LL-L "Language politics" 2007.10.07 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  07 October 2007 - Volume 04
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2007.10.05 (01) [E]

> From:  jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
> Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2007.10.04 (02) [E/German]

> 1st: No money!
> 2nd: No teachers!
> 3d: No space [...]
> 4th: No pupils! [...]

Ah, you sound a lovely death knell for your language, which any goth
would be proud of! Perhaps, Jonny, this is what you will be remembered
for.

> Low Saxon as a luxury good: yes. But Low Saxon in rivalry to vital
> necessities: no!
>
> Hopeless!

But maybe you missed out a "No":

5th: No Jonny!

Because you just seem to complain, throw your hands up in despair, and
do nothing about it.

I always thought one of the worst things about the Scots situation was
that there were plenty of old books in Scots but nobody was even aware
of them. The result? scotstext.org.

However, you (and Gabriele) seem to me always to put the priority not on
having the language taught but on preserving all the dialects as they
are. I agree that this is hopeless, but its only your lack of realism
that makes it an issue. Languages, and even more so their dialects,
always change, whether they're written or not, whether money is poured
into them or not, whether they have billions of speakers or not, whether
they have an academy devoted to preserving them or not. Does the
Académie française come anywhere near to preserving anything like their
perceived language standard for French? Not!

So even if you feel your role is merely goading other people into taking
action about the language situation, you have to offer them realistic
goals. Language change at any level is a scientific phenomenon, and
language preservation is like trying to abolish gravity. You can go on a
mailing list and bemoan all the injuries and deaths caused by gravity,
but all we can do about that is implement health and safety practices,
we can't actually make falling a thing of the past!

It doesn't matter whether it's Welsh, Cornish, Hebrew, English,
Icelandic, Low Saxon or even Esperanto, language constancy is something
that just doesn't happen.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

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From: "Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc." <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L "Language death"

One more for the list of dying languages,

"We have our own special dialect here — people say it's the oldest language
in Sweden," said Ms. Kalstrom, when we met over a dinner of spicy crayfish
bisque and buttery new potatoes at Friggars Krog (46-498-22-68-80;
www.friggarskrog.se), one of the island's few restaurants. "But the young
people are moving out and the language is disappearing," she said. "I don't
think the next generation will even know it."

It concerns the island of Faro:
On a map, Faro looks as though it snapped off the northern tip of Gotland
and is poised to float off to sea. But from my vantage point, over the
handlebars of a bicycle, Faro looked more like Storybook Hollow. The land is
flat and verdant. It is windswept and rocky along the western edge, soft and
sandy on the eastern coastline, with black-and-white cows grazing in lush
meadows along the Baltic Sea.

quoted from url:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/travel/07cultured.html?8dpc
Regards,
Roger

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

Thanks bunches for that, Roger!

The language of the Swedish Isle of Fårö and of the mainland of the larger
island Gotland is Gutnish (Swedish gutniska or gutamål). The language is
severely threatened, the conservative Fårö dialect (native faroymal) even
more so than the more innovative Gotland dialects (native *gutemal*).
Gutnish, especially Old Gutnish (mostly known from runic inscriptions), has
features that suggest a direct link with Gothic.

The speedy decline of Dalecarlian, Gutnish, Jamtlandic and Scanian may be in
large part attributable to Sweden's language politics and the attitudes on
which they are based. Protection and support of non-Germanic home-grown
languages have been lukewarm at least, such as in the case of the Sami
languages, Finnish, and Torne Valley Finnish (meänkieli). The imported
languages Romany and Yiddish have been officially recognized as minority
languages of the "historical" type (whatever that means, possibly a barrier
to demands for greatly represented "late-comers" like Croatian, Kurdish,
Tamazight, Tigrinya, Turkish, etc.).

However, the Swedish government has been silent and unbending when it comes
to recognition claims on behalf of North Germanic languages. The only
movement I have noticed of late (supposedly under pressure from the
Languages Charter crowd) is a "consideration" phase regarding Dalecarlian (~
Elfdalian, native *övdalsk ~ **övdalską*, Swedish ä*lvdalsmål ~ **älvdalska*)
of the northern part of the Dalarna region, a language that is quite
incomprehensible to Swedish speakers.

From a typological point of view, Scanian (skånska, Danish skånsk), spoken
on the southernmost tip of Sweden, if not a language in its own right, would
be, rather than a Swedish one, a Danish dialect group (to which also the
dialect of the Danish Isle of Bornholm belongs). This, of course, has never
sat right with the Swedish government, especially considering the area's
proximity to Denmark and the fact that it used to belong to Denmark and was
fought over for a long time.

Jamtlandish ~ Jamtlandic (native and Norwegian jamska, Swedish j*ämska*), if
not a separate language, ought to be counted as a Norwegian dialect group
rather than a Swedish one. Most importantly, its features are West
Scandinavian like non-Danish-based Norwegian dialects, while Swedish is an
East Scandinavian language. However, Jamtland (Swedish J*ämtland*), too, was
a prize Sweden won at one time, and recognizing its "otherness" is
symbolically not conducive to full integration. (more:
lowlands-l.net/anniversary/jamska-info.php)

These languages would be in better shape had they been recognized, protected
and supported, which is just one of Europe's many examples of language death
due to nationalistic fear of diversity.

A similar case example may be that of Northumbrian in Northern English on
the Scottish border. Both Northumbrian and Scots descended from Old
Northumbrian and they share a lot. However, Modern Northumbrian is spoken on
the English side of the border and is considered an English dialect group. I
am pretty sure that it would have been counted as a Scots dialect group
(possible an extension of the Borders group) had it been on the Scottish
side of the border. Of course, English education and exposure to English
media greatly contributed to English influences and mindsets rather than to
Scottish influences and mindsets ... And so the story goes ... the
storiesgo ... Think of Zeelandic vs Western Flemish, or Low Saxon in
Germany vs in
the Netherlands ... and ... and ...

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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