LL-L "Language varieties" 2007.03.05 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 05 March 2007 - Volume 04

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From: Wesley Parish <wes.parish at paradise.net.nz>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2007.03.04 (06) [E]

On Monday 05 March 2007 11:59, Lowlands-L List wrote:
<snip>
> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Language varieties
>
> Sandy,
>
> "Too true, mate," to use an Australianism.
<snip>
> In other words: ignorance abounds. Not surprisingly so, since imparting
> such basic knowledge, and certainly presenting diverging views, has never
> been a part of the general education curriculum even in the north.  It is
> at best limited to a (numerus clausus) select tertiary education circle of
> budding Germanists, and they ain't gonna bite the hand that feeds them.
> And Germanics departments outside the country tend to be dominated by
> German-educated faculty members that in part rely on German funding.

FWIW, I met a young German from Kiel while working as a volunteer at a local
community centre - he was also working as a volunteer.

We got talking last year at the end-of-year meal, and he mentioned his Kiel
background.  He also mentioned that there used to be a local dialect, but
that it had fallen out of use.  He thought it had fallen out of use around
the 1960s.

I supposed he would have learnt about it from his relations and friends,
because he knew nothing about it.

I suppose it would have been bordered between Danish and Niedersassisch?

Wesley Parish

----------

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

Kia ora, Wesley!  Kei te pēhea koe? It's great to hear from you again.

Kiel is essentially in Holstein, a bit south of the Danish- and
Jutish-speaking areas of Schleswig.  But it has always been somewhat
cosmopolitan, if for no other reason than being a navy homeport and thus
having residents from all over the country.

The originally language is Low Saxon.  In fact, this area from the northern
Elbe bank up to Anglia (Angeln, the erstwhile home of the Angles) used to be
known as Northern Albingia ("Land North of the Elbe"), and it it is the
earliest known homeland of the Saxon.

I wouldn't be one bit surprised if older people in Kiel didn't still speak
the language but don't advertise this.  This is what I discovered in
Hamburg.  Many people around whom I grew up suddenly "outed" themselves to
me as Low Saxon speakers once they found out about my "activism" and thus
rightly assumed that I was kindly disposed toward the language.  For decades
before I didn't even know they understood the language.  This is what I mean
by "closet language."  It was particularly during the post-war era that the
language went underground in the large cities, pretty much coinciding with
the so-called "economic miracle." Many people still haven't snapped out of
this image thing.  However, this doesn't mean that people don't still use
the language.  They tend to use it with trusted people of their age groups
and older.

E noho ra!
Reinhard/Ron
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