Re: Reinventing NATLANGs

From: "Michael Adams" <abrigon@...>
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 10:39 PM

> Body of literature helps, as seen by Martin Luthers
> translating
> the Bible into HochDeutsch, and then with Gutebburgs
> printers help, spread it around..
Misconcepton here: Luther didn't translate the bible into
_Hochdeutsch_ but into German in general -- he took features
from a number of dialects (as far as I know, don't quote me
on that!) and created some kind of "normalized" German. The
problem is that the German speaking area is a continuum of
dialects more or less mutually intelligible, in Luther's
times this was even more the case than today, though, where
we have regiolects rather than local dialects due to the
omnipresence of _Hochdeutsch_. The actually correct term for
what is commonly known as 'Hochdeutsch' should be
_Standarddeutsch_, since historically, 'Hochdeutsch' refers
to the Upper German dialects such as the Bavarian, Frankish
and Allemanic. Having lived in Saxony and Thuringia, Luther
thus spoke neither a Lower German nor Upper German dialect
(which are not mutually intelligible!) but a Middle German
one, and Middle German is -- well -- a 'middle' thing. As
for Luther and Hochdeutsch -- by his translation of the
Bible into German, he levelled the way for what later
emerged into the current standard. Even in Goethe's and
Schiller's time, there was no Standard Language, but the
so-called _Bühnensprache_ (stage language) caught on more
and more as well outside of theatres.

Carsten

And the guy with the types is known as _Johannes Gutenberg_
/jo.'hAn@s 'gu:tn=.bE6k/.

--
"Miranayam kepauarà naranoaris." (Kalvin nay Hobbes)
Pinena, Rayam 20, 2315 ya 06:43:33 pd

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