LL-L 'Ethnica' 2006.12.20 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 20 December 2006 * Volume 01
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Ethnica

Lowlanders,

Yesterday I spoke with an American-born woman whose mother immigrated from
Northern Germany to the United States in the early 1960s, having been born
and raised in the uppermost north: in Arnis on Slee/Schlei, just a bit south
of Kappeln, in other words, not very far south of today's German-Danish
border.  (See map http://tinyurl.com/yfq33k.)

As most of you know by now (at least from various exchanges on the List),
that region (Southern Sleswig/Slevig/Schleswig) is multiethnic and
multilingual in which, besides German, Low Saxon (Low German), Frisian,
Danish and Jutish are used.  It used to be on a fairly smooth continuum with
Northern Sleswig/Slevig/Schleswig.  However, the drawing of the
international border has Danicized the north and Germanized the south,
although some of the diversity remains, and many people still know several
local languages.

As many of you furthermore know, at least from what Helge Tietz and I have
written about that area, ethnic affiliation tends to be somewhat loose
there, at least used to be so in the past.  I assume that this is because
older people of that region have lived under both Danish and German rule and
are at home in more than one local culture and language, and there is a lot
of intermarriage.  This makes it relatively easy for them to switch
affiliation.  Quite a bit of it was seen after World War II when many local
"Germans" began identifying themselves as "Danish" and switched to Danish
and possibly Jutish in their homes, sent their children to Danish schools,
etc.

Now, what I heard about this lady adds a bit of interesting information,
perhaps an additional angle, since we are talking about self-identification
or alliance from afar.  When her daughter and I talked about Christmas
services, I mentioned that the local German Lutheran church has regular
Christmas Eve services in German, and I wondered if her mother was
interested.  It turned out that she had been aware of it but that she
preferred to visit the Danish church for the Danish language service.
Apparently, although she is fluent in it, she does not feel strongly bonded
to German and "might as well visit an English language service then."  She
has very good command of German, Low Saxon, Danish and English, also of
Swedish, since she lived in Sweden for some time, where she met her American
husband.  She feels most bonded with Low Saxon and Danish as the languages
of native home, extended family and community.  She would prefer a church
service in Low Saxon, and in the absence of it her first pick is Danish, not
German.

I don't know how representative she is of a person from a semi-rural area of
that region and of that generation.  I hope to meet her and find out more.
In the meantime, I invite anyone to discuss this further.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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