LL-L "Language varieties" 2007.12.29 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  28 December 2007 - Volume 04
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Hi, Ben!

Are you back in Arizona or still (or again) in Mexico? I hope you had nice
Christmas.

You asked:

What lowlands dialect(s)/language(s) would be spoken down around Brunswick?

That would be an Eastphalian Low Saxon (locally *Oostföelsch*) dialect, if
I'm not mistaken.

Eastphalian dialects are spoken primarily in the southeastern part of Lower
Saxony and in Saxony-Anhalt. Other major cities in which Eastphalian is
traditionally spoken are Göttingen, Hanover and Hildesheim.

The local Low Saxon name of Brunswick is *Bronswiek* (German *Braunschweig*
).

Brunswick is an old and historically important city, especially as far as
its history as an administrative center and international connections
between its nobility and various European royal houses are concerned, which
includes the British royals. It's hoity-toity historical role as well as
it's proximity to the traditionally (Central)-German-speaking region may be
factors in an apparently stronger-than-average decline of the original
language (perhaps stronger reluctance to appear "disloyal" as Germans now
that Low Saxon is officially a separate language?).

Several southern dialects of Eastphalian and Westphalian have become extinct
in recent decades. This has been observed (and is also mentioned in the Low
Saxon (Germany) Wikipedia), among other sources, and it is my own experience
as well. On the whole, Eastphalian language loyalty is fairly weak, and
language activism is often viewed with suspicion and disapproval, especially
when it is interpreted as being "ramrodding" committed by Northerners, i.e.
"outsiders.".

Eastphalian varieties have some rather distinctive and interesting features.
For example, the first two singular pronouns have consistent *-k* in the
objective cases:

     Eastph.  |  N. L. Saxon
1   ik/ek - mik/mek  |  ik - mi
2   du - dik/dek  |  du - di
refl.: sik/sek  |  sik

Some of the dialects have /ui/ or /iu/ where Northern Low Saxon has /ü/.
This may be a case of retention of early-stage umlauting.

When you're in and around Brunswick, you're getting dangerously close ;-) to
our Gabriele's stomping ground as well as to the Harz Mountains where
there's a lot of broomstick traffic during Halloween-season international
witches' conventions on Mount Brocken, the highest peak. In any event, you'd
be well advised to be ready to duck when you visit "that general area over
there" (as George Bush Father would say), for there may be all manner of
flying objects, peanuts being the least to worry about.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

P.S.:
> I just recently rediscovered a CD from the Luftwaffenmusikkorps. It's
> old "German" marches, one of which I heard on a History Channel show
> about the Nazis! YeeYoishch!

What's the matter with you, son?! Anything that happened in Mexico? You're
scaring me.

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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties"

Beste Ben,

You wrote:
> I just recently rediscovered a CD from the Luftwaffenmusikkorps. It's
> old "German" marches, one of which I heard on a History Channel show
> about the Nazis! YeeYoishch! Anyway, one of the marches was called
> "Herzog von Braunshweig". I looked up Braunschweig on the godsend that
> is http://www.wikipedia.org <http://www.wikipedia.org/>, and it said
> that that area is in the Lowlands of northern germany in the southeast
> of Lower Saxony State. Hence came my question. What lowlands
> dialect(s)/language(s) would be spoken down around Brunswick?

Talking 'bout Nazis, guess they didn't talk so much Platt (I could be
wrong), even though the Volkswagen headquarters are in Wolfsburg, which
is only 25 km northeast of Braunschweig:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Nazi_Volkswagen.jpg

The car was then called "KdF-Wagen" = "Kraft durch Freude - Wagen" =
"Strength through Joy - car". More info here:

http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/33523/sample/9780521833523ws.pdf

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx
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