LL-L "Language maintenance" 2007.04.27 (03) [A/E/LS]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  26 April 2007 - Volume 03

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From: Tomoki Minohara <mino_engelachtig at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

Beste Jonny Meibohm,

Harten Dank, datt Se mi email Adress vun Piet geven hett.
Ik hebb sien Sied vörig Johr funnen. Dat is interessant!
Ik lehr ok Plattdüütsch af un an. Ik höör Radio Bremen.
Platt hett verschedene Mundaarten.
Snackt Se Dialekt vun Bremenhaven?

Allerbest,

Tomoki Minohara

Jonny Meibohm wrote:

Beste Tomoki Minohara,

man, man- 'n Japoner mit sou 'n K・l van Nedersaksisch un Freys'sch! Dat is
meist gediegen' Kroom!

Eyn Doun- wenn Du wat meyhr van't Stellingwarfs weyten wullt, froog driest
Piet Bult. Ick schall Dii ouk woll de Adress geben:
info at stellingwerfs-eigen.nl<http://us.f384.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=info@stellingwerfs-eigen.nl>


Dey hett 'n heyl' oorig Buelt Sinn fr Spooss un Naar'nkroom, door verloot
Dii tou!

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm

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From: Tomoki Minohara <mino_engelachtig at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language maintenance

Goiedag! My naam is Tomoki. Ek is Japanner, en belangstel in Afrikaans.
Die taal Afrikaans is een van die elf amptelike tale van Suid-Afrika en
word deur omtrent 6 miljoen persone as 'n eerste taal gebruik.
Gebruik se Engels in die openbaar?
Leer hulle Engels as tweede taal op skool?

Groete,

Tomoki Minohara

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From: Andy Eagle <andy at scots-online.org>
Subject: LL-L "Language maintenance"


Gabriele wrote:
> A TV programme in nothing but Platt? And who would the speakers be? Where
> would they find enough people to dub everything who all speak the same
> flavour of Platt, and are at the same time talented enough for the job?
> And
> how would they pay for it all? It would probably sound horrible because to
> most of them, Platt would be a foreign language they would try to imitate.
> And even if it worked, we would be stuck with a standardized version which
> could wipe out regional dialects.

Similar points are raised at the suggestion of radio or TV in Scots.
I pretty sure my observations can be applied to Low Saxon.

The only serious problem is people to do the presenting. At the moment
simply being able to speak English isn't qualification enough to be a news
reader for example. Nor would simply being able to speak Scots be enough of
a qualification to read the News in Scots. Presenters need training. Perhaps
an amature theatre background helps. That's why anyone interested in having
Scots on the Radio or TV should actively demand promotion of Scots language
amature theatre and other oral performance in Scots. That's the breeding
ground for future radio and TV talent.

The question of which variety to use is a red herring. On CNN numerous
accents of English occur, both native and non-native. No doubt the concept
of standard English helps overcome differences among the speakers. But I bet
how they speak on TV isn't how they speak at home.
For Scots there's ample vocabularly that's common to all varieties.
Pronunciation and Grammar differences between Scots varieties pose no
comprehension problems for Scots speakers. The claim that Scots dialects are
mutually unintelligible is a myth usually perpetrated by monoglot English
speakers. 'If I can't understand it then no one else can'. The only variety
of Scots I have encountered and had difficulty understanding was Shetlandic.
After a while I got used to it and had no problems. The problem was
familiarity not comprehensibility (The more radio and TV in Scots the
greater the familiarity - the suposed problem solves itself). One of my
father's reminiscences about his time in the Army is that he once had to
translate for a Shetlander who couldn't manage to speak anything the English
soldiers could understand. My father comes from Fife and had no problem
understanding a Shetlander (and vice versa).
On radio or TV speakers would simply use whatever variety they speak
themselves. In order to maximaise cross-dialect comprehensibility the script
would initially contain vocabulary that occurs in all dialects (there's
plenty of it so no subject would be taboo)
The script could then be tweaked (together with the speaker) to reflect the
syntax, grammar and idiom of the speaker. Words particular to the dialect of
the speaker could be used if their meaning is clear from context. Some
objects etc. may have different names in different dialects. The simple
solution is that the speaker uses their word for X adding 'also known as Y
or Z in other areas', or such like. No need for a standard (spoken) version
just clever use of what people already speak.
Obviously for character roles dialect (accent) has to fit the character.

Andy

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language maintenance

Nice to hear from you, Andy!

There are lots of Low-Saxon-speaking actors (not only amateurs) and other
sorts of entertainers that could be trained to host programs if they haven't
been already,* also people that already act as LS-speaking radio hosts.

* (For instance, North German Radio (NDR) has the TV program series "Talk op
Platt" (www.ndr.de/tv/talkopplatt/) with a bunch of competent LS-speaking
hosts and presenters. By the way, for this program they are now preparing a
series of presentations about and in LS from all over the world, apparently
presented by Julia Westlake and Yared Dibaba (tinyurl.com/39ur7w,
tinyurl.com/2ul26f). The grapevine has it that at least Yared will come to
Seattle after a visit to Australia. He, an ethnic Oromo from Eritrea, now
living in Hamburg, introduces himself in LS in a video clip here:
tinyurl.com/2pxyrl.)

I don't see any need for all people at one station or in one program to
speak the same dialect.  The vast majority of dialects are mutually
intelligible.  No LS radio program now has teams of speakers with identical
dialects.  Some pick and choose from a large spread of dialects, such as
Radio Bremen, and only the most fervent naysayers and other types of
curmudgeons complain about that.

My point is that there would be ways of pulling this off if people wanted to
and snapped out of their purity excuse to justify their naysaying.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron
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