Interview Interview with Swen Vincke at Gamespot

[Turjan]

I can read Dutch, because I can speak a bit "Westfälisches Platt" which is close to lower-saxon. This and English helps a lot to understand Dutch a bit.

It's a bit sad that Low German will disappear soon. My father and my mom's mother still spoke it, but nobody of the new generations. That's the blessings of standardized schools. "Don't speak like a peasant!"

 

[HiddenX]

Bu geit ink dat vanoabend, min noaber?

 

[Turjan]

Bu geit ink dat vanoabend, min noaber?

As I said, my father and my grandma spoke it. They could speak about things without anyone else in the family understanding them. So I'm not even sure about this. "How's it going tonight, my neighbor" maybe?

 

[HiddenX]

Exactly - "Wie geht es Dir/Ihnen heute Abend, mein Nachbar"

 

[Amasius]

It's a bit sad that Low German will disappear soon. My father and my mom's mother still spoke it, but nobody of the new generations. That's the blessings of standardized schools. "Don't speak like a peasant!"

Same for me, it's a shame, really.

Bu geit ink dat vanoabend, min noaber?

I'm Emsländer, this would sound here like this:
Wie geiht di datt vernabend, min naober?

 

[Turjan]

Wie geiht di datt vernabend, min naober?

That's actually closer to what my family spoke. While I'm born in Dortmund, where Plattduetsch is sometimes spoken in the outskirts, my family is from Pomorania (father's side) and Danzig (mother's side). We have a typically Westphalian name though.

 

[HiddenX]

di (with a long i) can be used (="dir"), too.

Instead of "Bu" you can say "Wu" (= Wie), too. (In fact it's a sound in between the two)

/End of cross-topic

 

[twincast]

Fact of the matter is, Dutch is a glorified German dialect protected from German standardization by country borders. One benefit of the loss of the language continuum across the border will be that I'll more than grudgingly accept its historical fluke of a status as an independent language.
Anyway, I'm from the other end of West Germanic. All I'll say is that we wouldn't say "my" at all in that particular case.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Which is why it's annoying that you cannot include Netherlands as part of Germany when you form it in Vicky2.