Please click here to leave an anniversary message (in any language you choose). You do not need to be a member of Lowlands-L to do so. In fact, we would be more than thrilled to receive messages from anyone. Click here to read what others have written so far.
What’s with this “Wren” thing?
The oldest extant version of the fable
we
are presenting here appeared in 1913 in the first volume of a two-volume anthology
of Low
Saxon folktales (Plattdeutsche
Volksmärchen “Low German Folktales”)
collected by Wilhelm Wisser (1843–1935). Read
more ...
Ruhr German
Once
Western Germany’s most industrialized and polluted
area, the Ruhr Region has lately undergone considerable
environmental restoration while Ruhr German language
and culture remain alive and well.
Language information:
Ruhr German is considered a “regiolect” of German. It is used in much of the German-administered region along River
Ruhr. This is a region in which enormous mining and industrial
complexes grew with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Besides its
official German name Ruhrgebiet (“Ruhr region”), it aquired the Ruhr German Ruhrpott (“Ruhr Pot”) in allusion to it being a melting pot and, at that time, a highly polluted
area. Through much
of the 19th
century it attracted immigrants from various parts of Europe, especially from
areas that are now parts of Poland: Upper Silesia (Silesian Ślonsk, Polish Górny Śląsk, German Oberschlesien), Masuria
(Polish Mazury, German Masuren) and Greater
Poland (PolishWielkopolska, German Großpolen). Among them were speakers of Polish dialects and dialects of Slavonic and German
Silesian. The area attracted people from surrounding, mostly rural areas as
well. Those from the north
and northwest, like those of the area itself,
spoke
mostly Westphalian Low Saxon (“Low German”), those from the south various Rhenish German dialects. Many more people
were added to this as ethnic Germans came to be displaced and resettled at
the end
of World War II. All this led to the creation of Ruhr German,
which is essentially German on a Westphalian Low Saxon substrate. As such it
ought
to
be considered
a type of “Missingsch,” though this label is rarely used for this group of language varieties. In addition,
Ruhr German has absorbed considerable influences from Low Franconian and Ripuarian
German dialects as well as from Eastern German dialects, Polish and various
sociolects (“slang”).
[Click here for
information about Missingsch.]
[Click
here for more
information about German.]
Genealogy:
Indo-European > Germanic > West > High German > German > Northwestern (on Low Saxon substrate)
Historical Lowlands language contacts: Low Saxon, Low Franconian
Please click here to leave an anniversary message (in any language you choose). You do not need to be a member of Lowlands-L to do so. In fact, we would be more than thrilled to receive messages from anyone. Click here to read what others have written so far.
What’s with this “Wren” thing?
The oldest extant version of the fable
we
are presenting here appeared in 1913 in the first volume of a two-volume anthology
of Low
Saxon folktales (Plattdeutsche
Volksmärchen “Low German Folktales”)
collected by Wilhelm Wisser (1843–1935). Read
more ...
Ruhr German
Once
Western Germany’s most industrialized and polluted
area, the Ruhr Region has lately undergone considerable
environmental restoration while Ruhr German language
and culture remain alive and well.
Language information:
Ruhr German is considered a “regiolect” of German. It is used in much of the German-administered region along River
Ruhr. This is a region in which enormous mining and industrial
complexes grew with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Besides its
official German name Ruhrgebiet (“Ruhr region”), it aquired the Ruhr German Ruhrpott (“Ruhr Pot”) in allusion to it being a melting pot and, at that time, a highly polluted
area. Through much
of the 19th
century it attracted immigrants from various parts of Europe, especially from
areas that are now parts of Poland: Upper Silesia (Silesian Ślonsk, Polish Górny Śląsk, German Oberschlesien), Masuria
(Polish Mazury, German Masuren) and Greater
Poland (PolishWielkopolska, German Großpolen). Among them were speakers of Polish dialects and dialects of Slavonic and German
Silesian. The area attracted people from surrounding, mostly rural areas as
well. Those from the north
and northwest, like those of the area itself,
spoke
mostly Westphalian Low Saxon (“Low German”), those from the south various Rhenish German dialects. Many more people
were added to this as ethnic Germans came to be displaced and resettled at
the end
of World War II. All this led to the creation of Ruhr German,
which is essentially German on a Westphalian Low Saxon substrate. As such it
ought
to
be considered
a type of “Missingsch,” though this label is rarely used for this group of language varieties. In addition,
Ruhr German has absorbed considerable influences from Low Franconian and Ripuarian
German dialects as well as from Eastern German dialects, Polish and various
sociolects (“slang”).
[Click here for
information about Missingsch.]
[Click
here for more
information about German.]
Genealogy:
Indo-European > Germanic > West > High German > German > Northwestern (on Low Saxon substrate)
Historical Lowlands language contacts: Low Saxon, Low Franconian
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