LL-L 'Language maintenance' 2007.01.11 (03) [E/LS]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 11 January 2007 - Volume 04

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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Language proficiency' 2007.01.08 (05) [E]

Beste Arend,

Du schreyvst:

En ik weet ok, der is hiel veule verleuren egaone. Mar dat ister ok in de
standaard Nederaandse en Duutse taal. En der koomt ok weer neie woorden bij.
Taal is onderhevig an veraanderingen atmit dčur sociale en culturele
invloeden.

Door hebb ‚ck all fooken wat öber schreeven, un mii dücht meist, as wenn ‚t
sick van Mol tou Mol pessimistischer an-hoyrn deyh.

Tja- door sünd ouk in miin eygen Bosst twey Seelen...

De eyn' doorvan will woll, wat ‚Platt' wiiter besteiht, an ‚t Leeben blivvt.
Door sett ick mii opp miin Oort jo ouk föör in.

Man- leeben as eyn archaische Spraak, tou ‚n praoten mit dennen Nobern, in
Hadeln or Kehdingen, man ouk in Meklenborg or in Drents or Stellingwarfs.
Denn snakkt wii net sou, as de Lüüd vöör hunnert Joahrn snakkt hebbt,
vertellt uns einen dennen annern „Stokkies" van Land un Landwertschopp, van
Huus un Hoff- sou as Du in Diin *Een bakkie geutewater*.

Wii proat' ne öber Computer-Tekknik, ne öber höghere Mathematiik or
Astrophysik- denn schull'n wii man ‚troust eyn anner Sprook bruuken, eyn van
dey, de al dennen neymodern' Kroom mit-maakt un mit-maaken mutt.

der is hiel veule verleuren egaone

Dat is eyn Deyl- man, veel leyger: door waard ‚n heyl Buelt Hintjenkroom
(nonsense) ‚rin-brocht!

Door waard Woyr' verkeyrd bruukt, wieldes sey deyl-wiis all 100 Joarn lang
verkeyrd in de Woyr-Boykers stoaht! De oarigen ‚Platt-Snackers' sünd dat
gonne wiis worrn, wieldes sey keyn Woyr-Boykers bruukt hebbt. Dat is
mennig-mool ne meyhr „miin" Spraak, dey ick as Jungkerdel van de Oul'n
leyhrt hebb. Dat piint un zeehrt, wenn ‚ck souwat hoyr'n mutt, kannst' mii
woll tou-glöben!

Veraennerung joo- man altieds sinnig un sacht, denk ick. Wo bruukt wii denn,
hotzverdoori, in uns streektaalen Woyr' as **webstee** or **Klapp-Rekner**
föör- in de Standard-Spraaken leevt wii ouk jo recht toufree'n mit de
Ingelschen _*website*_ un _*laptop*_...? Or gänzli' **Tempo-Övertreden**,
wenn wii mit' Auto tou hard foyhrt/riijd sünd? Wo schall dat föör goud ween?

Un- opp ‚t anner Siit: goude, oule Nedersaksische Woyr' waard tohoup
verkeyrd översett'. In eyn' van de an dullsten bekannte un van
Schriiverslüüd bruukte Boykers in Duutsland, *‚Der Neue Sass', *sünd op
jeydenkelte Siit ‚n poor Fehlers/fouten, un wenn Du de Mokers van dit Bouk
an-stoyten deyhst, waard's ouk noch mucksch un antert Dii ne.

Ick weyt fooken sülbst ne meyhr recht, wat ‚ck gloyven un moken schall. Mii
dücht, wat dat de streektaal'n woll ouk toukoymstig geeben waard- man denn
is dat amend keyn Öberleben, denn is dat wat Neyet, Artificielles.

In a modern language: some people, like many of us here on the list in
special, seem to live in a wonderful shell, closed to the outside world. But
my ‚alter ego' has to live in the rough truth, too.
Allerbest Greutens

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

Thanks, Arend and Jonny.

Folks, what these two have been discussing is basically the ambivalence
between wanting minority languages (in this case Low Saxon) to survive and
on the other hand feeling uncomfortable with the creation of neologisms that
are necessary if these languages be used in all spheres of life.  The
argument, especially Jonny's, is that Low Saxon simply isn't used in certain
spheres of life, that when you talk about science and technology, for
instance, you use German or Dutch, depending on on which side of the border
you happen to be living.

While I certainly appreciate the ambivalence and emotional resistance, I
would at least like to try to play the devil's advocate, a role that comes
easily especially in this case.

The facts are:

   - For a language to have long-term survival chances it must be
   self-contained, independent and "complete" (which is not the same as
   "isolated" and "pure").
      - A language that is limited to certain spheres is likely to
      disappear sooner or later. It will be wiped out by the power
language(s), if
      it doesn't wither on the vine all by itself due to self-imposed isolation
      and stunting.
      - A language that is used only among older people within limited
      contexts has the least survival chances.
      - A language whose speakers are emotionally committed to its
      survival will overcome such ambivalence.

Let's look at a few cases.

Roger recently visited the Faeroe Islands and mentioned that it was close to
a miracle that Faeroese survived after centuries of Danish rule. We might as
well extend this to Iceland and Greenland. Faeroese, Icelandic and
Greenlandic can be used in all spheres of life, even though at least higher
education used to be almost exclusively in Danish. This survival by way of
adaptation is obviously due to the speakers wanting them to be comparable to
Danish and as lasting and powerful as Danish. While there may be discussions
and even quarrels about the methodology and the finer points of terminology
creation and stylistic developments, the general consensus has been that
such expansion was necessary.

Welsh began to seriously reassert itself in the latter part of the 20th
century.  It too had to play quite a bit of catch-up.  While many people
spoke the language fluently they had difficulties discussing certain topics,
namely those they were used to discuss in English.  The Welsh media,
bolstered by public demand, expanded the range of programming topics,
including technical contents, and as a result younger people's
terminological inventories expanded and then affected those of older
speakers.

When Norman power had declined in Britain, everyone who wanted to be someone
had adopted Norman French, either completely or reserved for for certain
subject areas, namely those specialized areas that had been developed and
taught in French under Norman rule. It was only the "uneducated" masses,
especially rural communities, that had continued use of English; they had
little or no French and lacked the book learning to discuss certain
subjects. English was a threatened language in its home country then. It was
mostly thanks to activists and other committed people (interestingly lead by
many Cornishmen) that English reemerged as a national language.  Yes, it had
taken on glaring French traits, but the thing is that it survived after a
long period of dormancy in the shadow of French.

A major vehicle of the foundation of Modern Israel was the revival of Hebrew
as a religiously rooted lingua franca, thus as an ethno-spiritual symbol of
the aliyah, the much awaited and heralded return gathering from the galuth,
the diaspora. Before that it hadn't been an everyday spoken language for at
least two millenia. The revival required major lexical expansion (among many
other things), and in the wake of European-dominated adaptation its
phonology underwent extreme changes, developed into a far cry from Semitic
phonology.  However, the endeavor was a success.  Why?  Because people
wanted it to be a success.  This is being emulated in the Cornish language
movement, and time will tell if this, too, will be a success.

Things are as simple as this:

   - There are two things to choose from:
      1. to resist adaptation and expansion
      2. to embrace or at least accept adaptation and expansion
   - These choices require acceptance of the consequenses:
      1. language death
      2. a chance of language language survival

Having your cake and eat it too is simply not a choice.  In other words, if
you moan and grown about people's adaptation and expansion attempts you
shouldn't say that you want the language to survive.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron

***

'When I hear the word "pure"
I expect the sound of jack boots to follow right behind.'
                                                    (Anthony Bourdain, 2006)
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