LL-L: "Neologisms" (was "Language policies") LOWLANDS-L, 26.FEB.2000 (04) [E]

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From: "Ian James Parsley" <parsley at highbury.fsnet.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L: "Language policies" LOWLANDS-L, 25.FEB.2000 (03) [E]

Ron,

Funnily, I had a similar experience in Germany, albeit with my "Dutch"
accent (indeed once a Rhineland hotelier had a ten-minute conversation
with
me praising Dutch cycle lanes!), when I went to order some
"mayonnaise". I
tried what seemed to me the German pronunciation, then the English, but
of
course the new spelling "Majonaese" indicates that in fact it is a mix
of
the two.

What you say about German is very interesting. Indeed, I believe
Germans
still distinguish between what is perceived to be a "German" word or a
foreign one, even if they use the foreign one more commonly. I think
I'm
right in saying that in German word games very often "foreign" words
are not
allowed, even if they are as common as "Pommes", "Etage", "Handy" or
"Lift"
(that last one is an interesting example of a specifically
British-English
loan).

This brings me back to a Lowlands subject in fact. Instead of tackling
what
I perceive as the real issues confronting the Ulster dialect of Scots,
most
Ulster-Scots enthusiasts seem to spend most of their day making up
Ulster-Scots translations for modern technological terms. I am
completely
opposed to this process, basically because of what happened in Germany.
The
West German government spent millions in 1978 (I think) repainting
phone
booths with "Telefon" instead of "Fernsprecher". Even now, I think most
people there would confirm "Rechner" is fast losing out to "Computer"
(though I've heard this process is slower in the East), even
"Fernsehen" to
"TV". The point is that even as major with a major language such as
German,
new technological terms will be international, even allowing for minor
differences in spelling and pronunciation. If German couldn't retain
"Fernsprecher", there is little chance of people persuading
Ulster-Scots-speakers to use "lang bletherer" or "lang blawer" instead
of
the internationally-recognised "telephone"! However, the tide may be
turning
my way - the word "lang bletherer" is now common even among
Ulster-Scots-speakers, but only for comic effect!

I shouldn't be surprised if Andy Eagle adds a few supportive comments
to
this...
-------------------------------
Ian James Parsley
http://www.gcty.com/parsleyij
"JOY - Jesus, Others, You"

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Neologisms

Ian, you wrote:

> I perceive as the real issues confronting the Ulster dialect of Scots,
> most
> Ulster-Scots enthusiasts seem to spend most of their day making up
> Ulster-Scots translations for modern technological terms. I am
> completely
> opposed to this process, basically because of what happened in Germany.

Personally, I don't approve of neither extreme.

What you described seems to be happening in Low Saxon (Low German) also, and
it may be an issue in any language that doesn't have a standard variety,
especially where there is a movement toward standardization.  Many speakers
and planners of LS literally translate words from German (and in the
Netherlands probably from Dutch), sometimes ending up with mixed derivations,
such as _Hauptbahnhoff_ ['haUp(t)bQ:nhOf] < German _Hauptbahnhof_
['haUptba:nho:f] 'central/main railway station' (rather than making it either
"pure" _Hööftbahnhoff_ ['hœIf(t)bQ:nhOf] or simply borrowing the German word.
This is what goes on in real life.  Many enthusiasts, however, not only want
to come up with "pure" calques (and I confess that I often count among those),
but many of them want to create new LS words.  However, what happens in some
cases is that they adopt as legitimate words existing slangy, jocular
"nicknames."  Examples of these are _Kiekschapp_ ("looking cabinet") for
'television (set)', _Sabbelkassen_ ("chatting box" [_sabbeln_ 'to chat' < 'to
dribble', 'to drool']) for 'telephone', and _Puuschenkino_ ("slipper theater")
for 'television'.  I might use these in a jocular fashion, but I would
normally use _Feernsee-Apparaat_, _Telefoon_ and _Feernseen_ ~ _TV_ [thEI'faU]
respectively.

Best regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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