LL-L "Language varieties" 2005.05.04 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 04.MAY.2005 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Thomas Byro <greenherring at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2005.05.03 (06) [E]

I just read a brief biographical sketch by Harpo Marx, recounting his
childhood on the Eastside of NY.  He mentioned that his father, who
was born near Metz, would constantly invite people over for dinner,
people who were family.  This he defined as anyone who spoke
Plattdeutsch.  I wonder what language this was though? I found a
French website which is dedicated to the preservation of the "Platt"
language which featured a map showing "Platt" still being spoken in a
broad band reaching from the Belgian border to just West and South of
Verdun, where it curved sharply toward the German border.  Is this
language a variant on Flemish?

Tom Byro

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From: James Campbell <james at zolid.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2005.05.03 (06) [E]

Mark Williamson writes:

> Sorry, I seem to have missed the e-mail about Jameld.
>
> Is it a natural language? Something most people have never heard of
> like Dalecarian (which until I found out about I would've thought was
> a southern slavic language)

Jameld is a constructed (i.e. fictional) language, intended to be a rather
divergent member of the West Germanic family. Its fictional setting is
northern Alsace, particularly the area between Wissembourg and
Niederbronn-les-Bains.

You can find more about Jameld at the site www.zolid.com/zm -- I direct you
particularly to the iFAQ, Dictionary and Grammar.

But tell me more about Dalecarian... I'm intrigued.

James

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James Campbell                              james at zolid.com  www.zolid.com
Boring, but a cool boring.
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Tom (above):

> I just read a brief biographical sketch by Harpo Marx, recounting his
> childhood on the Eastside of NY.  He mentioned that his father, who
> was born near Metz, would constantly invite people over for dinner,
> people who were family.

Tom, _Platt_ and _plat_ have been used as catch-all names for any variety
that is non-standard German and Dutch respectively.  I've heard it used with
reference to Allemannic dialects of southwestern Germany and Elsace.  My
educated guess is that the Marx family spoke a variety of Lorraine
(_Lothringen_) Frankish.

By the way, both Alsatian Allemannic and Lorraine Frankish are called
_Alsacien_  in French, even though they are very different and belong to two
different dialect groups.  However, none of this seems to matter at the end
of the day because neither of them enjoys any sort of official recognition,
and they are barely tolerated at best, are rather "wished away," to
literally translate German _weggewünscht_.

I hardly think that Harpo was referring to Western Yiddish of
Alsace-Lorraine, because even in his childhood it was severely moribund and
was probably used very rarely in Metz.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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