Re: Beating the Dutch
| From: | Peter Collier <petercollier@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, April 27, 2002, 22:36 |
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John Cowan scrobe:
| I think that "German" wasn't commonly used before the unification at all.
| "High Dutch" meant "High German" in the 17th century: King Charles II
| said he talked "High Dutch" to his horse (and French to his mistress).
| And I myself have seen a document in Dutch of the same period in a museum
| -- a "Wanted" poster -- which says that the criminal speaks "both high
| and low Dutch", which I take to mean "speaks both Dutch and German".
|
| Furthermore, the Pennsylvania Dutch are not only German, they are mostly
| Swabians -- definitely in the High German area.
Possibly a little (or completely) off topic, but I can't help wondering:
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/-düütsch (Low Saxon/German)?
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