LL-L 'Grammar' 2007.02.07 (08) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

=======================================================================

 L O W L A N D S - L * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226

 http://www.lowlands-l.net * lowlands.list at gmail.com

 Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/rules.php

 Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org - lowlands.list at gmail.com

 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.]

 Administration: lowlands.list at gmail.com or sassisch at yahoo.com


 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)

=======================================================================

L O W L A N D S - L - 06 February 2007 - Volume 08

 ========================================================================

From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Grammar' 2007.02.06 (13) [E]

Dear Sandy,

you wrote:

But I do include Mathias in this sorry lot, and you Jonny, and myself!
Surely no generation passes on its language to the next unchanged.

Surely there's no such language as standard German, and surely if there
is, it'll soon be obsolete!

Isn't it true that you need to have up-to-date language books to learn
from? I don't think it's just the teaching methods that have changed
between the old "Teach Yourself" books and the new ones - it's also the
languages themselves that have changed. You can learn dead languages
from the classics - Sweet's Anglo-Saxon, Gordon's Old Norse, Wright's
Gothic and so on - but this doesn't work for living languages.

But- if there isn't any standard- what shall I hand down for example to my
children? What about schools which examine their pupils in grammar,
spelling, pronunciation? Should they perhaps stop it?
A language isn't a language whithout rules.

I'm born exactly 200 years later than Goethe, but I dare to guess that 98%
of his grammar still is used in Standard German.
That means: 2% have been changed within ~250 years, that is 0,008% a year-
just as grammar is concerned.
All of Goethes writing still can be understood (only as far as his language
is concerned, not the intellectual contents) by a person of average
education.

The famous German physician, writer and philosopher G. A. Lichtenberg, a
contemporary of Goethe, even made a disposal that his words never should be
changed by later generations of people, otherwise they would be comdemned
... ;-) As far as I could watch today's writers (in magazines, books etc.
about his person or works) still don't.

All this of course is different with the vocabulary of a language.

Greutens/Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm

•

==============================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.

*********************************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20070207/76be83b4/attachment.htm>