LL-L "Culture" 2011.06.21 (04) [EN]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 21 June 2011 - Volume 04
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. roger.thijs at euro-support.be
Subject: LL-L "Culture" 2011.06.21 (02) [EN]

Today and yesterday I was for a customer in Saarbrücken.
Yesterday at noon I had some free time and I used the opportunity to cross
the border and have a short visit to Forbach in France, just a few miles
South.
Forbach reputedly still is in in the Rheinfränkisch (Lothringisch) regional
language area.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinfränkisch
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbach_(Moselle)

A total view on Franconian languages is at:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fränkische_Sprachen
I wunder whether this map makes sense - except for an element of the name -
since it combines Low German with Middle German.

I toured the main streets downtown Forbach:
no Rheinfränkisch, no German, only French I heard.
I toured the restaurants of Forbach: all "petite restauration" and
"restauration rapide" restaurants were kebab eateries.
I needed to have a check of my French Orange GSM: exept for myself, in the
Orange shop I saw only North-African looking staff and customers.

A bit of history: the area originally belonged to Germany.
A large part of Lothringen (the "3 bishoprics", including Metz) became
French in 1648 (Treaty of Westphalia).
Some borderline corrections were done in 1815 (Vienna treaty)
The Northen area became German in 1871.
Cultural cleaning followed after the take-over.
The Northen area became French in 1914.
Cultural cleaning followed after the take-over.
The Northen area was occupied by Germany in 1940
Cultural cleaning followed after the take-over
The Northen area became French again in 1945.
Cultural cleaning followed after the take-over.
This was followed by a strong immigration from the French colonies.

Although I still have some local Lothringish language stuff inhouse, in the
main town Forbach nothing of that language is visible nor audible.
The only German I saw were German looking names on the shields of some
lawyers and some physicans.

On the overside of the border, in Saarbrücken, the plant with about 1000
workers I visited had no French personnel.

When returning home today in the late afternoon through the Grand Duchy, the
motoway A13 was blocked and my GPS deviated me North from Schengen-Perl to
Remich, and from there over local roads to the Luxemburg Ring.
Name shields of the municipalities are in French with, in small characters,
a subscript with the Lëtzebuergish version. Nowhere a single word of German.
Before leaving the Grand Duchy, I stopped in Capellen (clearly for a full
gas filling primarely), had some snacks and did some shopping. Everywhere I
spoke German, everywhere the replies I got were French only.

So clearly exclusive language use is part of the cultural behaviour.

Regards,
Roger

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