Re: Beating the Dutch

Peter Collier scripsit:

> Since German unification was effectively brought about by the nothern state
> of Prussia, which by 1871 had already absorbed most of the other northern
> states, how did it come to pass that the standard language of Germany is the
> southern Hochdeutsch (High German), rather than some variety or other of the
> northern Neddersassisch/-d=FC=FCtsch (Low Saxon/German)?
Well, Martin Luther surely had a lot to do with that; High German had
been the language of literature for centuries, and of administration
in most of the Reich as well as the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  But in fact
the modern standard can be characterized as "High German spoken by
Low Germans"; the vocabulary and syntax are very conservative forms
of Southern German, but the phonology is much more like Northern German.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_