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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Platt [was: Re: Verb moods
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References: <32D04BD9.24D9@postoffice.worldnet.att.net> <5b97qn$gdc@mips.pfalz.de> <32D8D9CC.503B@sn.nono> <32e5a16b.145758834@news.pi.net>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 21:36:55 GMT
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In article <32e5a16b.145758834@news.pi.net>,
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal <mcv@pi.net> wrote:
>On Sun, 12 Jan 1997 13:32:12 +0100, Anders Blehr <ablehr@sn.nono>
>wrote:
>>
>>All this said, I have no scientific "proof" that what they [in Hessen] 
>>were speaking was or was not Low German.  All I say, is that they called 
>>it "Platt" themselves.
>
>The "scientific" (but arbitrary) criterion is: if they say <maken>,
>then it's Low German, if they say <machen>, it's High German.
[interesting data snipped]

"Plattdeutsch" and "Niederdeutsch/Low German" are not synonymous terms.
The latter term has a--quoth Sr. Vidal--"scientific" definition while the
former is a vaguely-defined popular term.

Until the borrowing of "Dialekt" from Greek, there was no common
pan-German designation for "local dialect".  ("Mundart", a neologism, is
of even more recent vintage and less popularity.)  "Platt" is commonly
used with this meaning, but only (or mainly) in central and northern
Germany.  Southerners are now unanimous in calling their local variety
"Dialekt" (when they are not referring to it by a specific name, like
Badish, Schwaebish, or Bairisch); I don't know what terms they used before
"Dialekt" entered the language.


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
