LL-L "Language image" 2012.07.21 (02) [EN]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 21 July 2012 - Volume 02
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From: Roger Thijs rogerthijs at yahoo.com
Subject: LL-L Language politics

I have some thoughts about the emotional aspects of language learning.

My mother tongue was Lonerland Limburgish from a small village in Southern
Limburg. I must actually say it was my fathers' tongue, the local variant
of the municipality of Vliermaal, where we lived. My mothers' tongue was
the variant of Schalkhoven, 1 mile to the East and very different. In
Vliermaal dogs "blaf", in Schalkhoven dogs "beil". Limburgish varies
rapidly from West to East, from Low Franconian to Middle German.
My mothers' family was always joking about my Vliermaal language. As kid I
hated to be dealt with as an exotic language animal, so I started hating
Schalkhoven language.

Our shopping town was Tongeren, 7 miles to the South. The variant spoken
there was Tongerlandish Limburgish. It was considered by us people as a
very vulgar cockney, perhaps since we encountered it as the language of the
Thursday morning local farmers market. Since later, I went to middle school
in Tongeren, I not only learned some Latin, Old-Greek, Dutch, French,
German and English, I also learned Tongerlandish on the school playground
and in the streets. I finally started liking it and I still speak it when
in Tongeren.

For farther away languages, we liked Brussels Brabantish, because of the
programs with René Grassin and tante Colette on the radio. We hated Antwerp
Brabantish, we had some family over there, they had switched language from
Vliermalish to Antwerpish, they considered their metropolitan language
superior, and we hated that cultural desertion.

I cannot say much about Flemish. We just didn't understand it. As for
Dutch, we could understand Mies Bauman, we didn't understand Rudi Carrell
though, when he was still on Dutch TV. Our TV was rather tuned to "Zum
blauen Bock" or to "Erkennen Sie die Melodie".

Dutch was called "op te letter" (as one writes) while the spoken Limburgish
was called "plat". Dutch lived in a kind of symbiosis with Limburgish. It
was the written language, the cancellers' language (as Latin once was
versus "Old French"). It was the language of the parish priest and of the
school teacher (in school, in the street he spoke Limburgish). Things have
changed since then unfortunately. Nowadays parents speak some form of Dutch
with their kids. In my youth, speaking Dutch was ridiculous, comparable
with the over-correct speaking by the kid-glove Mr. Verastenhoven in the TV
Series "De Collega's". It is like a real cockney Londoner trying to
imitate the Queens' speach.

I had some contacts at Liège university at the time. They had a modern view
on languages and included language modules, even in engineering curricula.
I saw guys opting for Russian, Chinese..; etc, but virtually no one for
Dutch, the official language of 60 percent of the Belgians. When you do not
like spinach, being forced to eat it may reflect the feeling many French
speakers have against learning Dutch.

However I think it is not a local Belgium phenomenon. I found this old text
from Marc Twain about German (annexed). So I'm wondering to what extent
language aversion is felt in other language areas.

Regards,
Roger

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