or to assume that "Western" reality is eternal.  It is
true, though, that because of this European-based emphasis on writing as a
hallmark of cultural power and legitimacy languages recognition in Europe and in
the European-influenced rest of the world depends on writing and
standardization, the concept that in German tradition led to the idea of
_Kultursprache_ -- i.e., a written language variety that unites the speakers of
all varieties and is the carrier or vehicle of the shared "culture" -- in other
words, the assumption is "no written standard - no culture," an assumption that
has led to various types of expressions of Western cultural chauvinism vis-à-vis
a great number of other great cultures and civilizations, cultures and
civilizations that do not share this concept, especially outside Eurasia.  It
also leads to chauvinism vis-à-vis Western folk cultures, i.e., rich unwritten
(i.e., oral) traditions and the like, those that are deemed "low" by the "high"
language élite to whom the written word is everything.

Of course, speakers of Low Saxon (Low German) are then in quite a bind: on the
one hand they want recognition of their language, but on the other hand they
cannot agree about the necessity of working towards the creation of their own
standard language and writing system.  The indoctrinated assumption that
Standard German be the standard language of all ethnic Germans, even though they
speak two different languages, is still going strong despite official
recognition of Low Saxon (Low German).  Most people still do not think of their
language as a whole, just as a group of dialects, leave alone being aware of the
fact that their language is indigenous in *two* countries (Germany and the
Netherlands) by people of two different ethnic groups (Germans and Netherlands
Low Saxons).  This presents a tremendous challenge, and it may very well be the
outcome upon which the survival of the language depends.  Even if people rise to
the challenge of unifying by way of standardizing, the questions that remain are
what will they base their standardization on, what dialect(s), what type of
writing system(s), and can they pull it off as a cross-border effort?  Will they
be able to break away from introduced inconsistencies due to attempts to
assimilate to German orthographic conventions (such as in the Fehrs Guild
convention)?

I can see that Scots is in a rather similar situation vis-à-vis English.  It is
also used in what amounts to two countries (i.e., Scotland and Ulster/Northern
Ireland), and then there are questions regarding the Shetlandic varieties.  It
is people's natural inclination to follow the English writing tradition despite
the inconsistencies it creates, just because they have grown up with this
system.

It seems to me that in both cases the thinking mode is "We want our language to
be independent, but not *that* independent."  In other words, they want their
cake and eat it too.

That's a tough one.  Don't you agree?

Best regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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