LL-L "Language policies" 2003.01.30 (14) [D/E/German]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: Language politics, was: Re: LL-L "Lowlands-L" 2003.01.30 (09)
[E/LS/German]

>From: Michael Daly <michael.daly at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Software" 2003.01.26 (03) [E/Danish/German]

>Man könnte sich eine Science-Fiction Novelle vorstellen, worin sich die
norddeutschen Laender den Niederlaendern in ihrem Befreiungskrieg gegen
Hapsburg-Spanien unterstuetzen, ansschliessend mit den Kern-Provinzen der
Niederlande aus dem "Heiligen Roemischen Reich“ austreten und sich mit
diesen zu einem riesigen "Verenigden Provincien" zusammenschliessen, wodurch
sie den 30-jährigen Krieg verpassen und, nach der Trennung mit
Zuid-Nederland, ein riesiges protestantisches niederdeutsches Land werden,
das eine einheitliche "Hochsprache" entwickelt, die eine Synthese aller
Dialekte zwischen Seeland und Hinter-Pommern wird!
--

Some comments:

1. I don't think at the time (1648) the Dutchmen were very concerned about
promoting a Low German standard language. Correspondence of quite some
upperclass people still remained in French for a while.

2. The Nassau family at the time was more concerned about eventually
reconquer part of the South, rather than to merge with some States in
Northern Germany. After all, they kept quite some property & rights in the
Southern Brabant, as e.g. the town of Diest (Nassau heritage) and the land
of Hoogstraten (a Salms heritage). I think the queen of the Netherlands
still keeps in her list of titles "vrouwe van Diest". After 1648 though
Diest has only formally been part of the Netherlands from 1815 till 1830.

3. While the Spanish thought they had to convert people to catholicism in
their colonies, and the French promoted the French language as cultural food
for the little kids in their dependencies, the Dutchmen were more concerned
about profits and keeping distances:
--- quote:
 Veel indruk maakte in 1939 de beoordeling van de Indische taal- en
cultuurpolitiek door de Franse hoogleraar G.H. Bousquet, die zijn verbazing
uitsprak over de verbijsterende onverschilligheid van de Nederlanders ten
aanzien van hun eigen taal en cultuur.
'Dutch colonial policy has never for a moment considered that the Dutch
language could play a part in the culture and civilization to be given to
the native. On the contrary, by opposing him with a language intended to
mark the distance which sets him apart from the European, the Dutch have
striven and still strive, though vainly, to deprive their ward of contact
with the outside world.' (Bousquet 1940:89)
--- quoted p. 74 from: "redactie Kees Groeneboer, Koloniale taalpolitiek in
Oost en West, 1997, Amsterdam University Press".

4. Belgians in the 19th century (Dellecourt, Hansen, ..) have tried to build
something up with North-Germans. Groth came regularely to Antwerp, but was
not very much interesed in giving concessions to come to a common
orthography. Hoffman von Fallersleben came and wrote in neo-Old-Dutch, but
focussed on Pangermanism, the exercise being rather an intermediate state
before absorption into High German. In the Netherlands there was little or
no support for this kind of exercices at that time. In Belgium the movement
lost all support, since the 1870 war fed anti-German / anti-Prussian
feelings.
Northern Belgians started or continued immitating Dutch speakers from the
Netherlands for having some respectable common standard.(common orthography
around 1866)

5. One can just ask why the Prussians, Prussia being a Northern area, when
conquering the power in Germany, did not impose "Low German from the
North-East" as standard for Northern of whole Germany. In the 19th century
they did just the inverse, e.g. by relocating people from the Pfalz to the
villages just South of Kleve (Rheinprovinz).

So we can dream, yes, but...

However there are some successtories, examples I have in mind:
- Welsh (When I worked for Monsanto, I had to be in Newport from time to
time in the early nineties; at the time there were TV programmes in Welsh,
apparently nobody in the plant of Newport understood; so people were joking
with it. Recently, a couple of months ago, I was at a meeting at a company
in Chester. The sales director was extrelely proud to be a Welsh speaker.
This
may all be incidents, but I think the status of Welsh is increasing rapidly)
- Dutch in Belgium: the formula here was to choose for a standard (Dutch)
and to get a homogeneous Dutch speaking reservate in the North, called
Vlaanderen, recognized and protected by law.
- Luxembourgish, where the former dialect was upgraded to an official
standard language, and contributed to create an identity.

So there are cases of controlled survival. The key I think is politics, and
objectives often need to mature over a few generations before being taken
seriously.

Regards,
Roger

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