Talk:Low Franconian languages
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On these pages I completely miss the south low franconian language, which in germany is also known as Rheinmaaslaendisch or niederreinish and in the Netherlands and Belgium as Limburgs.
More about this language can be found at: http://taal.phileon.nl/eng/limburgish.php
Only other Germans consider these dialects Low Franconian. The "Low Franconians" and "Limburgians" themselves don't. :o)
I believe there are two reasons for this:
- In Germany the Low German dialects are seen as threatened and therefore worthy of protection: and so some of the Middle German dialects (although objectively much closer to High German) are artificially classified as Low German. Of course in the Low Countries the situation is reversed.
- In present-day Germany there is a strong (and justified) tendency to avoid any concept that might potentially lead to revanchism or irredentism. So if you equate Dutch with Low Franconian and then classify Limburgian as South Low Franconian, all the Germanic speaking people in the Low Countries simply use Dutch, right? The person who wrote this article even claimed that on the Lower Rhine all dialects had been completeley replaced by High German. What a pleasing thought! Such a clean solution! Dutch is Dutch and German is German and never the twain shall meet...
MWAK--84.27.81.59 10:19, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)
