Alsatian answer from LOC
Karen_Broome at spe.sony.com
Karen_Broome at spe.sony.com
Wed Feb 27 01:33:26 CET 2008
I think Alsatians would be no more likely to call their language
"Alemannic" than "Swiss German," from what I understand. Mexican Spanish
speakers would never call their language "Castilian." I think the point
previously made is still valid.
Regards,
Karen Broome
Metadata Systems Designer
Sony Pictures Entertainment
310.244.4384
ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no wrote on 02/26/2008 04:47:15 PM:
> Rebecca S. Guenther was quoted as writing:
> <<
> ... But if some may consider "Alsatian" to be an alternate name by
> which they refer to the language coded as "gsw", then we would add it.
We
> are not certain that indeed this is the case, so would ask that you give
> evidence that "Alsatian" is used by some group of people as a language
> name rather than the name of a dialect within that language.
> >>
>
> While I am not so strongly against adding "Alsatian" as an alternative
name
> for gsw as I was earlier
>
(http://www.alvestrand.no/pipermail/ietf-languages/2008-January/007360.html)
> , I stand by the argument in my third point there that the kind of
evidence
> reasonably asked for by Ms Guenther is (as far as I know) lacking.
>
> Certainly in English, "Alsatian" is not used to mean "gsw as a whole",
but
> only that part of gsw spoken in the territory of Alsace.
>
> Is the term "Alsatian" not used in the same way in other languages? Even
in
> Alsace itself, would anyone say (the equivalent in French or in Alsatian
of)
> "the Alsatian-speaking regions of Switzerland and Germany"? To my mind,
> this last question is the key one, and an analogy with Castilian is
valid
> only if the answer to it is "yes".
>
> If the answer is "no", we should not try to persuade LOC that Alsatian
means
> the same thing as gsw to anyone, but we should instead try to convince
them
> (and ourselves) that a name applied to a geographically-restricted
subset of
> a language can be acceptable as an alternative name for the language in
> these circumstances.
>
> The circumstances surrounding Alsatian differ from the normal dialect
> situation - again, as far as I can judge - in that the name Alsatian is
> used, not so much because of any linguistic difference from other forms
of
> gsw, but more as a result of political sensitivities, to distance it
from
> other forms of gsw. (Balkan analogies?) It is those sensitivities
which
> consciously restrict the name to Alsace, and a good example of them is
> provided by the French document referenced by Stéphane, which correctly
> calls Alsatian an "indigenous language of France", but never once hints
that
> it is related to German, and actually - in its tables of languages
spoken in
> France - contrasts it with "German" by which I assume it means
> non-indigenous German. Recognizing those political sensitivities - and
it
> matters not whether we agree with them - gives just a glimmer of
> justification for raising Alsatian to the level of an alternative name
for
> gsw.
>
> It is arguable whether the name "Swiss German" would pass Ms Guenther's
test
> either. In principle its situation is similar to that of Alsatian,
though
> it has a much greater degree of practical plausibility. I would see
> Alemannic as the only fully satisfactory name for gsw.
>
> Ciarán Ó Duibhín
>
>
>
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