transcript of Tuesday's chat - 11/15/06 10:16 PM
Re: transcript of Tuesday's chat - 11/16/06 02:51 PM
Thanks, Anna; and, you were right: the reason I'd been unable to access the previous two chats was that my new computer didn't have Java installed. I hadn't been sure the download was completed, but when I went to Ms. Hall's page, voilą: there was my little sign-in box! 
Re: transcript of Tuesday's chat - 11/16/06 05:49 PM
Stick with me, kid, and you'll be a computer genius in two shakes of an abacus!
[HINT] I hope more folks will join in on future chats, if only to listen. [/HINT]
[HINT] I hope more folks will join in on future chats, if only to listen. [/HINT]
Re: transcript of Tuesday's chat - 11/16/06 06:33 PM
Dear Anna, I've been reading the transcript because it is an interestng subject and somewhere along the line you mentioned 'the Great Nothern Vowel Shift'.
That surprised me because of the parallels I suddenly saw in international language development.
We have noticed simular phenomena happening here.
F.i the a - sound which always came close to the English i - sound, has changed in the last approx 5 years to a harder opener sound.
And the ei - sound, which does not exist in English but which is somewhere between a and e , is now, specially by younger urban people spoken like a full i - sound.
This has been discuused in TV programs to see if experts could find a reason for it. So far no clear outcome.
Then on regional dialects. of which we have about 10 distinct different species and one '' frisian" up north in the country is so much of a proper language that it has to be learned to be understood. It has skandinavian aspects. Totally unreadeble for a non Friesland born person. (they all speak dutch as a school language)
Since the mid-seventees , when rural people left the countryside to find jobs in the cities and city folks were rich enough to buy the abandoned farmhouses they brought local dialect back to town with them. All of a sudden people started to say:"Doei ! "in stead of "Dag" for goodby.
This has settled in, although the Doei-sayers and Dag-sayers are moslty not the same category of people.Even now laguage sensitive persons will not use Doei! and won't easily accept Doei-sayers into their circle. Television soaps and advertising-slogans have added to the growth of some irksome language fashions. Speciallly youngsters are easily following trends such as adding a Twents flavor to their words because a popular
Twents ice skater (sorry to mention skate again) advertised a brand of peanutbutter in full dialect. Even stammering is mildly fashionable now. (Skater to blame agaiin ;-'))
So it is interesting for me to see that these developments are so universal. Though the fashion aspect it is a mainly urbain thing I guess.
That surprised me because of the parallels I suddenly saw in international language development.
We have noticed simular phenomena happening here.
F.i the a - sound which always came close to the English i - sound, has changed in the last approx 5 years to a harder opener sound.
And the ei - sound, which does not exist in English but which is somewhere between a and e , is now, specially by younger urban people spoken like a full i - sound.
This has been discuused in TV programs to see if experts could find a reason for it. So far no clear outcome.
Then on regional dialects. of which we have about 10 distinct different species and one '' frisian" up north in the country is so much of a proper language that it has to be learned to be understood. It has skandinavian aspects. Totally unreadeble for a non Friesland born person. (they all speak dutch as a school language)
Since the mid-seventees , when rural people left the countryside to find jobs in the cities and city folks were rich enough to buy the abandoned farmhouses they brought local dialect back to town with them. All of a sudden people started to say:"Doei ! "in stead of "Dag" for goodby.
This has settled in, although the Doei-sayers and Dag-sayers are moslty not the same category of people.Even now laguage sensitive persons will not use Doei! and won't easily accept Doei-sayers into their circle. Television soaps and advertising-slogans have added to the growth of some irksome language fashions. Speciallly youngsters are easily following trends such as adding a Twents flavor to their words because a popular
Twents ice skater (sorry to mention skate again) advertised a brand of peanutbutter in full dialect. Even stammering is mildly fashionable now. (Skater to blame agaiin ;-'))
So it is interesting for me to see that these developments are so universal. Though the fashion aspect it is a mainly urbain thing I guess.