LL-L "Language promotion" 2009.12.30 (03) [EN]

Wed Dec 30 16:13:26 UTC 2009

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L O W L A N D S - L - 30 December 2009 - Volume 03
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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>
Subject: LL-L "Language promotion" 2009.12.29 (04) [EN]

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

Folks,

Mostly in Low Saxon (Low German), our Marcus and Marlou (and to a certain
extent Hannelore and I) have been brainstorming about more prominent media
presence of Low Saxon, utilizing up-to-date multimedia technology, such as
web-logging, including video blogging. If I understood him correctly, Marcus
seems to fantasize about a type of media presence that needs not be
specifically and laboriously sought out by the public and by virtue of this
attracts or recruits potential users of the language or at least makes the
language acceptable and interesting to a larger section of the public. (I'm
not sure if this is realistic since everyone must make some sort of effort
to access any type of media outlet, but perhaps Marcus meant something that
quickly turns into a household name, something that even people that are not
language activists would want to tune into because it's a place to be.) Our
Hanne cautioned the two M's, saying that an undertaking of this type and
magnitude requires a lot of careful planning, that it can't be put together
overnight, and that especially maintenance of momentum and quality is an
aspect that requires serious consideration.
Well, I view it from a very far distance, but noted two things during the
holidays that I wouldn't have seen when I first studied German some fifty
years ago.  One:  my wife bought me a Christmas CD called Weihnachts
Schlager, and one of the "hits" on it was Wedder Mol Wiehnacht.  Two:  we
attended the German service Christmas morning at St. Johannes Ev. Luth.
Kirche in Hamilton, and since I found the Predigt a bit boring, thumbed
through the hymnal which was new since the last time I had been there.  Out
of some 700 offerings, four were in what they called "Platt."  Too little,
too late?

Ed Alexander, Ontario, Canada

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From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>
 Subject: LL-L "Language promotion" 2009.12.29 (04) [EN]

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

> Subject: Language promotion
>
> Folks,
>
> Mostly in Low Saxon (Low German), our Marcus and Marlou (and to a certain
> extent Hannelore and I) have been brainstorming about more prominent media
> presence of Low Saxon, utilizing up-to-date multimedia technology, such as
> web-logging, including video blogging. If I understood him correctly, Marcus
> seems to fantasize about a type of media presence that needs not be
> specifically and laboriously sought out by the public and by virtue of this
> attracts or recruits potential users of the language or at least makes the
> language acceptable and interesting to a larger section of the public. (I'm
> not sure if this is realistic since everyone must make some sort of effort
> to access any type of media outlet, but perhaps Marcus meant something that
> quickly turns into a household name, something that even people that are not
> language activists would want to tune into because it's a place to be.) Our
> Hanne cautioned the two M's, saying that an undertaking of this type and
> magnitude requires a lot of careful planning, that it can't be put together
> overnight, and that especially maintenance of momentum and quality is an
> aspect that requires serious consideration.
>
> Honestly and personally speaking, I agree with all of them to some degree.
> I feel that such possibilities ought to be looked into but that at the same
> time any type of venture ought to be extremely well planned so as to prevent
> what in Australia is called a "fizzogh" (as in a fireworks rocket heading
> for the sky with "Fzzzzz ..." and then the disappointed public calling "Ogh
> ..." because the promising rocket just fizzled out without the expected
> bang).
>
>  That's true, but I didn't just fantasize ("fantasieren" in German has a
ring of "sillyness" or even an unhealthy mental state, I hope that
submeaning wasn't intended here ;-) I'd rather call it "musings", "food for
thought" or something like that) about some "type of media presence", but
very specifically about a TV station.

The theoreticist Marshall McLuhan has coined the term Gutenberg galaxy (<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Galaxy>). The Gutenberg galaxy is a
world in which 'print' is the most influential, the key medium. McLuhan
proposed (in 1962), that the Gutenberg galaxy was at its end. Modern
electronic mass media would become the new key medium of a new age. This new
age was later named McLuhan galaxy (a world in which TV is the key medium)
or Turing galaxy (a world in which computers/the internet are the key
medium). We are going towards the Turing galaxy but the McLuhan galaxy has
not yet ended (and TV will stay to be very influential even after the end of
the McLuhan galaxy). While the Gutenberg galaxy was never able to do much
harm to mainly unprinted languages like Low Saxon, the McLuhan galaxy
immediately was able to replace Low Saxon with German, cause TV unlike print
is spoken word.

Therefore, so I believe, a TV station is an absolute must-have, if we want
to maintain a language. At the moment Low Saxon develops centrifugal. Low
Saxon in the Netherlands develops towards Dutch, Low Saxon in Germany
develops towards German, Mennonite Low Saxon develops towards whatever is
the national language of their place of living. A common TV station would
establish a new common public and would change the development to a more
centripetal one. A development where Low Saxon dialects take other Low Saxon
dialects as a model and not foreign languages.

A TV station would be a place to advertise or to inform the interested
public about Low Saxon publications, music etc. No artist, writer or
whatever can be successful without people knowing about him. I can easily
name dozens of modern American musicians and every other German can do so
too. I doubt that most Americans can name many modern German musicians. Is
that cause Americans make better music? No, it's cause the information flow
from America to Germany is better than vice versa. Stars are never born by
word of mouth, they are made by enduring media attention. So the whole Low
Saxon cultural scene would benefit from a TV station.

And most importantly: You don't have to pay for watching TV and TV is easy!
You switch it on and lean back on your couch. For books you have to pay and
books don't "work" any more, if you are tired out after a long day and stop
to pay attention to all the squiggly little symbols. TV is still perfectly
enjoyable without having to exert your brain too much. Internet too is very
complicated to everybody not using it every day. And the computer too stops
doing anything without constant user input.

That may sound like I overemphasize the complicatedness of books or
computers, but many people are like that. I guess, most people on this list
are quite confident to use books and computers, but there are millions out
there who are not. Many people just want to push a button and passively
consume some show.

I am fully aware that a useful TV station has costs in the magnitude of over
100 Million Euro. This is, so my estimation, about 100-fold the sum of _all_
state spending in aid of Low Saxon at the moment. So we won't get a TV
station anytime soon. That's not realistic without major changes. But it's
still _necessary_ if we want Low Saxon to prosper. And it's not an undue
demand. Germany and the Netherlands both officially recognized Low Saxon as
a language and as worth of preservation. If that is not seen as "some piece
of paper we signed to appease some people", but if they _mean_ it, then they
have to invest more money.

It's sad to say, but politicians _never_ just do the things that are
"right",  they do how they please and just ask "can I get through with it?"
If they sign an international treaty that aims at protecting a language and
then do nothing to fulfil the requirements of the treaty, that's obviously
not "right". But as long as no protesters march to the town halls or
parliaments, as long as there are no trials for violating treaties, they can
get through with it.

Marcus Buck

----------

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

Marcus, "fantasize" does not necessarily connote the idea of "delusional"
German *fantasieren* has. I meant it more in the sense of "dreaming" or
"imagining".

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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