Re: s-stems in Slavic and Germanic

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>
> > > 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 ;-)

I don't remember you saying that, but I agree for the reddish-haired one.

>
> > 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.

I meant really that their mannerisms and jokiness seemed very silly.

>
> 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

How do you know this? They certainly don't look alike. If they are
both Scottish, they have weird Scottish accents, ones that I don't
recognize. The black-haired one has very good Dutch pronunciation,
she must have lived a fairly long time in the Netherlands.

>
> > 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
>

You're right, and on other Yahoo groups and websites (conlangs,
foreign languages) I have met quite a few Dutch people who are willing
to give me more Dutch lessons and converse with me in Dutch (it's
fairly easy for me to understand even without any instruction,
although writing it is more difficult without a ready knowledge of its
vocabulary).

Andrew