What I had to say
- Today is a wedding-planning day. We may have found our ceremony location! Now I'm burying myself in wedding & honeymoon-roadtrip books. :) [ 5:27 PM]
- According to http://t.co/QV1SzdY "the groom will be about as much use as a chocolate teapot" by the time the ceremony's about to start. ;) [ 6:56 PM]
- Am I allowed to get married if I'm still giggling over these "STD cards" we're supposed to give out? #iamtwelve [ 7:31 PM]
- #didyouknow it's not possible to have a legally binding *outdoor* wedding ceremony in England or Wales? How weird. [ 9:34 PM]
Conversations I participated in
- @DeutscherSpatz said: Fukushima: Ganz héich Radioaktivitéit am Mierwaasser gemooss http://bit.ly/fu7B8H [11:22 AM]
- @I said: @DeutscherSpatz Warum gibt es ein Akut auf einige Wörter? #deutschlernen #de [ 9:16 AM]
- @DeutscherSpatz said: Fukushima: Ganz héich Radioaktivitéit am Mierwaasser gemooss http://bit.ly/fu7B8H [11:22 AM]
- @I said: @DeutscherSpatz Klar muss ich meinen morgendlichen Kaffee trinken. ;) #deutschlernen #de (Korrektur willkommen) [ 9:23 AM]
3 comments:
Ganz héich Radioaktivitéit am Mierwaasser gemooss is Plattdeutsch; the éi indicates a borrowed ä. Heich, without accent, is the Scots word for 'high' and is cognate to it; it's kind of cool that in Scots heich and laich 'low' rhyme.
I commented on Quaker-type weddings in California, but the comment vanished somehow. Anyway, you want Section 307 of the California Family Code (search on the page for 307).
I'm going to have to read up on Plattdeutsch. It sounds interesting! Do you know anything about its socio-linguistic acceptance? Is it just what people in northern German speak, or is it a stigmatized dialect, or what?
I don't know what happened to your other comment -- that's really weird. Anyhow, thanks for pointing me to the right section of the California code. I'd found something else marriage-related in the 400's, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.
(I apologize for the length of this comment, for I had not time to make it short.)
Well, as in most of Europe, there is Platt proper and there is Standard German with a Platt accent. (Standard German itself is really High German with a light Platt accent already!) The first is being rapidly replaced by the second, especially in the cities.
For example, Berlin speaks only Standard German, but with Platt features like wat, dat for was, das/dass. Older people in the surrounding countryside may still speak East Platt, though.
There's probably has the usual level of stigma and ignorance, but there's literature written in it, too. A standard written variety used to exist, and was used by the Hanseatic League. There's no standard written form today, though.
The same language is also spoken along with Dutch in the Western Netherlands.
If you want to look at a bit of Platt in linguistic context, here are links to the Brothers Grimm story "The Fisherman And His Wife" in English, Scots (scroll down), Dutch, Plattdeutsch (as the Grimms collected it), Standard German, and a Southern U.S. cultural translation. And here are the opening lines of each version (the Platt version is the most forthright about the "filthy shack"!):
Once upon a time there were a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a filthy shack near the sea. Every day the fisherman went out fishing, and he fished, and he fished. Once he was sitting there fishing and looking into the clear water, and he sat, and he sat. Then his hook went to the bottom, deep down, and when he pulled it out, he had caught a large flounder.
Thare wis ance a fisher an his wife that steyed thegither ablo a cowpit chantie aneist the sea. Ilka day the fisher gaed til the sea for tae fish, an he fisht an he fisht. Ance he sat fishin an glowerin intil the clear watter, he sat an he sat. Syne the line gaed tae grund, deep doun, an as he heezed it oot, he heezed oot a muckle rodden fleuk.
Er was eens een visser en z'n vrouw, die zo arm waren, dat ze alleen maar in een pot konden wonen, vlak aan zee. De visser ging elke dag hengelen; en dan hengelde hij en hengelde hij maar. Zo zat hij ook eens bij zijn hengel en keek steeds in 't blanke water, en hij keek en keek. Daar dook de dobber diep onder, en toen hij 'm ophaalde, had hij een grote bot.
Daar was mal eens een Fischer un siine Fru, de waanten tosamen in’ n Pispott, dicht an de See – un de Fischer ging alle Dage hen un angelt, un ging he hen lange Tid. Daar satt he eens an de See bi de Angel un sach in dat blanke Water, un he sach ümmer na de Angel – daar ging de Angel to Grun’n, deep unner, un as he se heruttreckt so haalt he eenen groten Butt herut.
Es war einmal ein Fischer und seine Frau, die wohnten zusammen in einer kleinen Fischerhütte, dicht an der See, und der Fischer ging alle Tage hin und angelte; und er angelte und angelte. So saß er auch einmal mit seiner Angel und sah immer in das klare Wasser hinein; und so saß er nun und saß. Da ging die Angel auf den Grund, tief hinunter, und als er sie heraufholte, da holte er einen großen Butt heraus.
One afternoon a poor man was fishing in the creek not far from the tarpaper shack he shared with his wife. He had caught a good string of fish - enough for supper and breakfast too, but since the sun had not quite set, he cast his line just once more. And he got a bite! And reeled in a small, colorful fish unlike any he'd ever seen before.
Post a Comment