LL-L "Pronomina" 2004.09.17 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 17.SEP.2004 (02) * 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: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at worldonline.nl>
Subject: Dou (you) dying out in Dutch Lower Saxon

I would like to tell you a personal story.
My grandmother is 85 years old, she was born in Winterswijk (a town
surrounded in the east, north and south by Westphalian (German) terretory,
in the eastern part of the Region Achterhoek,Province Guelders in the
Netherlands) and lived there almost all her live, except for a period in
Ontario, Canada.
Her mothertongue is the old local Lower Saxon "Wenters" dialect, which is
quite archaic, in fact the most Low German dialect of Holland.

All her relatives live(d) in Ontario, she is the only one who returned to
Holland with her family (including my father).
Two days ago, her last sister died in Canada. My grandmother told me: She
was the last person on earth to whom I said 'dou'.
Dou (German etc Du) is the archaicWenters second person singular. Today,
every one there uses i'j in stead, which used to be the plural and polite
form,
as in most Dutch Lower Saxon. Of course because of the influence of Standard
Dutch  jij = you (sing).
Dou had become an intimate pronoun used exclusively between her and her
sister, and now she cannot use it anymore...

I know that there are some other Dutch Lower Saxon dialects, in Groningen,
Drenthe, Twente that might preserve some du's or dou's (as well Frisian and
Limburgian) but in de Achterhoek it is about to die out completely.
And just at a few kilometers distance the Platt of Westmünsterland use Dou
all the time, supported of course by Standard German Du...
  Ingmar

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