LL-L "Culture" 2008.06.26 (01) [E/LS]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 26 June 2008 - Volume 01
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From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>
Subject: LL-L "Culture" 2008.06.25 (02) [E/LS]

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

> Marcus wrote the other day:
>
> Denn dor mööt wi vun utgahn, dat Selbstbild hängt kuum vun de Realität af.
> Wat een glöövt, wat een is. Wüllt man blot an de Lüüd ut Pomerode in
> Brasilien denken. De kemen ut Pommern. Aver in Brasilien weren se mank de
> Brasilianers de 'Düütschen'. Un 'Düütsche' fiert Oktoberfest, dat weet doch
> de ganze Welt. Un so hebbt de Lüüd ut Pomerode anfungen, Oktoberfest to
> fiern. Ok wenn dat in Pommern wohrschienlich bet op den hüdigen Dag noch
> keen Oktoberfest geven hett.
>
> Essentially, he says that self-identification of enclaves of transplanted
> ethnic minorities often changes due to internalizing or owning initially
> alien broad, stereotypical expectations.
>
It's extreme in transplanted minorities, but it's true for non-transplanted,
too, as I said in that post. Where I am living, you can go to Oktoberfest
the next village (Bavarian tradition), or you can choose to go to Fasching
(Bavarian again) or to Karneval (Rhenish tradition).  But try asking anybody
about Faslom. Most won't know. Faslom is the Northern German counterpart of
Fasching/Fasnacht/Karneval/Carnival. As far as I know, it is (or was
traditionally) spread over most of the Low Saxon language area. Some
villages still have Faslom, but most have lost it and few people from the
villages that lost it will know about it. Well, this loss is partly cause of
stereotypes, but mostly cause of selectiveness in the media. You are
celebrating the festivities you know. Karneval, Fasching and Oktoberfest are
covered by the media, Faslom is not. An even more annoying example is
Halloween. Children in Germany are celebrating Halloween. The media are
pushing it. We've got dozens of special days, where children can go from
door to door and get sweets, in German folklore. New Year's day, St.
Martin's day and many others, and Faslom does know going from door to door
too (well, traditionally it's eggs and Wurst for Faslom and not sweets). But
still the old customs get lost and this is compensated with American
culture.

My original point was the people of Brandenburg not keeping up their Low
Saxon heritage, cause they got told (not explicitly told, but implicitly
they adopted the message) they were "Ossis", people from Eastern Germany.
This, together with additional influence from the 3.5 million people city
Berlin, made them change their Mark-Brandenburgian language and identity to
a mixture of "outskirts of Berlin" and "German Democratic Republic" language
and identity. This is a mixture of "country thinking" and "cultural erosion
through media" (national media of the former GDR, actually). But it's not
always "country thinking" and media influence. Another example from the Low
Saxon region: The word "Moin". It was originally a greeting formula from
Frisia. I am not sure, where it originated, in Eastern or in Northern
Frisia. It is common in both Eastern Friesland plus surrounding areas and in
Schleswig-Holstein [where Northern Friesland is situated], but less so in
the area between those areas (which are not Frisian). I guess it first
spread under the Frisians and than went on to spread to the surrounding "Low
Saxon/Northern German" areas. I am living in the area between Northern and
Eastern Friesland. Saying "Moin" is quite common here. But not as common as
in Schleswig-Holstein and in the Eastern Friesland/Oldenburg area. For
example in Oldenburg or Kiel you would say "Moin" when entering a shop and
nobody would mind. In my area area you can say "Moin" too, but it would be
more common to say "Guten Tag" and if you say "Moin" the shopman won't say
anything, but at least he will notice that you used another greeting formula
than the standard one. (A Bavarian shopman maybe will react with "Woas
willst, du Saupreiß!?" ;-) ) In less formal situations (well, a visit in the
shop is not _that_ formal, but at least more formal than speaking with
people you know well), "Moin" is very common here too. It wasn't in earlier
times. In the old times (when Low Saxon was the language of the people and
of all people) the people said "Goden Dag" (or "Go'n Dag").
"Moin" didn't spread through any national attitude and not through media
(some media helped, but they weren't the driving force as with Halloween),
"Moin" was spread by cultural identity. The Northern identity. It's an weak
identity when compared to the national identity, but it exists. It's based
on common culture and common language of Northern Germany (but it's not like
many people were aware of this, it's mostly a diffuse identity). It's much
stronger at the coast than in the Southern parts of  Northern Germany. And I
think this Northern identity is responsible for the relatively good standing
of Low Saxon at the coast when compared to the South (relatively, in
absolute terms both Northern and Southern Low Saxon do very bad in
maintaining currency compared to Southern German dialects, my explanation
for this is, that Low Saxon is so different from Standard German, that it
doesn't allows to switch between "deep dialect" and "standard language"
steplessly. Bavarians can use words, spellings and grammatical constructions
more distant or less distant from the standard. Bavarian and Standard German
are able to be combined. If you combine Low Saxon and the Standard language,
it doesn't feel right. You have to use the one or the other, but cannot
combine both. Therefore the people have to learn two separate language
instead of only two registers of one language. And from reasons of
efficiency [why learn two languages, when one is enough to master all
situations?] they drop Low Saxon. Other languages, like Breton or Welsh
languages, do better, despite too being "not necessary", cause they have a
"language of its own" identity bonus. Low Saxon doesn't get this bonus,
cause the people get told, it is a dialect only. So, Low Saxon is trapped
between "too far apart from German to coexist as variants of one language"
and "too close to be fully recognized". [Well, Brandenburg Low Saxon and the
Berlin regiolect were able to be combined and that was even more deadly for
the dialect, so I could be wrong.]).
Back to the Northern identity: The Northern identity manifests in memes like
"Fischköppe" (Northerners being called, but also calling themselves "fish
heads"), or a "Rock attitude" (the Rocker subculture and Heavy Metal are
more widespread in Northern Germany than in the south of Germany, as far as
I could observe this). In metal and Rock Northern Germany has much in common
with Scandinavia. They (or "We") even identify them/our-selves with the
Vikings. Or think of Hip Hop bands like Fettes Brot or Fischmob performing
songs in Low Saxon. Like the song "Nordisch by nature". Northern identity
pure. The band Torfrock even combines Viking rock and Low Saxon. This
Northern identity is my hope (actually my only hope) for the future of Low
Saxon. If we could place Low Saxon in the media and apply some coolness to
it, there is a chance, that the carriers of the Northern identity will
re-adopt Low Saxon as an expression of their Northern identity.
Identity is the key. Switzerland is the best example. Everywhere in Germany
the dialects are declining. The latest study of the Gesellschaft für
deutsche Sprache speaks of 48 % of the Germans using dialect (they published
no numbers for single regions, but the number in the North obviously is much
lower). In Switzerland, 93 % are using dialect. It only depends on the
attitude which is shown towards "using dialect". The Swiss look on dialect
as an expression of their Swiss national  identity.
Combine the Northern identity with mass media (TV is the most important,
cause it is an "lean back medium". You have to actively _decide_ to consume
print, but you only have to lean back to consume TV. Therefore TV has the
most impact on society.) and there is a chance to save Low Saxon. Without
that, Low Saxon will disappear.

Marcus Buck
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