LL-L "History" 2012.06.15 (01) [EN]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 15 June 2012 - Volume 01
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From: Utz H.Woltmann uwoltmann at gmx.de
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2012.06.16 (01) [EN]


Dear Lowlanders,

Searching for my ancestors - my maternal grandfather was born in Konkolewo
(Hauland) - I came across the German terms 'Holländer' / 'Hauländer' which
characterize the Olęder colonization in Prussia. Beginning with immigrants
from Netherlands, Friesland and Northern parts of Germany who settled on
difficult low and wet terrain and got some privileges, their villages were
called Holęndry or Olęndry, the inhabitants Olęndrzy (sing. Olęnder).

An interesting article about this I found in Wikipedia. Please read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olędrzy

Best regards

Utz H. Woltmann

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

Thanks a lot for the interesting information, Utz.

Please also consider the following information:
http://www.oledrynowotomyskie.e7.pl/oledry/ (Polish)
http://www.oledrynowotomyskie.e7.pl/oledry/de/ (German)

One of the things I find interesting is that Konkolewo (Hauland) is
situated in the Poznan (Posen) region of Poland, well south of the Baltic
coast area along which most migrants from what are now the Netherlands and
Northwestern Germany tended to congregate.

It seems to me that in the olden days (before the founding of what is now
Germany) Dutch-, Frisian- and Low-Saxon speakers tended to be lumped
together as one basic group in places farther afield, such as in France,
Scandinavia, Britain, Poland, the Baltic countries, and Russia, probably
also in Southern Africa. At least to them, the three groups seemed to have
constituted a cultural and linguistic block, especially in the absence of
national boundaries as we now know them.

Things seem to have been clearer where one group of western migrants, and
with it its language, dominated. This seems to be the case in what are now
coastal Poland and Kaliningrad (*Königsberg, **Królewiec, **Karaliaučius*)
where new Low Saxon varieties were developed on Slavic and Baltic
substrata. This perceived "cultural and linguistic" continuum begins in the
west with Eastern Holstein and fizzles out in Latvia and Estonia. Outside
today's Germany, it used to be particularly strong in what is now coastal
Poland, where Slovincians and Kashubians rubbed shoulders and eventually
also intermarried with the newcomers and learned to use their language. Low
Saxon loanwords abound in Kashubian, even more so in Slovincian. Living
west of the Kashubian area, the Slovincians and their language were
particularly strongly "Saxonized" (though not quite as much as their
Slavic-rooted, now thoroughly Germanized brethren farther west, in areas
left of today's German-Polish border). This alliance never sat well with
the Polish mainstream, especially because most Slovincians adopted
Lutheranism, as opposed to mainstream Kashubian and Polish loyalty to Roman
Catholicism. Consequently, Poland's Slovincians (who spoke Slovincian,
Polish, Low Saxon and often also German) were branded "Germans" and were
expelled from their homeland at the end of World War II. The last competent
speaker of Slovincian (a West Slavic language) died somewhere in West
Germany in the second half of the 20th century.

I think it would be very interesting to further explore old-time
perceptions and identifications of these "Dutch" or "Hollanders" several
centuries ago. Peter the Great (Пётр I) of Russia was enamored with Dutch
seafaring and ship-building technology. Did this include or exclude what
are now the eastern Netherlands and northwestern Germany (of Hanseatic
fame)? Queen Elizabeth I of England is supposed to have had at least some
passive proficiency in "Dutch." Was this "Dutch" as we define it now, or
did it include Low Saxon?

What do *you* think?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA


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