Experience I

On a skiing holiday in the Gasteinertal I got separated from my family. My father had given me a wink to jump into the next gondola, they would follow with one of the next. In the cabin were parents with a boy a bit younger than me. I was 13, he might have been 11. As soon as we started to go uphill the boy asked his father about cable cars and got to hear a lot of interesting details. Besides that I was interested in the matter as much as the boy I found the "dialect" of father and son very interesting. By their friendly interaction I felt encouraged to add one or two own questions and though the boy stared at me I got my answer extended and interupted by "verstehst du?" after some sentences. The "verstehst du?" was added in Standard German while the rest was spoken in their "dialect". I thought they might be surprised about a girl with interest in technics. When we had reached the upper end of the cable I thanked the father and wished both of them a nice day. While leaving the cabin I heared the boy whispering: "What did she say?" And the father told him: "Well, she is speaking German and she wished us a nice day." The boy asked: "But did she understand what we were speaking?" I turned round and said: "Sure. It's great you know so much about cable cars." I had to jump out and there the conversation ended.


When my family finally came I told them about it imitating the words of the father. It gave them much fun when I said I had discovered a dialect I had never heard before. By my vague performance they had learnt it was no dialect at all. "That's Dutch, girl." laughed my father. "Nonsense," I responded, "if it was a different language I would not have understood what they said."


Well, it was Dutch and of course it is a different language. With honest respect for all Dutch people nobody would say they were talking some kind of German. Still for people who have their language roots in some other Germanic idiom Dutch might be rather simple to learn. And if this blog was not only about Germanic languages in Central Europe - because these are the ones I know a bit about - I could add Danish, Swedish, Norwegian ... are great to discover, too.  


English of course is no exception. In Europe as in many other places of the world it is omnipresent as a second language - which does not mean that anyone would speak it correctly besides the native speakers. My last English teacher used to tell us that foreigners get along very well with their kind of English if they talk to other foreigners. The confusion starts when one single English native speaker enters their group and they have to find out that what they talk is no English at all. :) 


Years later I had a similar experience working as a receptionist at a hotel. A guest required some information and while answering in English I realized he would talk in a different language. After a while he laughed and said: "Hey, it is really fun to talk like this. I understand English quite well, but I prefer to speak my own language." I agreed it was nice, but I could not make out what it was. "You do not speak Dutch, do you?" "Very close," he said. "It's Afrikaans. But I can talk in some languages you will have no access to." And so it was when he let me hear some sentences in Xhosa.

What Goscinny reached and Goethe did not

When you ask around which author is known beyond the borders of Germany you still hear the name Goethe, though not many people really have read pieces of his work. And when you ask about The Netherlands you hear nothing at all which is very injust. Hopefully I will have enough time to introduce some of their very fine writers to you.

For the today's entry we may state that Goethe's books are translated into many languages, but not into many Germanic idioms. This is something a writer with a very different style reached effortlessly: Albert Goscinny together with his congenial partner René Uderzo. Not only that the famous "Asterix" comics were translated into about 80 languages, they are partly also available in a big number of regional idioms. For the speakers of a Germanic language in central Europe beyond Dutch, Flemish and German those are:

Alemannisch
Badisch
Bayrisch
Berlinerisch
Düsseldorferisch
Fränkisch
Frysk
Hamburgisch
Hessisch
Hunsrücker Platt
Kärntnerisch
Kölsch
Lëtzebuergesch
Limburgs
Mainzerisch
Moselfränkisch
Münchnerisch
Ostfriesisch
Pfälzisch
Plattdeutsch
Ruhrdeutsch
Saarländisch
Sächsisch
Schwäbisch
Schyzerdütsch
Steirisch
Südtirolerisch
Thüringisch
Tirolerisch
Unterfränkisch
Westfälisch
Wienerisch

And you may listen yourself:

"n e i derländisch" is not always a typo ...

... you see. There are lost languages and Neiderländisch is one of them. It belongs to the Germanic* Silesian language group, nowadays only spoken by some people who still know it from their childhood - but the very most living apart from the original region. 


Quite a number of Germanic idioms are in the danger of getting extinct these days like species of animals and plants are getting extinct - or are in danger to. And with any of them our planet is loosing part of its variety. Neiderländisch is almost lost already. It was more or less erased and with it the specific culture of the district wau's reiber und neiber eiber de Auder geiht (on both sides of the river Oder). Humans may experience that as personal destiny - ethnic groups as a loss of identity. While the Neiderländer were not asked about their future wishes when they where asked to leave their home region after WWII, people nowadays have an option to decide for or against the regional idiom. 


*The Silesian language of nowadays is a Slavic language spoken mainly in a region of Poland. It is similar to Polish in grammar, but the vocabulary is influenced by German and Czech.

Raod veur't Limburgs

Now that we all have standard languages so that we finally understand each other and at least get a chance to use what even a scientist would consider a language correctly with all its patterns of orthography and grammar, there are some people who hold on to the opinion that we should not forget what we call "dialects" nowadays. In some German regions there is a real "dialect-renaissance" emotionally discussed by strong supporters and strict opponents - and neglected by a mayority of indifferents. The actively involved use scientific categories, heritage, social aspects to argument for the one or the other. And anyone of them must have a profound reason to do so.


As I said in the beginning, my approach is not scientific - it is creative. I love varieties. I value the richness of all of these "old" idioms and I am most curious about the new ones. There are people who might be happy to eat mama's guglhupf every Sunday and some of them might give you a lesson that everything needed for a cake is in this recipe: flour, milk, butter, sugar, eggs - so why try anything else made from the same ingredients. I love to taste the difference. It enriches me, it provides insight, it supports development. And if a cake is traditional in only one house you might be sure that I am interested to taste it.


So for me even in regions where only around 10% of the inhabitants still speak the former local idiom actively these 10% are most valuable inhabitants with a special approach to life in their language. Any language has certain expressions to describe common situations. And from these expressions you can learn how serious - or with how much humor - daily occurrencies are perceived and dealt with. 


"Dialects" in De Nederlands are as repelled by the standard language as in most of the German regions. Now Dutch is a very lovely  and down-to-earth language and the inhabitants of De Nederlands seem to be quite happy with it. Still the older regional varieties are in the minds of some people who want to support their continuing existence. A bigger group of dialects originally spoken in the South of De Nederlands, but also in the North-East part of  België and a small region in Germany is named "Limburgs" after the Dutch province Limburg.


It shows similarities with the Dutch, with German varieties and has its own special expressions. Fortunately there is someone taking care of this treasure. The "Raod veur't Limburgs" has a wonderful site with bunches of interesting informations on it. Try http://www.limburgsedialecten.nl/sjablonen/dialecten/index.asp?subsite=176 and let yourself inspire by the richness of these varieties and about how anyone can support ones own language with use of the internet.

Orthography

‎"Orthographie ist das Haxl, bei dem die Schullehrer das Schreiben erwischt zu haben meinen, und es also da festhalten; es hinkt dann freilich bei ihnen auf den drei übrigen Beinchen. Dudens deutsche Rechtschreibung ist das dümmste deutsche Buch; und es gibt ihrer viel dumme. Ich würde nie einen Duden in meiner Bibliothek dulden."

Heimito von Doderer

Pronunciation of Standard German

Learning a language one might want to know how to pronounce it correctly. With Standard German one has not much difficulties as it is widely pronounced as written. But as it is a constructed languaged with basics from only one German region the pronunciation gets coloured by different accents. To get deeper into this matter by examples you may inform yourself here: http://www.german-grammar.de/grammar/content/grammar_1_5.htm#chapter2

About the pronunciation of the single vocals and consonants the very perfectionate Germans love to dispute about which one would be the correct one. There is an orderly standardised pronunciation catalogue of course. But in some regions it seems not very practical, although the people might not use a dialect but only allowing themselves an accent. So for anyone from outside I would like to suggest: Just pronounce the single letters as you do in your native language. There will undoubtedly exist a region in which it is pronounced like you do. Should you just stay in a different area you can always honestly confess you would be "not from here". That is what peaceful Germans do, too. You need not get caught in the crossfire about correct pronunciation. 

There are people who pronounce "ch" in the depth of their throats, while others bring it up to their tongue. You may also hear it as "tsch", "sch" or "k". 

There are also people who dare to pronunce -ig on the end of a word as -ig and not as -ich. And for the German "r" I would like to present you the following example as the whole world knows that the Germans cannot pronounce it at all:

experiment II

wanst a ware schnaid hosd
ko's sa doß de de afschnaida schnain
oba de fadrugdn wean de ned druga kena.

playing with language

even with standard languages one can play:

Lëtzebuergesch

Considering that the language we use adds to defining our social identity my distinct interest is in regions and people that have preserved their idiom. A very fine example the inhabitants of the Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg show us. Though Lëtzebuergesch is not considered a language linguistically they hold on to it as one of three official languages (besides French and Standard German). Mainly used as a spoken language it is present in every day life. And if you want to write it - no problem! An official writing was invented in 1946 und has undergone two up-dates. (http://www.al.lu/yuppi/index.htm)


There are influences from the French and German of course, as like in many other regional languages nobody took care of creating new words for new inventions. It also is not only reduced strictly to the Groussherzogtum, but  spoken in the Belgian, French and German regions around.  To get a taste of it you may visit Paul's site: http://www.letzlearn.org/. 

experiment I

zaidlang

lang is ma d'zaid lang fiakema.
so lang wiari denga ko
hob i zaidlang ghobd,
hod's mi namalos gschmeazd
wia da schbade aisreng de kiaschblia -
eiglosd und zrukghoidn
as hoaße drama fom woama foia lem.

easd wia du einagscheind hosd
mi'm woama glanz vo deine aung
wia du mi ogriad hosd
mid deina foia schdim
hods zaidlang an nom griagd: dein
und saidem dram i fo dia.

another metrolect

Something similar to Berlin happened more Western in the town area of Köln. While surrounded by Ripuarian the inhabitants of the famous city are proud of their own idiom "Kölsch". Like Berlinerisch it is absolutely valued as a spoken language and thus in everyday use. We find texts written in Kölsch and musicians who prefer it to other languages.




As a foundation of the Kölner Stadtsparkasse the Akademie för uns kölsche Sproch provides research information, examples and news on http://www.koelsch-akademie.de/.

A "capital dialect"

It is said that the purest Standard German is spoken in the region of Hannover. May it be so. And maybe it's a historical curiosity that the standard language of the German State does not have its source in the language of its capital. But no, Berlin has developed its very own, distinct way to express itself - easily to be recognized in any other part of the Germanic language area. Originally the Berlin district, which long ago was an area with little towns and villages and only slowly grew together during centuries, would belong to a part in which Low German (also named Low Saxon) varieties are spoken. While during times of the Hanseatic League the written language was Latin, after it Berlin adopted Meißnisch as the officialese due to commercial relationships with Meißen, Dresden and Leipzig. In the 17th century when Huguenots and Jews settled in the area of the town they brought their language influence, which was little by little integrated. So the mixture of that all forms the "metrolect" Berlinerisch - nowadays pepped up by some Turkish and other non-germanic influences.