LL-L "Language proficiency" 2005.03.04 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 04.MAR.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: Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>
Subject: Language Proficiency


Hello Lowlanders,

Jonny Meibohm wrote:

it's no consolation at the end: though I grew up with Low-Saxon as my second
mother language I am still frustrated. Just today I had been in a group of
older, in LS-language grewn-up people, and I (about 25 years younger as
them) felt especially imperfect when they told me: "Oh- Du sprichst für Dein
Alter aber ein gutes 'Platt' ". They are so much more common with it, their
mouthes are better suited, better trained and at the end their brain, their
kind of thinking has always been used this way. I'll never be able to reach
them in their originality, their "Urigkeit" and their way to see, to feel
themselves as this is aspected. Languages are in most times a special, very
individual way of live, I fear.

Thanks Jonny, you hit the nail right on the head. Dutch was my first
language. I have lived in the US for over 40 years and speak American
English reasonably well. But no matter how hard I try, there is something
that escapes me too. Sometimes English seems to be a construct, an artifice.
To make a joke about it; it seems that my brain is not wired in inches but
in centimeters.

And yes it is true; depending on which of the two languages I speak I am a
different person. You put it well “Languages are in most times a special
very individual way of live”, but what that little phrase also does is
resonate in my soul with an un-English and more Dutch/German way of
thinking. Jacqueline

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