Bob: Niel and John b have both given you excellent explanations, so I shall only add my two-cents for what it's worth. Yes, Hoch Deutsch is what is taught in the schools. But in the north all the country and small town people speak Platt at home. In the larger cities, sadly, it is being lost to a great extent. Plattdeutsch,or more properly Niederdeutsch, is not a dialect. It is a distinct language, as Niel said, more closely related to Dutch and Danish than to Hochdeutsch. (I speak as a trained philologist.) If you have ever learned to read Chaucerian English, you could easily understand Plattdeutsch. Another point: A common mistake by non-Germans is to equate the "high" and "low" with social standing or degree of education. That is absolutely not true. They refer to the geography - low referring to the low or flat lands of the north (as in Netherlands) and high referring to the high or mountainous lands of the south. And as far as education - the old Hanse me
rchants founded schools for their children in order to teach them practical subjects long before the Reformation, whereas the rest of the country had only church schools, if any, teaching mostly theology. Keep asking those questions. We'll educate you yet. Hah! Jane
Jane Swan
jeswansong@earthlink.net
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
Hi,
Philology is not the same as sociology !!!
Times change. Today every child learns high German and is
required to go to school at least through the age of 16 or so.
In other words they can all switch to Hochdeutsch as
circumstances dictate. Back home they may well speak Platt
but even on the farm it is slowly dying out. There simply aren't
that many farms or farmers any more.
A generation or two ago education was not as prevelant as it
is today. Hochdeutsch did not quite prevail everywhere and
people used Platt most of the time. Few people went on to the
Gymnasium to become 'educated'. Those who did were
mostly well off and from a higher social stratum then their
neighbors. Exceptions prevail of course.
Parents who were concerned that their children break out of
the lower, less educated levels pushed their children to speak
Hochdeutsch. It opened more doors for them if they could do
this well. So quite often Platt was forbidden in homes were
progress and achievement was a family goal.
Not speaking proper Hochdeutsch was a sign of a lack of
education and a lower social standing. What do we think of a
hillbilly if he can't speak proper English? While Ebonics may
be a real Black language it does say something about
education if the speaker can not speak proper English,
doesn't it? A limited language certainly does express social
standing as do other outward signs of being different from
those we deem our equal. That's simply how the cookie
crumbles.
As a bit of anecdotal evidence - my wife does not speak Platt
today because her father would not allow it in his house.
There was a reason for that. He was fluent of course.
Fred
Another point: A common mistake by
non-Germans is to equate the "high" and "low" with social standing or
degree of education. That is absolutely not true. They refer to the
geography - low referring to the low or flat lands of the north (as in
Netherlands) and high referring to the high or mountainous lands of
the south. And as far as education - the old Hanse me
rchants founded schools for their children in order to teach them
practical subjects long before the Reformation, whereas the rest of
the country had only church schools, if any, teaching mostly
theology. Keep asking those questions. We'll educate you yet. Hah!
Jane
Pelican Lake Motor Coach Resort
4788 Corian Court
Naples, FL 34114
239-775-7838; 609-284-6007 (cell)
FredRump@earthlink.net