LL-L "Language survival" 2003.05.16 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 16.May.2003 (03) * 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) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: "Mike" <botas at club-internet.fr>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2003.05.04 (03) [E]

Dear friends,
I have read your discussions about standardisation, codification...
with great interest.
May I contribute, for what it is worth, the example of Occitània.
The Occitan-language area stretches over hundreds of miles,
oral communication from one extreme to the other is virtually
impossible. For example the varieties in the North-East have a
strong French superstrate, while in the South-West a Basque
substrate dominates. (Sorry for this oversimplication.)
The revival process in the 19th century started by creating a
literature which was written phonetically, based on French
phonetics. It was immediately accessible to local readers, but
accessibility decreased with distance.
To solve this problem, an orthography was created, based
on ancient (mediæval) Occitan. This was not a standardisation
of the language, but a standardisation of the orthography, by
which each writer wrote his own local form.
Lo and behold, inspite of preservation of local forms, all of
a sudden texts were written that were readable and understandable
all over Occtitània. "All of a sudden" must not be taken literally,
it required the learning of the new orthography. School children
all over the world demonstrate daily how this is done.
Of course, children in Occitània continued to be taught
the French system of orthography, so the new Occitan orthography
did not stop the decline of the language as a popular communication
language. But it created a pan-occitan vehicle for the spectacular
revival of the written language among intellectuals during the 20th
century
without blotting out in any way the richness of its regional
variability.
Mike Wintzer

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