Low German and Dutch (was Re: Aesthetics)
| From: | Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Sunday, October 21, 2007, 16:41 |
|---|
Hallo!
On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:18:45 +0200, Lars Finsen wrote:
> Northern dialects are interesting too, but in principle perhaps the
> Low German ones are dialects of Dutch and not of German? Or perhaps
> Dutch in principle is a dialect of German? There is a Dutch navy and
> army, though...
Indeed, regarding structure and all, Low German is much closer
to Dutch than to High German, and the German-Dutch border, while
being a border between two different standard languages, is almost
non-existing on the dialect level. That Dutch is considered a
separate language, and Low German a dialect of German rather than
Dutch, is due to the fact that it has its own literary standard,
and indeed that there is a Dutch army and navy.
BTW: The word _Dutch_ once meant 'German' (as it still does in
_Pennsylvania Dutch_) and is a cognate of _Deutsch_ (which is
ultimately from Germanic *theudiskaz 'of the people').
... brought to you by the Weeping Elf
Reply