Principles of Operation (was LANGUAGE SUBTAG REQUEST FORM Erzgebirgisch)

[John Cowan]

Frank Ellermann scripsit:

> They write "probably", s/en/de/ to get a slightly
> different view.  I've lived as child in Nürnberg,
> the biggest town in Franconia today, and I loved
> their dialect.  Folks there would feel insulted
> if anybody lumps their dialect together with any
> Saxon or Bavarian dialects.  IMO there really are
> "audible" differences.   

These old tribal names, or gang names really ("the free guys", "the
short-sword guys") cut right across the Lower-Middle-Upper German divides.
East Franconian is spoken in Bavaria, but Modern Low Franconian has split
off sociolinguistically and become Dutch.  As for Saxon, the language
I'm using now has at least a historical claim to that name, and I myself
was born in the county (sans count) of the East Saxons in Nova Caesarea.
You can't draw conclusions from names alone.

-- 
You escaped them by the will-death              John Cowan
and the Way of the Black Wheel.                 cowan at ccil.org
I could not.  --Great-Souled Sam                http://www.ccil.org/~cowan