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Archiver > GEN-DE > 1996-12 > 0850723374


From: "W. Fred Rump" <>
Subject: Re: German Dialects
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 08:02:54 GMT


Dan Speegle <> wrote:

>Could the same process be at work in central Europe? Seminal, or native
>dialects could survive very well in forested central Germany, even
>migrate across regions, while the language of the coastal plain and
>lower Rhine might evolve very rapidly due to trade, education, etc.

I don't know too much about the middle and southern parts of German
language changes over time but up north the major hindrance to
sameness seems to be isolation. This tended to create new strains and
new expressions almost in each settlement. If we take a look at the
Saterland and the saterlaendisch native speech we find very old Saxon
roots but the dialect or language is quite unique from other Saxon
root branches like Plattdeutsch. The area was never really integrated
into the German empire as such because the only roads were small
rivers into the bogs. It was not until modern times that roads and
railroads finally integrated the area and thereby eliminate
saterlaendisch. Frisian went through a similar process.

Yet north German or Niederdeutsch spread itself all over as the
language of commerce via the Hanseatic League. East Prussian Platt
still had many of these mannerisms in the 20th century. The city
folks changed to modern Hochdeutsch but in the country (per your
example in South America too) things did not change so quickly. People
were set in their ways and did not have as much intercourse with what
was modern or educated.

Today all that is gone of course.

Fred
W. Fred Rump
26 Warren St.
Beverly, NJ
609-386-6846 http://www.k2nesoft.com/~fre

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