LL-L "Language varieties" 2006.02.07 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
http://www.lowlands-l.net * lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=rules
Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org or lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
Commands ("signoff lowlands-l" etc.): listserv at listserv.net
Server Manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html
Archives: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Please switch your view mode to it.]
=======================================================================
You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
text from the same account to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or
sign off at http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================
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 (Zeeuws)
=======================================================================

07 February 2006 * Volume 05
=======================================================================

From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2006.02.07 (02) [E]

Ron wrote:
"Obviously -- or perhaps less so than I assumed -- I was referring to folk
music, music, songs by "anonymous," songs that were meant to be used within
a community or even just household, lullabies specific to certain mothers
and their babies, family-grown songs of faith sung on backporches in
Appalachian hamlets, worksongs of smiths, millers, spinsters and plantation
slaves, polyphonous songs groups of marriageable Sorbian girls make and
perform in bowers built for the occasion by prospective suitors that listen
and watch from hiding places, wedding songs some now unknown klezmer group
made specifically for a certain wedding ... and the list goes on.
Especially in the 19th century, and in the Americas especially in the 20th
century, people went around collecting and publishing these, and folk music
enthusiasts now collect and perform them as public domain material.

The same goes for folktales, for instance the Grimm Brothers' collection, or
Wisser's collection of Low Saxon tales.  Most of those used to be handed
down only within a given extended family or village.  Now they are
everyone's property."

Frankly, I am getting rather tired of this. You are comparing apples and 
pears again, not making a point. You really like doing this, "interpreting" 
people's views for them and making others think that they said what they 
never said.

And yes, I was talking about "secret" languages that the speakers do not 
want to share with outsiders; Rotwelsch and Roma are good examples. The 
motivation here is certainly not fear of "being made fun of", but a feeling 
that "our way of life is none of anybody's business." And why others may 
consider this rude, I say more power to them.

There are certainly songs and tales as well that should never have been 
dragged out into the open, and who knows what harm and embarrassment have 
been caused by prying "collectors". If people want to share their language, 
tales, music and culture out of their own free will, I am delighted. But I 
seriously doubt the motives and methods of many "collectors"; this often 
boils down to the equivalent of reading people's secret diaries. What gives 
you this feeling of entitlement? Claiming to be "one with the entire world" 
including all  that it contains just isn't enough. Also, being really one 
with everything would involve not promoting any points of view over others, 
because they would all be considered equally valid, wouldn't they?

I really do not care whether anyone on this list shares those views; I know 
these are valid points that need to be made. It does not even matter whether 
I am fully behind them myself. It is enough that the people who share them 
do not speak up on their own behalf. So much for me being "the keeper of the 
language".

Actually, I have no idea what became of it myself, for all I hear around 
here these days, read in newspapers, and find in books on the subject is 
either indeed a version of Eastphalian, or some Northern Platt that has been 
adapted by those who want to "go back to their roots". It is definitely not 
what I heard the older people speak in the villages around here when I was a 
child and teenager. As I said before, the only thing I ever heard later in 
life that came close enough was Frisian, spoken by either Dutch or Germans. 
But then, I much prefer having this memory and facing this mystery to 
gleaming spotlights and sharpened scalpels.

Once upon a time, deep down in the forest, there lived an old woman with her 
three young granddaughters...

Gabriele Kahn 

==============================END===================================
* Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
* Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
* Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
* Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
  to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at
  http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
======================================================================