LL-L "Language competency" 2005.07.15 (04) [E/LS]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 15.JUL.2005 (04) * 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: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Language competency" 2005.07.14 (05) [E]

Leyve Holger un' Reinhard,

Jii diskuteert door öber 'n Thema, wat ick ne an mi vörbiloupen looten kann-
is 't doch jüst DAT Perbleem för mi, wenn ick opp 'Platt' schriiven dou.

Holger:
> By the way: If writing English I feel a "lack of sharpness" in LS
> expressions (compared for example with German)which often makes it very
> difficult to find a correct translation. LS is more a sum of expressions
> rather than of distinct words and the meaning of these expressions then is
> tuned by context. And here again we have a difficulty for actual speakers
> who develop their sentences on German base because German works quite
> different.
As I often feel, maybe even just in talking to non-natives of LS, I cannot
translate from G (a little bit better from E) into MY dialect of LS and/or
back. It's not just because this above mentioned 'sum of expressions', it's
a question of the background in education and mentality, formed by the
history and the whole way of life of a more or less limited community.
This could sound chauvinistically, but You can't deny it at all.
As I wrote some weeks ago: to go among older, 'real' LS-natives always is a
kind of step into another world, and even I (speaking myself LS each day)
sometimes feel myself as kind of an invader, in a better sense an explorer
of their lives. I guess this will keep on till the end of my days.

Therefore- starting to write about 'serious', uncormfortable matters I
prefer G or even E, because of the pointation and precision of these modern
languages.
An indicator for the fact that LS starts to become a fossile? Living
circumstances change so rapidly and fast as never before, and I fear just
modern languages are able to follow.
We may not forget: lots of LS vocabulary got lost in the past, and even if
reanimated they sound artifically for native dialect-speakers.
For example: E: 'sock', G: 'Socke', 'Strunpf' today is LS: 'Sock', 'Söcken',
'Strump', 'Strümpsöcken'. Till the middle of the 19. century LS people said
'Hoos', spoken like E: 'hose' and of course cognate with it. Today in G:
'Hose' means E: 'trousers', and in LS: 'Büx' (= derived from G: 'Büchse'
[Frankonian?], meaning E: 'tube') is the nowaday's word for 'trousers'.

Reinhard:
> Most of the
> time I have an easier time translating LS idiomatic expressions into
> English
> than into German.
And so feel I, specially the reverse way- though my English is poor and
'rusty'.

Ron again:
> So, despite many advantages such as unification and thus increased
> survival
> chances (especially of highly diverse endangered languages), one might
> side
> with the "naysayers" on this score by arguing that the creation of a
> standard variety has the disadvantage of lessening diversity by way of
> influencing other varieties.
Reinhard, if You are able and will find the time to read my above stuff well
and thouroughly, You'll find added 'MY dialect' ;-)!
It's a great difference indeed between LS in whole, as a language including
lots of regional dialects, and a special regional 'Heimatsprache'. Writing
and talking in 'common' LS of course is an absolutely different shoe from
talking and using it in someones community, but- when and where should we
shift from the one to the other? And- how to keep fingers off from words not
being part of the 'Heimatdialekt'?

Have a look at Holgers EFLS-dialect, and try to suggest him writing a
standardized 'Nedderassisch'. I'm sure he is able to do it, but I can't
really imagine any occurrence of this evidence ;-)!
I, for myself, try to make some progress in 'Allgemeyne Schrivwys', and have
to confess that it's easier to write and read than my 'normal' writing.
Specially on a German-set PC one hasn't got the problem with always being
auto-corrected from LS:'sei', meaning E:'they' into G:'sie'; AS: 'sey' isn't
recognized this way and sounds much better.
But I can't always write this way; my country-people would exmatriculate me
soon.

It's a difficult and never ending story, I think.

Allerbest' Greutens and Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm

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