LL-L: "Language policies" LOWLANDS-L, 26.MAR.2000 (02) [E/S/French]

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From: Roger P. G. Thijs [roger.thijs at village.uunet.be]
Subject: language varieties

It's not about a lowland language below, but about "language policy"
in circumstances that are comparable to issues lowland languages are
facing with.
This week I received a book of the language situation of the speakers
of Franconian dialects in the North-East of France.

I would like to give some information from other sources, before I
come to the book.

The area we are referring to is the North western part of what one
usually calls Alsace-Lorraine.

1. For most of us, I guess, Alsace-Lorraine is the area in France,
that became German in 1870, French again in 1919 (and integrated in
Germany during the war 1940-1944).

Actually this area was (in 1870) composed of:
- the central and eastern part of the department Moselle,
- the North-East of the department Meurthe, (what was left of these
two departments was joined in the new department Meurthe-et-Moselle)
- a little part in the North East of the department Vosges,
- the department Bas-Rhin,
- the department Haut-Rhin minus the area that would become the
"Territoire de Belfort".
(cf. map p. 89 in F. L'Huilier, Histoire de l'Alsace, 1974, PUF)

After the return to France, the territory was divided in the
departments:
- Moselle (leaving the Meurthe-et-Moselle dept as it was since 1870)
- Bas-Rhin
- Haut-Rhin.

In the new " regional " structure of France, the departments are
grouped as follows :
- Haut-Rhin et Bas-Rhin in the region Alsace
    (the Territoire de Belfort is in the region Franche-Comté)
- Moselle, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse and Vosges in the region
Lorraine.

When we come to the book we referred to above: this book treats the
situation of the Franconian dialects in the actual dept. Moselle.

2. The name Lorraine, (Lotheringen, Lotharingen, ...) refers
etymologically to the former realm of Lothar II.

Lothar I got the middle part (called: Francia media)  of the realm of
Charlemagne in 843, later this territory was once more divided, and
his son Lothar II got the Northern part, from Geneva to the North sea,
called Lotharii regnum.
This territory between France and Germany has been an issue of wars
for more than 1000 years. Also it was the fact that the little duchy
of Limburg was supposed to inherit a right to the title of 'duke of
Lothringen' that incited the duke of Brabant to fight (successfully)
for getting it (battle of Worringen, near Cologne).

3. When one speaks about "Lothringian" dialects, this includes a basic
ambiguity, since it can refer as well to a Germanic as also to a
Romance dialect group:

- the Germanic Lothringian dialect group will be discussed below

- the Romance Lothringian dialect group area (situated East of the
Champenois dialect group) penetrates into the extreme South-East of
Belgium. In Belgium this dialect is called "Gaumais". The area over
here is called "Gaume". (very curious etymology: this name the area
inherited from the famous chariots manufactured by the brothers Gaume
from this area; cf. Jean Mergeai, Gaume, 1988, Brussels)

4. It's a simplification to state the Germanic dialects in the Alsace
is Alsatian, and the Germanic dialects in the Moselle area are
Franconian-Lothringian. We come back to the Moselle below. For the
Alsace, a split up is (simplified a bit):

a- Alsatian-Swiss mixed area:
 South of the isoglosses Kirich/Chilche and owe/obe
 (On the detailed map of the German dialects in Switzerland, attached
to the book: Dr. Emil Steiner, Abriss der Schweizerdeutschen Mundart
mit Sprachenkarte der Schweiz, Basel, 1937, this area is combined with
the Swiss area Basel-Solothurn as the "Ju" area, while the more
Northern part of the Alsace on this map is marked "NA":
"Ju" Mittlelallemanische - Jurassische
"NA" Niederallemanische Mundart)

b- Upper-Alsatian
  North of the former isogloss
  South of the isogloses Win/wi, saje/sage

c- Lower Alsatian
  North of the former isogloss

d- Fränkish-Pfälzisch (separated by the isogloss
Eis-sauwer-saufer/is-süwer-süfer)
  North-East of the Alsace
   This area is locally called "Outre-foret" (jenseits des Hagenauer
Waldes)

e- Fränkisch-Lothringisch (separated by the isogloss Pund/Pfund,
Appel/Apfel)
  The area in the Northwest that penetrates into the Moselle
department.
  (actually included in the Rhine-Franconian area when we refer to the
Moselle-situation below)
  This area is locally called "l'Alsace bossue" or "Krummes Elsaß"

(division above as to the detailed map in the second volume of:
Martin and Lienhart, Wörterbuch der Elsässischen Mundarten,
Strassburg, 1907)

5. While the annexed (1870-1919) Alsace included only a limited number
of romance municipalties at the western border, but the annexed
Lothringian territory (the later Moselle dept) was only Germanic in
the North, and included major towns in it's Romance part as Metz and
Château-Salins. This permanent lack of territorial dominance, even
when German in the period 1870-1919, may explain a weaker situation of
the Lothringish dialects when compared with Alsatian.

Detailed maps of the Romance-Germanic language border in the Moselle
dept. can be found in the book we are going to quote from, below, as
wel as in: Petri, Germanisches Volkserbe in Wallonien und
Nordfrankreich, 2 vol., 1937, Bonn.

6. The Lothringian dialects in the North of the Moselle dept. are
subdivided into three groups:

- West of the op/uf isogloss: (towns Sierk, Cattenom, Thionville,
Metzervisse):
   Lëtzebuergesch, Luxemburgish Franconian
   (Our book, below, will focus on this very group)
- East of the former isogloss, West of the isogloss dat/das (towns
Bouzonville, Boulay):
  (East) Moselle franconian
- East of the former isogloss (towns Forbach, Sarregguemines, Bitche,
Sarrebourg)
   Rhine-Franconian
(When we let the "Alsace bossue" merge with the third group,
we still keep the "Alsace Outre-foret area as a fourth group of
franconian dialects)

Summarizing, using the words "variants" and "varieties" a bit my way:
along the Luxemburgish and German border in the North-East of France
we have a relatively small area with four major franconian variants,
all having their own municipal varieties


----

coming to the point:

The book I got mailed is a January 2000 reprint of:
Daniel Laumesfeld, La Lorraine francique, culture mosaïque et
dissidence linguistique, L'Harmattan, Paris & Montreal, ISBN
2-7384-3975-6, 316 pp
It is distributed by "Wéi laang nach ?" from Thionville France.
(Jean-Marc Becker, actual president of  "Wéi laang nach ?" wrote the
"Postface" pp. 289-305).

Some highlights from the policies promoted in the book:

a. - "Mir wëllen nëmme keng Preise gin!" We certainly do not want to
become Prussians. (paraphrasing the Luxemburgian song "Mir wëlle
bleiwen wat mir sin")
Actually a refusal to be identified as Germans.

This actually includes a defence as well versus French as versus
German.

Names of some places:

French (official), local, german
Thionville, Déinhuewen, Didenhoffen
Hettange-Grande, Grouss-Hetténgen, Gross-Hettingen
Puttelange, Pettléngen, Püttelingen
Hunting, Hënténgen, Hüntingen

b. - The "Luxemburgish-Franconian area around Thionville belonged to
the Duchy of  Luxemboug before it was attached to France in 1659.

The position of Luxemburgish in the Grand Duchy is extensively
discussed in the book.

The author classifies Luxemburgish, sold as "la koïnè des banquiers",
as a "VNO" (VNO: langue véhiculaire non officielle, as opposite to a
VO ;  "non officielle" means "servant aux échanges verbaux du système
économique moderne, mais non officielle au niveau des
superstructures")
Clearly these definitions are tailor made to the situation in the
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, that maintains a trilingual co-habitation:
Luxemburgish in private life, and a dedicated place for German and
French in business and governmental life.

The author shows differences between Luxemburgish from Luxemburg-city
and Thionville-city are minor and comparable to language varieties in
standard languages:
Samples:
France/Grand Duchy
de bue-scht, de booscht / du bues, du boos, du bas (you are)
etc.

So one is facing to one more multilinguism (p.218 ff, quote: )
" .. le luxembourgeois commun, ou koinè, qui se superpose à tous les
dialectes parlés dans le pays. Ces dialectes locaux ne se trouvent pas
éliminés au cours du processus d'uniformisation, on a indiscutablement
affaire à un bilinguisme faisant cohabiter une VNO nationale et des
vernaculaires locales."
"  . koinè, luxembourgeois commun . au départ le dialecte de la
capitale se présente. comme étant le parler correct des gens corrects.
"
"  . le dialecte devient sociolecte..  créant une différentiation
verticale ou sociolectale . "
"  . perd relativement son caractère de différentiation horizontal ou
dialectal, c'est à dire géographique. "
"  ..  Nous nous dirigeons droit vers un quadrilinguisme
luxembourgeois organisé comme suit :
 - langues "high" : luxembourgeois / français / allemand,
 - langues "low" : le platt, les « dialectes » franciques (du
Luxembourg et d'ailleurs) . "

c- - The author points that a condition for turning a koiné into a
language is normalization.
And Lëtzebuergesch is normalized!!!
". en outre implicitement normalisée . la consécration de la
normalization dans l'appareil législatif. En effet, le 16 novembre
1976 paraît dans le Journal Officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg l'
Arrêté ministériel du 10 octobre 1975 portant réforme du système
officiel d'orthographe luxembourgeoise."
(for in case somebody wants to find it : it is published in the
Mémorial - Journal Officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, Receuil
administratif et économique, B N° 68, 16 novembre 1976, pp.
1365-1390.)

d-  The formal position of the different languages in Luxemburg is
discussed in detail. The "when" of utilizing "what" language in public
life is relatively complex, so we skip it here.
Interesting though is the distance some people take vis-à-vis
Lëtzebuergesch, especially vis-à-vis the local variants:

". le français n'est pas seul à jouer ce rôle de marqueur social ; l'
allemand aussi apparaît comme la Hochsprache (la langue haute) qu'on
oppose à la "Platt-Sprache", la langue basse du peuple. "
". la même hiérarchie. dans l'opposition entre la koinè
luxembourgeoise et ses dialectes. "
" . Cette antinomie entre le luxembourgeois "correct" de la
bourgeoisie de Luxembourg-Ville notamment . et les patois
vernaculaires des paysans de l'Eislék... Déjà dans le Renert de Michel
Rodange, les personnages sots ou méchants . parlent des dialectes
fortement marqués du nord du pays (Eislék ou Ösling). Ces dialectes
continuent aujourd'hui à être considérés comme "comiques". "
" Il en est de même pour le jargon luxembourgeois parlé par le
sous-prolétariat de la Vieille-Ville de Luxembourg."
" Quant aux parlers du sud du pays, en réalité les plus proches d'une
forme archaïque de la langue, ils sont considérés comme "laids",
"grossiers" et "vulgaires". "

e- Organizations for promoting the Luxemburgish lanuage in Thionville,
France had some audiance.
"Hémechtsland a Sprooch" , virtually dead after some quarrelling among
members in 1978 about using the Luxemburgian flag, had 59 members, 163
subscriptions to the magazine (1000 issues sold).

Other groups, split off after the quarrels:
"Déi vom Museldall"
"Geeschtemat?" (music group)
"Wéi laang naach?"

f- Franconian is judged to be different from German, even more than
Flemish since the latter is Low-"German". I'm quoting. Don't send
flames please.

p. 280: ". le francique. bien plus éloigné de l'allemand que ne l'est
l'alsacien, et à maints égards assez proche du néerlandais (voire
parfois l'anglais), le francique ne saurait être confondu avec l'
allemand officiel - pas plus que le flamand, qui est pourtant du
bas-allemand !"

h- After 1945 the language is in a difficult position in France :

"Depuis 1945, on assiste à une francisation forcenée de la région,
tendant à l'unilinguisme et au rejet de tout ce qui est germanique.

The acceptance of franconian as a national language (Lëtzebuergesch)
in a country (the Grand-Duchy) is considered to be a significant
support for those who want to preserve the franconian dialects in
France.

i- In an appendix  Jean-Marc Becker gives some updates.

In the Grand Duchy: consolidation of the position of Lëtzebuergesch,
but in France:
"La region thionvilloise est confronté à une regression constante de l
'emploi du francique luxembourgeois, particulièrement sensible chez
les plus jeunes. Il n'existe quasiment plus d'enfants en âge
scolaire . capables de s'exprimer en francique."

Further details are following about the fights for getting a place for
Lëtzebuergesch in education, beside the few hours of German that are
allowed in schools in the area.

(PS: about the language "Lëtzebuergesch" there is a book in English:
Gerald Newton, Luxembourg and Lëtzebuergesch, Language and
Communication at the Crossroads of Europe, 1996, Oxford, Clarendon
Press, ISBN 0-19-824016-3, xviii + 286 pp. It's quite expensive
though: I paid FLux 2320 a couple of years ago in the Ernster bookshop
downtown Luxembourg)

-- --

Personal comments:
These people are involved in a very difficult fight:
- The French republic focuses on one national language: French (stated
explicitly in the constitution)
- In an environment of a "strong" language, it is, to my feeling,
difficult to motivate kids to learn socially weak languages
- The old koinè, German, lost it's position, especially considering
what all happened during the war.
- The defenders of a Germanic linguistic culture in Thionville are
fighting for the promotion of Luxemburgish, but have to do this in
competition with French, German and the municipal franconian variants.

But the worst of all: kids are speaking French only nowadays.

Regards,

Roger

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