LL-L "Expressions" 2002.06.25 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 25.JUN.2002 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "luc.hellinckx at pandora.be" <luc.hellinckx at pandora.be>
Subject: Reasons for the creation of my list

Beste leeglanners,

A word or "two" about the list with the 16 items that I composed earlier
on.
After being involved in "language-matters" for over 20 years now
(although I'm a mathematician professionally), I thought it was time to
study language in a somewhat different perspective.

I mean, here in Belgium, during the second half of the twentieth
century, a lot of scientific effort has gone into research of the
vocabulary of what are called "vaktalen". These are forms of language
that are spoken by people exercising jobs that were (or are) on the
brink of extinction. People weaving baskets, making ropes, blacksmiths,
and so on. Even folks breeding race pigeons *s*. I fully understand that
this work had priority as many of these "handicrafts-people" were (very)
old and after their death their language would surely expire too. This
study however results in what I would like to call "peculiarism"
("particularisme" in Dutch). Of course the outcome of these inquiries
often showed an enormous variety of words for one single subject. This
could be expected because :
1) regularly some tiny piece of equipment or part of a device is
concerned
2) the devices themselves have been changing continuously and thoroughly
throughout history (being intricately linked to cultures and societies
that even in the olden days were subject to political and economic
forces of course).
So we got what we expected, thousands of words that boosted a lot of
people's feelings of "uniqueness".
I would like to reverse the point of view, instead of zooming in on say
a community of thatchers in Stuivekenskerke, I'd like to zoom out
(geographically speaking). That's why I like this Lowlands-forum so
much, it broadens my horizon.
At the same time I was interested in words that are somehow
"transcendental". With this, I mean : unrelated to any specific society
or time in history. And so I had to bring "numbers" in of course. Many a
(Germanic) dialect never gets any more abstract than this *s*. I can
hardly believe for example that words and pronounciation for "one",
"two", "three" are easily and significantly changed. Thus, they must
reflect an old stage of any language, I assume. One old counting system
was not decimal by the way but rather based on 5 multiples of 12 (making
60). Off the record :
1) the old divide between centum- and satem-languages in Indo-European
looks a little artificial in this respect
2) reading Dickens here in Thailand (don't laugh *s*, I couldn't get
hold of anything better), I was amazed to see that he still wrote "three
and twenty" for example instead of modern "twenty-three"...he also
writes : "Go away", said he, whereas nowadays it would be "Go away", he
said.
Other "universal" words are those that describe basic family relations,
so I wanted to include those as well.
But actually I'm explaining you my query backwards now *s*.
You see, what still puzzles me tremendously is the use of diphtongs in
our Lowlands-languages. Let me give you two examples : the words for
"house" and "ice" (I also deliberately didn't choose any loan-words
because they obey different rules). In Middle Dutch they were usually
written "hu(u)s" and
"i(e)s", I believe. Bear in mind though that in the period 1100-1450 the
county of Flanders was utterly dominant in every way, which (partly)
explains this orthography.
During the 15th century, power shifted eastwards and more and more these
words get spelled as "huys" and "ijs".
It's hard to believe that in the old "Meierij Overzenne" for example
(roughly Brabant west of the river Zenne...not by accident the place
where this most inspiring professor Blanquaert grew up *s*), in the run
of the 15th century common people actually started pronouncing these
words (slightly) differently. Writing language and actual speech of
medieval peasants and citizens are two different systems, I gather.
Fortunately, a thing or two can be deducted by studying
rhyming-schemes...however, is this method completely fool-proof ?
Every word that I chose has its own reason why it was selected but it
would lead me much too far to reveal them right now (I hope scholars
will immediately notice why I chose them).
Moreover, I'm on this cycling trip now from Chengdu (China) to Singapore
and I cannot spend more time behind a computer screen (unfortunately
*s*).
I hope this sheds a little more light on the creation of my list.
Greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

"God is too big to fit inside just one religion"

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