LL-L 'Orthography' 2007.02.02 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 02 February 2007 - Volume 01

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From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Orthography' 2007.02.01 (03) [E]

Karl-Heinz wrote:
>For those who are learning Standard-German: You have the choice between
>...
>2. a dative construction: „dem Vogel seine Hochzeit"
>(Pretty often used in all German varieties, I think also in Lowlands
languages, do you say: "den Vogel sien(e) Hochtied" in LS >and "de[n] vogel
zijn bruiloft" in D?)

But no! This is not a correct, "standard" German form at all - it is a wrong
construction that some people use, and considered quite "inferior".

>For me a word order with the genetive in front looks best. Genitive is
hardly used in colloquial German
>(I don't know  any (real) German dialect which uses the genitive), and this
is probably why in written
>German the genitive is dying, hence we say "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein
Tod". And so do the
>compound words: they replace genitives.

But "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod" is a sarcastic book title, designed
to make you wince, and the book itself explains why this construction is
completely wrong in standard German! It is correct in LS ("Herrn Pastorn sin
Kauh"), but never in German.

Is Hessian not a "real dialect", then? They use the genitive even for proper
names! For example, somebody named Alfons Heppe would be "Heppes Alf" in
Hessian. Reinhard Hahn would be "Hahns Reinhard". And so on, you get the
picture.

It's "Die Vogelhochzeit" and not "Des Vogels Hochzeit" because it doesn't
mean "The bird's wedding" at all, but "A wedding among birds".

Gabriele Kahn
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