--- In cybalist@..., markodegard@... wrote:
> Torsten writes:
> --
> This means that with the wide-spread use of English (and the
> consequent(?) reduced knowledge of their own language) people will
> resort to using English when communicating with other
Scandinavians.
> Knowing and understanding the other Scandinavian languages is
> considered nerdy.
> --
>
> Ah. The North-Germanic speakers don't really love their languages.
>
> We AmE speakers love funny Norsk accents. You all speak English so
> funnily nice. And just about all of you speak English. Aggh! Your
> languages are at risk!
>
> Do you remember the novel _Buddenbrooks_, where the old man of the
> family had almost switched from Low German to French, and the whole
> family with him?
>
> French almost won, but Napoleon defeated it.
They forced us to read "Buddenbrooks" in the Gymnasium, that's why I
never read it. Recently a very interesting book came out here, titled
something like "Tysk og plattysk i Danmark". According to it, Low
German ceased to be used in official documents in North German (ex-
Hanse) towns within a 20 year period in the 16th century. This
corresponds to the demise of the Hanse (last Hanse-tag) in the same
period. Luther had felt it necessary to publish the Bible in both
High and Low German versions.
When I was in Seattle they told me the same thing. Unfortunately,
musical accent has disappeared from Danish (except for a few
dialects) as in German and AmE, being replaced with a monotone drone,
so I couldn't recognize their attempts of imitating the Swedish chef
accent I was supposed to have.
I suspect (without proof) that the nerdiness of other Scandinavian
languages has to do also with recent immigration. The "New Danes" are
not particularly interested in stressing other Scandinavian
languages, so the consensus young people always build among
themselves would tend in that direction.
Torsten