LL-L "Literature" 2008.08.17 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 17 August 2008 - Volume 06
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Literature" 2008.08.16 (01) [E]

I'm very pleased to learn that Aly Freije won this Prize, also because she
was my teacher of a Drenthe Low Saxon poetry and prose course for a season
last year. Arend Victorie was in a parallell group, but we met once when I
couldn't make it in my own group.

By the way: the funny thing was that Aly spoke Dutch to us all the time,
not Low Saxon. She didn't write much in Low Saxon at that time, although
she showed us one or two of her poems in Groningen LS, but wrote mostly
poetry in Dutch. I wouldn't be surprised if she has been inspired by our
group of beginning LS writers to do more work in that language herself.

I also wonder whether it is a coincidence that of the three Dutch winners
of the Freudenthal Prize, two -namely Aly Freije and Jan Glas- were frome
Groningen, and the other one -Henk Krosenbrink- from Winterswijk.

The Groningen Low Saxon variety is most closely related to the Northern
Low Saxon of Germany, so prabably more easily to follow by German Low
Saxon speakers.
And Winterswijk, which happens to be my place of birth, is bordering at
three sides to Germany, its dialect being more akin with those of the West
Münsterland and other German regions than with most other LS varieties in
the Netherlands.

Normally I write myself in a South Drenthe Low Saxon variety, but might I
ever try to compete for the Freudenthal Prize, I'd maybe better do that in
the dialect of my home town Winterswijk ;-)

Anyway, great news about Aly...

Ingmar

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

Dear Lowlanders,

Let me just briefly recap in English what has been transpiring between
Arend
and me in Low Saxon in this thread.

Arend informed us that this year another writer in the Netherlands won the
Freudenthal Prize, the currently most prestigious and inclusive Low Saxon
literature prize.

This year's winner is Aly Freije who writes in Groningen Low Saxon and also
teaches writing (apparently has been a teacher of our Arend and Ingmar).
Even though I have not yet read the winning work, I know of Aly Freije and
have read some other works, and I can but agree that she is a most worthy
addition to the list of winners.

(http://lowlands-l.net/plattewelt/freudenthal.htm)

Aside from a long list of winners in Germany (beginning in 1957), there are
now three winners in the Netherlands, one in England and one in the USA. At
least two winners are members of Lowlands-L.

As a member of the Freudenthal Society I am happy and proud about the prize
committee's atypically international approach, something that I believe the
survival of the language requires.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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

Thanks, Ingmar.

I understand that Aly Freije sees herself basically as a
*belles-lettres*writing skills instructor, though with some Eastern
Netherlands emphasis.
Perhaps that's why she uses Dutch a lot.

I'm not sure specifically about Münsterland right now, but as far as I know,
writers of Westphalian dialects (as well as those of Eastphalian dialects) *
have* won the prize.

As you know, dialect diversity is considerable in Low Saxon, and in writing
it appears even more diverse than it is, due to the jumble of spelling
"systems" (and I use this word very loosely) and the absence of any sort of
systematic standard for all. Add to this Dutch influences on the Netherlands
side, German influences on the German side, Frisian influences in formerly
Frisian-speaking regions, Danish-Jutish influences in the very north, Slavic
influences in the east, English influences in North America, and all sorts
of other influences in the case of Mennonite Low Saxon, and you get quite an
array. For this reason, as I found out when I served on the committee, many
writers, not only those in the Netherlands, add German glosses to their
submissions. (Some even go as far as adding an appendix with German
translations.) This is what I would call "committee-friendly".

(I can imagine that this situation is similar to including Mainland, Island
and Ulster varieties in Scots literature contests, where English glossing
might be required at times, especially in the case of Scandinavian elements
in Shetlandic.)

Tradition has it that Aly Freije will be serving on next year's prize
committee. The more international the contest becomes the more open-minded
and educated the standing committee becomes. I think this will be good for
the language and its literature, and I also believe that participants from
the Netherlands are helping to raise the bar. Very importantly also is that
it helps to expand and solidify the community.

So let's keep on keeping on!

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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