LL-L "Migraton" (was "Idiomatica") 2004.08.05 (09) [E]

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


Heinrich, Hugo and all you other Lowlanders,

Here's another "Hi!" from California.

Hugo:

> I have just been doing some cursory genealogical
> enquiries and find that
> on my mother's side there is inter marriage,
> during the 19th century, with
> Germans who then clearly stayed in the Netherlands.
> There is also evidence of the Dutch part of the family
> living for some time in Germany. The traffic around
> the Groningen border, therefore, seems to go both ways
> and seemed to involve casual farm labour -dag loners-
> and the border was
> obviously quite permeable.

Obviously we are dealing with two major migration movements: one eastward
and one westward.

The eastward one from all sorts of Low-Franconian-speaking places
(including today's Belgium and Northern France) started in the Middle
Ages, during colonization of the then mostly Slavonic-dominated east (now
the parts of Germany east of Hamburg and Hanover and farther east) and
continuing probably into the 15th or 16th century (_Na oostland wel ik
varen ..._).  Places like Friedrichstadt, the Alte Land, and Flandern
(near Berlin) are evidence that "Hollanders" settled farther west as well
and actually founded whole towns or at least should be credited with their
success.  Later there were the Mennonites (then mostly Frisians, Dutch and
Saxons) who had to leave what are now the Netherlands to eastern places in
which they felt safer.

Thanks to Heinrich for reminding us of the _Hollandgangers_ ("Holland
goers") that regularly went westward from what is now Northern Germany for
jobs and trading.  This was a largely silent, unsung migration wave that
lasted for a long time, starting during the Netherlands' golden age.
Several Netherlanders have told me that their families are still aware of
the odd North German ancestor in their midst, typically someone who went
west as a laborer and ended up marrying into a "Dutch" family.  Apparently
this went on well into the 19th century, even into the 20th century
according to some reports.  As Heinrich said, language was hardly an
obstacle in the olden days.  The average person did not really speak
Standard Dutch or Standard German, and their dialects were merely on a
continuum, differences being relatively insignificant, mutual
comprehension thus being fairly easy.

Sure the migrants and the locals may have said of each other that one was
speaking _Hollandsch_ and the other was speaking _Oostersch_, but I hardly
think that they had a concept of them being actually separate languages.
Among ordinary folks, the linguistic separation really only started with
clear political separation and the relatively sudden increase in
Germanization in Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries.

There are signs that significant numbers of Lowlands-Saxon-speaking people
from both the Netherlands and Northern Germany were among settlers in
South Africa.  Again, we ought to assume that they easily fitted in with
the "Dutch"-speaking population that then grew into an Afrikaans-speaking
one.  If significant numbers of (mostly Huguenot) French people could do
so, it certainly was a "piece of cake" for those of Saxon background.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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Reinhard "Ron" F. Hahn
Seattle, USA
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I do not open unexpected or unexplained attachments.
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