LL-L "History" 2002.09.27 (10) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 27.SEP.2002 (10) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic
               V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "History"

> From: Ole Stig Andersen <osa at olestig.dk>
> Subject: LL-L "History" 2002.09.26 (06) [E]
>
> 90% of the World's around 6.000 languages are moribund and will disappear
> within this century, according to the estimates of Michael Krauss. I'm
> afraid a number of Lowlands languages are among them. The
> decendants of the
> speakers of these languages will carry on the genes of their foremothers,
> but not their languages.

Like most "futurology" such estimates tend to turn out to be nonsense.

The death of Scots within a generation or two has been
predicted for almost as long as the language has existed.
Things took a downturn in the 20th century, but this
was due to a large influx of English and Irish immigrants
to central Scotland during a phase of industrial growth.
This was unpredictable rather than something that could
be generalised. The fact that Scots still survives two
generations later was unpredicable too, and leaves the
question of whether the usual resilience of the language
will result in a recovery. The question is completely open.

I don't think there's anything special about Scots in this
respect. Factors which affect the survival of languages are
things like migration patterns and the attitude of its speakers,
which can change from one generation to the next. These things
aren't really susceptible to trend analysis.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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

I do not think that I am deluding myself with regard to the survival chances
of minority/minoritized languages, especially when considering economic and
cultural globalization trends accelerated by advances in electronic
communication.  Thus, whilst I do wish to not wish come across as making
light of what Ole Stig Andersen said, I hasten to add to Sandy Fleming's
report on Scots (above) that the situation is rather similar in the case of
Lowlands Saxon (Low German).

LS has been pronounced moribund ever since, with the decline and eventual
demise of the Hanseatic League in the 16th or 17th century, it lost
influence and came to be rejected in favor of German and Dutch by the
aristocracy, upper classes and people who considered themselves "upwardly
mobile," and when, banished from formal education and public communication,
it seemed to be dwindling and disappearing.  However, what was happening in
reality was that the language went underground, so to speak.  It retreated,
avoided the public ear but remained alive within contexts deemed safe,
namely in family life, small communities, certain work domains, guilds and
clubs.  Those estimating the number of speakers and drawing conclusions
regarding survival chances tended and still tend to be outsiders with power
language and public domain vantage points.  It is a fact that after
centuries of _Totsagen_ the language is still alive.

As in the case of Scots, things took a downturn in the 20th century, partly
because of government policies that ranged between negligent and outrightly
hostile, and partly because with the end of World War II previously fairly
healthy LS-speaking communities became predominantly German-speaking as a
result of absorbing large numbers of displaced persons, especially from
areas that had come under Polish and Soviet administration.  However, a
couple of generations later the language is still hanging on, in many cases
admittedly barely so.  (Is LS *really* extinct within the "German"-labeled
minority of Denmark?)

Thus, yet again, there are several similarities between the cases of Scots
and LS.

As I mentioned earlier, I am not overly optimistic about the future.
However, a glimmer of hope may be seen in the fact that quite a lot of
younger people are getting interested in the language, learn it and organize
activities involving other young people.  Official recognition a few years
ago may well prove to be helpful too, because it adds to the perception of
ligitimacy.

For these reasons I feel very reluctant to make any prediction at all, one
way or the other, because too many past predictions turned out to be wrong.

Furthermore, please bear in mind that languages going underground sometimes
end up becoming secret languages, their speakers deliberately hiding them
(perhaps as a matter of ultimate protection?) and letting governmental and
academic estimators believe the languages are extinct.  I have been told of
such cases in a number of areas.  Estimating, leave alone predicting,
becomes all the more difficult in cases of antagonistic relationships
between a minority language community and the government, also in cases
where (1) all or (2) certain minority languages do not officially exist (as
e.g. in the cases of (1) Greece and (2) China), these being typical
scenarios in which language go into hiding, where no surveillance radar can
pick them up.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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