LL-L "Humor" 2012.01.06 (03) [EN]

[Lowlands-L]

=====================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L - 06 January 2012 - Volume 03
lowlands.list at gmail.com - http://lowlands-l.net/
Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
Archive: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)
Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
=====================================================


From: "Fonken, Gael M. [foga0301 at stcloudstate.edu]" <
foga0301 at stcloudstate.edu>
 Subject: "Humor" [EN]

From: Heinrich Becke*r* <heinrich.becker at gmx.net>
Subject: LL-L "Language"

>From Heinrich Becker:

Is this a joke I got from Oregon - then it is a good one -  or does anybody
have serious informations of this matter?

*The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby
Englishwill be the official language of the European Union rather than
German, which was the other possibility. *

*As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English
spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in
plan that would become known as "Euro-English".…*

 From: R. F. Hahn <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Humor
Hi, Heinrich!
This "joke" has been sent around for many years, if not decades, now. I
guess it sprang from anti-EU sentiments.
Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA



Greetings all,

   I’m back on line listening in again.  Yes, this joke comes around the
block once and awhile… and I enjoy it every time as if I had not heard it
before. This time, I’m in the midst of reading a book about the on-going
orthography debates in Germany called *Spelling trouble?: language,
ideology and the reform of German
orthography<http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4uCRUGuEU9cC&oi=fnd&pg=PR6&dq=%22Spelling+Trouble%22&ots=WlPDYg850E&sig=qGVT8D9_k9IK2_ms3mZL8UAo4RY>
,* 2005, which puts a new light on the joke.



  I begin to wonder *what finer-grained meaning this joke might have
had*at one time
*in the lowlands* since Low Saxon and other lowlander groups exist
someplace in between English and High German.  Not sure which side of this
supposed “English-German” divide to imagine myself as a descendent of Platt
speakers from the lower Rhine-Dutch border.  Perhaps some of you know more
about the lingering issues here… Who exactly are the ones pushing for
establishing uniform spelling codes of any type. What happens to people in
the middle?



Gael Fonken
St. Cloud Minnesota, USA.
 =========================================================
Send posting submissions to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
 Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
Send commands (including "signoff lowlands-l") to
listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or lowlands.list at gmail.com
http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=118916521473498
 ==========================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20120106/bffc5218/attachment.htm>