LL-L: "Language varieties" 15.JUL.2000 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Language varieties

I'm not sure what meaning Cristoir is giving to the word "bilingual". I
took
"bilingual generation" to mean an age-stratified group of people (plausibly

the children of "mixed marriages") each speaking  the same two languages -
OE and ON.

My point was that if you're positing the development of a blended
English/Norse it doesn't help to argue, as I think Stefan did, that a
bilingual generation would soon arise, since bilingual people, by
definition, recognise and use two different languages. That is what I meant

when I said: "It seems to me that the idea that a bilingual generation grew

up in the Danelaw actually contradicts the notion of the development of an
English/Norse hybrid." Perhaps I should have said "runs contrary to" or "is

not supportive of " instead of "actually contradicts".

The fact that English swineherds learnt that their Norman masters used the
word "porc" for their animals and their meat and came to apply it to the
latter says nothing about the existence of bilingualism in the sense in
which I used the term. The words of French origin simply become loanwords
in
English. (The third "couplet" should be "sheep:mutton" - "lamb" is a purely

Germanic word.)

The pair "dike:ditch" may not be a good one to cite in this context.
According to Chambers Etymological Dictionary, quoting the OED, both words
derive from OE "dic" (long "i") with the former being the northern form and

the latter southern - no suggestion here that "dike" is of ON origin. It's
not clear to me what the geographical coverage of "dike" in this sense is.
As far as I know it is most widely used in East Anglia, ie the south of the

Danelaw. The Atlas of English Dialects is unhelpful. It only lists "dike"
as
one of the words used for a natural pool as contrasted with an artificial
one, though the question asked to evince this answer in the Survey of
English Dialects was not one guaranteed to give a clear-cut distinction
between natural and anthropogenic bodies of water.

Chambers Dictionary (with its usual Scottish leanings) includes the Scot.
meaning of "dike" as "wall" or something (a hedge) with the same function.
The use of "dike" in geology seems to derive from the same idea. Is the
word
used in Scotland and the North of England with the sense "ditch"?

For the sake of baffled readers who automatically think of "dike" in the
Dutch sense, this is a 16th century borrowing, possibly associated with the

employment of Dutch engineers for drainage works in Eastern England.

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

----------

From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Language varieties

[continued]

A little further research suggests that the doublet (not couplet, of
course)
"no:nay" is not a good example of developments in the Danelaw either. The
first occurrence of the latter (as "nai") is, according to Chambers
Etymological Dictionary, in "Cursor Mundi", which is dated only to "before
1325". It's ME, not OE.

According to Chambers Dictionary the words had different usages until the
17th century. Thus:

Positive question: "Are you coming?" - "Nay."

Negative question: "Aren't you coming?" - "No."

Negative statement: "So you aren't coming." - "No."

In French ("Si") and German ("Doch") there are words which translate to
English "Yes" which are used to contradict a negative question or
statement:
"Aren't you coming?" - "Yes [, I'm coming]." Do any of the Lowland
languages
have the equivalent of this, or of the no/nay distinction indicated above?

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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