Re: Diglossia (was Re: Nur-ellen in the world of Brithenig)

Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
>
> > Date:         Mon, 11 Sep 2000 18:47:57 -0400
> > From:         Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
>
> > <despairing look>  You mean I'm taking German and I'll be able to read
> > abstruse German topology text but I won't be able to *talk* to anyone?  I
> > should've listened harder when my boyfriend made some vague mention of
> > High/Low German.
>
> Hey now, I'm sure Germans could write lucid math texts if they wanted
> to. But don't despair, I don't think you'll be able to find a Platt
> speaker who isn't bilingual in High German as well. (Unless they live
> in the Netherlands --- I think there is a small pocket there).
>
> In fact, the Standard German spoken in Northern Germany is actually
> quite Standard, because the local dialects are a different languge.
> The problem is Bavarians, Austrians and that lot, who think their
> regional variants of High German are intelligible to people who have
> learnt Standard German as a second language.
That's true, as I learned the hard way when I was in Bavaria this
summer. Of course, ich habe fur nur zwei Jahre Deutsch gelernt, so it
could have been just as much my lack of German skills as it was their
unintelligible dialect.

--
Robert