LL-L "Resources" 2002.10.13 (09) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 13.OCT.2002 (09) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Thomas Byro <thbyro at earthlink.net>
Subject: Learning Plattdeutsch

I left Rahden in 1955 and never went back to visit.  Only lately have I been
able to locate some of my family and friends again.  I forgot Plattdeutsch
in the intervening years.  The pressure against using the language was
enormous in my family. Then too, the language of instruction in school was
in Hochdeutsch.  I remember the misery of some of my friends who only spoke
Plattdeutsch as we entered school because they could not understand the
teacher.  I had assumed that the language had died since I left.  Recently
though I found and wrote my childhood playmate, Erika (still living in
Espelkamp) and asked her if she still speaks Plattdeutsch?  She replied, "of
course.  It is such a beautiful language.  I speak it every chance I get."
I asked my old friend Heinz ( still living in Wehe, now a part of Rahden)
the same question.  He said that when he gets together with his friends,
Plattdeutsch is the only language that they speak.  I would like to go back
home to visit over the next year or so but I am embarrassed that I appear to
be the only member of my old circle who has become illiterate in
Plattdeutsch.  I live far from any place where the language is spoken.  Can
anyone recommend any books or other learning materials so that I can learn
the language again?  Preferably the dialect spoken in the Rahden area?

Tom

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Reources

Tom,

I am afraid there is no textbook in English yet.  I also doubt that you will
find any textbook for the exact dialect your ancestors spoke.  If you can
read German, I recommend the book I recommended Gary Taylor a little while
ago (16.AUG.2002 (01)):

<quote>

For your purposes I'd recommend the following:

Marianne Kloock & Ingo Viechelmann, _Uns plattdüütsch Spraakbook :
   Texte to'n Sülvstlehren dörch Lesen, Snacken un Schrieben mit
   Grammatik : op hooch- un nedderdüütsch | auf hoch- und
   niederdeutsch_,
   Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag, 1989, ISBN 3-87118-907-3.
   Revised edition 1996: 190 pp. ISBN 3-87548-134-8, hardbound,
   Euro 16.80;
   cassette 70 min. ISBN 3-87118-908-1. Euro 19.80

It's not fantastic (what is?) but (1) it's usable for people like you
(who know what they want and what they are doing), (2) it takes the
language seriously, (3) it is predominantly Hamburg dialect (bearing in
mind that Hamburg has several dialects), (4) it is strictly side-by-side
"Low/High" (yes, even the theoretical parts), and (5) it comes with an
audio cassette (Kloock: Hamburg, Viechelmann: Aumühle = marginally
Hamburg/Holstein).

</quote>

Cheers!
Reinhard/Ron

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