Re: Demotic/Koine/Prakit

BP Jonsson scripsit:

> IME *speakers* of Standard German are rare in any ethnic/religious
> group.  Most would be actors or news readers.  There is more like a
> continuum, with very few being 100% acrolectal.  Some 20% local color is
> normal.
Sure.  I hesitated a while before inserting "standard or regional", and
probably should have said "standard-to-regional".  Nevertheless, and
without exact knowledge, I am willing to bet that the German spoken by
Jews ran closer to the standard than that of their neighbors, simply
*because* they were isolated from the mainstream population.

My mother, whose family had pretensions to social superiority over the
surrounding population, spoke a rather abnormally standard version
of German, which turned out to be useful when she moved to the U.S.
and became a teacher of German.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
       I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin