I will elaborate a little on Dr. Kronenberg's explanation and hope I get it
right.
Hochdeutsch is just "High German" or standard German, the textbook language,
understood by all Germans whatever dialect they may speak locally, used on
radio, etc., and very close to the language spoken in the districts around
Berlin, the capital of Prussia and then Germany, where it was the court
language. As the court language, it became the standard language for the
country. That's the German you will study in school if you take a course in
the language.
I was stationed in Bavaria, and my landlord insisted on speaking only in
High German to me, as he said I would not be understood elsewhere if he
spoke Bayerisch (Bavarian). I mentioned Bayerisch to someone when I was in
northern Germany, and he responded, "Bayerisch! Ach! Dass is nicht
Deutsch!" (Bavarian! Ach! That's not German!) Even so, when I took
student groups to a language campus in Salzburg, Austria, I was asked why it
was that I, an American, spoke German with a slight Bavarian accent.
The dialects are so different that they sometimes cannot be understood by
folks from other areas. They are one language primarily because they are
written as one language. Plattdeutsch is actually closer to Dutch than to
High German. If the Netherlands and northern Germany had ended up under one
government, Plattdeutch would probably have been considered a dialect of
Dutch instead of a dialect of German.
It is derived, so I understand, from middle (geographically speaking) German
dialects, and was the language used by Martin Luther in his translation of
the Bible. Some have said that, had Luther lived a bit further north and had
he written in Plattdeutsch, that might have become the official court
language.
"Hochdeutch" (High German) and Plattdeutsch (Low German) refer to the
elevation of the land where they were spoken, and are not an evaluation of
the language.
Roy Johnson
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 9:13 AM
Subject: Re: [WFA] Platt-Deutsch in Cole Camp, Missouri
> Hmmmmmmm
>
> O.K., to continue my linguistic education, what is Hochdeutsch?
>
> Although, in the American-German area that I grew up in
> (Wisconsin), "dummkopf" was a favorite expression for
> children (German heritage or not) to use continually against
> each other, and hopefully the effect was greater when the
> other child had no clue as to what you were telling him/her!
>
> Regards,
> Robert Lipprandt
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dr. Antje Kronenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 9:07 AM
> Subject: Re: [WFA] Platt-Deutsch in Cole Camp, Missouri
>
>
> >
> > "Du bitt'n dummboad" = "Du bist ein Dummkopf" = "You are a
> > fool". But in Platt it sounds much friendlier and not as
> > severe as in Hochdeutsch (and maybe in English).
> >
> > Antje
> >
> > __________________________________________________________________
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> > Gesendet von Yahoo! Mail - http://mail.yahoo.de
> >
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>
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