Re: s-stems in Slavic and Germanic

> > If you are going for the weird experience, learn Dutch. The
> > further you get into the language, the culture and the
> > literature, the stranger it gets, unless the natives manage to
> > throw you off the track insisting they are very international etc.
> > Check out these Scottish girls' Dutch lessons and in particular
> > the
> > hate mail they get in the comments from some Dutch speakers:
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGzwZH03QLE
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZf07Stnh-E
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfEuhAlUgkc
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceemw1LkCH0
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_zHHm5T24Q

>
> Where and how do you find stuff like that?

On Youtube, searching for 'learn Dutch' when I missed hearing the
language.

> Or more importantly, WHY do you find stuff like that (LOL)?

Like I said. But they *are* kinda cute ;-)

> Those girls' videos are the definition of "silly".

Nope, you're missing the point. There's always a point in silly, or it
wouldn't be silly. That's the way the Dutch actually talk.

BTW, to illustrate my contention that a Dutch substrate in New York
influenced standard American English (non New England, centered on
Boston, and non Southern, centered on Virginia) listen to them telling
this horribly boring story in this horrible Dutch dialect (shrill and
piercing, like American English sounds to European ears).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlZb45b2JTE
I can assure you, you hear people talking like that in Holland.

> By the way, at least one, if not both, of the
> girls is Dutch, not Scottish (the one with narrower eyes and darker
> hair).

They are sisters, and they are both Scottish.
But even some Dutch people think they're Dutch

> I actually started to learn Dutch some years ago, but lost interest
> as there was little opportunity to speak it here. But I wasn't
> looking for a weird experience.

Same thing.

> I just think it's weird that I find it sad that Old Saxon doesn't
> have a modern national representative (and one that is as
> conservative and thoroughly developed as modern High
> German). I fell in love with Old Saxon at the age of 11, in the
> library (after having discovered, but not exactly fallen in love
> with, Old English -- it's not pretty on paper like Old Saxon, nor as
> conservative especially phonetically).

Well, I was telling you it has a sister that's alive and well,
although most people don't think of it that way.


Torsten