LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.01.23 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 25 January 2009 - Volume 03
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Dear Lowlanders,

There are several schemes in which the Low Saxon language has been divided
into dialect groups. Common to pretty much all of them is an east-west
division that more or less coincides with the former Iron Curtain, and in
addition there is a north-south division on each side. Roughly speaking,
this looks as follows:

 ·      Western:

o        Northwestern
(Jutland Peninsula, most of Lower Saxony, Groningen, Northern Drenthe)

o        Southwestern
(Westphalian [including all other Low Saxon dialects of the Netherlands],
Eastphalian)

·      Eastern:

o        Northeastern
(Mecklenburg, Western Pomerania, Eastern Pomerania [a.k.a. West Prussian,
incl. Mennonite Low Saxon], East Prussian ["Low Prussian"])

o        Southeastern
(Brandenburg)


You can see a more detailed list and also a map here:
http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/nds-info.php

While I recognize some eastern features, by and large I have a problem with
the east-west division. I do not see it as all that clear a division as it
has been made to look. In the south, the Eastphalian dialect continuum seems
to be on a continuum with the Brandenburg dialects. The well-known g > j
shift occurs among the latter a good deal farther to the east. Coming from
the Lower Elbe region in the eastern part of the northwestern range, the
neighboring Mecklenburg dialects seem very familiar and close to me,
certainly more familiar and closer than seem the West- and Eastphalian
dialects on the western side. It is only once we get into the Pomeranian and
Prussian (in today's Poland and Kaliningrad, Russia) areas that things begin
to "get weird."

It is well-known that the previously mostly West-Slavic-speaking eastern
regions came to be settled by speakers of Germanic varieties with the
Frankish-lead conquest, not only by neighboring Saxons but by German and
Dutch speakers as well, and I have once mentioned additional Scottish
immigration. By and large, language and culture of those eastern regions
show signs of West Slavic substrata, and these tend to be considered a
hallmark of Eastern Low Saxon (and Eastern German). However, there used to
be considerable numbers of Slavic speakers west of this dividing line as
well, such as in Eastern Holstein (including the Island of Fehmarn, also the
Danish island of Funen [Fyn]), the area eastward from today's Hamburg's
eastern suburbs, and some eastern parts of the Lunenburg Heath (where the
last Polabian speakers died at the end of the 18th century). Among other
things, place names are witnesses of this. This is whence Northern Low Saxon
got words like *Dööns* for 'living-room', 'parlor'. (I used to think that it
came from Polabian for 'door' [Draven dialect *dwar*], but these days I am
inclined to assume it comes from Polabian for 'courtyard' [Draven dialect *
dör*, cf. Sorbian *dwór*, Polish *podwórze*, Czech *dvůr*], thus originally
**dörnice* < **dwůrnica* '(room) by the yard', 'front room'.)

In addition, we have to consider the fact that there has been a lot of
communication and migration across the supposed east-west line.
Traditionally, speakers of Holstein, Hamburg and Mecklenburg have been in
close contact, have intermarried and are well aware of each other's
relatively insignificant dialect features. This alone ought to be assumed to
have had a softening effect on the dividing line.

Anyway, I wonder what others think about these dialectological divisions.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

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