Re: My version

--- On Sat, 2/21/09, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> From: tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>
> Subject: [tied] Re: My version
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009, 3:18 PM
> > > Until the mid 19th century half the population of
> > > Copenhagen spoke
> > > German; that changed with Schleswig wars.
> >
> > Low German from the Hansa days? Or High German as a
> prestige
> > language?
>
> I came across a book 'Low German and High German in
> Denmark' vel sim.
> some years back. Seems the German-speaking population in
> Copenhagen
> switched high-status language at appr. the same time the
> cities of the
> collapsing Hanse switched from Low German to High German in
> official
> documents, within a few decades in the 17th century.
> Artisans from
> Denmark participated in the German system of migrant
> apprenticeship,
> apprentices spent some years on the road in Germany,
> seeking
> apprenticeships with artisans in Germany. The Copenhagen
> administration was divided into a Danish part dealing with
> Denmark and
> Norway, and a German part dealing with the duchies
> Slesvig-Holstein
> and the abroad. The domain of the Danish language included
> the navy,
> that of the German language the army, and there were
> constant
> administrative squabbles between. This kept the dividing
> line between
> the two languages distinct, as opposed to eg. Sweden, which
> had
> numerous 'overseas' possessions (Finland, Estonia,
> Livonia,
> Pommerania) from which the administration was drawn.
>
>
> Torsten

So, in the Virgin Islands, the administration spoke German? I've read that until the mid-1800s or so, the Black population there spoke Dutch and then began to switch to English --after abolition of slavery I suppose.
But a German-speaking army and a Danish-speaking navy. That's surreal. Did they ever invade one another? ;p