Misplaced Pages

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39-433: Witte wieven , originating from modern Dutch Low Saxon , literally translates to "white women." These women are commonly associated with wisdom, so despite the literal translation, the interpretation of the term "witte" as meaning wise rather than white is common. In Standard Dutch, "wit" or "witte" solely denotes the color white. While the terms "wit" and "white" do not share the same linguistic root, regional pronunciations in

78-511: A Dutch-based orthography. Several long vowel shifts happened in Veluws, Urkers, Sallaans, Stellingwarfs, Drèents and in some variants of Gronings; the change occurred as the Hollandic dialect rose in prestige during the 17th century. For example, the oe [uː] changed into uu [yː] . Tweants, Eastern Achterhooks and some variants of Gronings and Drents, by contrast, retained their old vowels. Compare

117-517: A Tweants song received more than €10,000 in the annual fundraising campaign Het Glazen Huis (The Glass House). As the song received more than €17,000, Veenstra kept his promise. An increasing number of local political parties have used Low Saxon in their 2014 electoral campaigns. In 2014, a Facebook page called "Tukkers be like" gained more than 18,000 followers within a week. The page uses Twents cultural concepts and expressions in Twents. The idea of

156-622: A later stage. For instance, in French folklore, these entities are referred to as Dames blanches , directly translating to "white ladies". Another parallel can be drawn with the White Goddess , a concept argued to exist more broadly in Wales, Ireland, most of Western Europe as well as the ancient Middle East. Historically, the witte wieven are thought to be wise female herbalists and medicine healers who took care of people's physical and mental ailments. It

195-515: A song about two bikers who died in an accident, took the charts by storm, and it is now regarded a true evergreen of Dutch music. It quickly garnered them a large fan base, even in non-Low Saxon areas, such as Friesland and Limburg . They inspired many other young rock 'n' roll artists to sing in Low Saxon, who now form a subgenre of their own in the Dutch music industry, which is gradually becoming aware of

234-513: A strictly synchronic point of view, however, some linguists classify Dutch Low Saxon as belonging to the Dutch language area. Also, as a practical matter, Dutch Low Saxon, since the 17th century, has been influenced by Standard Dutch, but the Low Saxon dialects in Germany are influenced by Standard German . Recent studies have, however, shown that mutual intelligibility is not necessarily impaired and that

273-497: Is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe . However, the charter does not provide any criterion or definition for an idiom to be a minority or a regional language, and the classification stays in the hands of the national state. The preparation for the charter

312-762: Is defined as the first official language of the state. The United Kingdom has ratified the Charter in respect to (among other languages) Welsh in Wales , Scots and Gaelic in Scotland, and Irish in Northern Ireland . France , although a signatory, has been constitutionally blocked from ratifying the Charter in respect to the languages of France . The charter provides many actions state parties can take to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages. There are two levels of protection—all signatories must apply

351-458: Is increasingly being used in popular culture, marketing, and local politics. The Tweants municipality of Rijssen-Holten , for example, has officially adopted a bilingual status for their town hall desks, and customers may opt for Dutch or Low Saxon help. In 2012, a radio presenter for national broadcasting station 3FM , Michiel Veenstra from Almelo , promised to present in Tweants for an hour if

390-605: Is not unanimous. From a diachronic point of view, the Dutch Low Saxon dialects are merely the West Low German ( Northern Low Saxon and Friso-Saxon in the case of Gronings ) dialects native to areas in the Netherlands, as opposed to areas beyond the national border with Germany. Some Dutch Low Saxon dialects like Tweants show features of Westphalian , a West Low German dialect spoken in adjacent Northern Germany . From

429-474: Is often dismissed, but a 2012 study indicates it may be a useful addition in international trade communications. As of 2015, language enthusiasts attempt to start up courses for the language and culture, especially in the Tweante region. They are mostly studies aimed at the elderly but still prove to be very popular. There still is no professional attempt to promote the language into the school curriculum. Probably

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468-728: Is very similar to honoring disen, land wights and alfen in Germanic paganism . In addition, in some localities the mythological witte wieven were described directly as "Alfen" or "Alven". Jacob Grimm mentioned them in the Deutsche Mythologie (1835) as the Dutch variant of the German Weiße Frauen : "The people of Friesland, Drenthe and the Netherlands have just as much to tell of their witten wijven or juffers in hills and caverns ... though here they get mixed up with elvish personages." At first, early medieval literature described

507-487: The Low German language that are spoken in the northeastern Netherlands and are mostly, but not exclusively, written with local, unstandardised orthographies based on Standard Dutch orthography . The UNESCO Atlas of endangered languages lists the language as vulnerable. The percentage of speakers among parents dropped from 34% in 1995 to 15% in 2011. The percentage of speakers among their children dropped from 8% to 2% in

546-400: The rock 'n' roll band Normaal boldly shook all perceptions of Low Saxon and its speakers. Until then, Low Saxon was mostly restricted to traditional folklore music. Normaal openly denounced all Dutch disdain, praised farmers and local farm life and boldly used Achterhooks Low Saxon, voicing the opinion and feelings of many Dutchmen of non-Dutch-speaking origin. Their hit song "Oerend Hard",

585-544: The Charter's notion of linguistic minority. Languages that are official within regions, provinces or federal units within a State (for example Catalan in Spain ) are not classified as official languages of the State and may therefore benefit from the Charter. On the other hand, Ireland has been unable to sign the Charter on behalf of the Irish language (although a minority language) as it

624-477: The Language). Many of them were mainly interested in preserving rather than promoting the language. The prevailing tone was one of melancholy and nostalgia. Their focus was often on preserving cultural traits considered typical to speakers of the language, such as rural life and traditional practices, crafts and costumes. That merely confirmed many of the existing stereotypes about speakers of the language. Another tone

663-450: The Netherlands of the corresponding words can sound very similar. This phonetic resemblance might have contributed to the association. Color symbolism of whiteness with purity possibly play a role as well, although contemporary color symbolism tends to link wisdom to the color blue rather than white. Similar folk traditions outside the Netherlands show that the connotation of wisdom associated with "Witte wieven" might indeed have emerged at

702-718: The Netherlands, the same happened. The doe : ie/ieje/ij isogloss runs close to the Dutch border, except in Groningen , where it enters the Dutch territory. In Twente , it is present in the easternmost villages of Denekamp and Oldenzaal , but its disappearance from the rest of the region is only a relatively recent development. In the Achterhoek ( Gelderland ), dou can be found in Winterswijk and Groenlo . European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages ( ECRML )

741-483: The State Parties (thus excluding languages used by recent immigrants from other states, see immigrant languages ), which significantly differ from the majority or official language (thus excluding what the state party wishes to consider as mere local dialects of the official or majority language) and that either have a territorial basis (and are therefore traditionally spoken by populations of regions or areas within

780-449: The State) or are used by linguistic minorities within the State as a whole (thereby including such languages as Yiddish , Romani and Lemko , which are used over a wide geographic area). Some states, such as Ukraine and Sweden, have tied the status of minority language to the recognized national minorities, which are defined by ethnic, cultural and/or religious criteria, thereby circumventing

819-527: The Tweants and Sallaans equivalents: hoes : huus ("house"). In many dialects, the oe sound was preserved in some words but changed to uu in others. As a result, in Sallaans house is huus , but mouse is moes (as in Tweants). Dutch has lost the word doe "thou" and replaced it with jij , equivalent to English " ye ", originally the second person plural. In many Low Saxon dialects in

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858-435: The basis remains the same. Shortly after Second World War , linguists claimed that speaking a dialect other than the standard language would impair children's (language) learning abilities. In combination with a generally condescending attitude by the upper classes of Dutch society and the media towards speakers of Low Saxon varieties (or in fact anything different from Standard Dutch), that goaded many parents to stop passing

897-567: The charter, for example, in the United Kingdom , the Welsh language is ratified under the general Part II principles as well as the more specific Part III commitments, while the Cornish language is ratified only under Part II. Part II of the Charter details eight main principles and objectives upon which States must base their policies and legislation. They are seen as a framework for the preservation of

936-462: The genre's commercial potential. In 1996, Dutch Low Saxon was added to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Dutch provinces now receive minor funds for preserving and promoting the use of Low Saxon. A general rise in regional pride and appreciation for the Low Saxon identity made the earlier openly disdainful attitude towards Low Saxon seem to have subsided somewhat. Low Saxon

975-404: The job market. The result was a string of Dutch dialects with Low Saxon features, which were also looked down upon. As of 2014, Low Saxon is still not a part of the Dutch school curriculum. It is neither a subject nor a mode of communication. This causes a general lack of knowledge about, and appreciation for the language. Its possible role as a language of trade between the Netherlands and Germany

1014-554: The language on to their children. It also brought about a general opinion among speakers of Low Saxon that having the slightest accent, in Dutch, would reduce job opportunities and social status. Throughout the 1960s, the language decline inspired many to form dialect preservation circles and groups, such as the Tweants Kreenk vuur de Twentse Sproake (Circle for the Twents language) or the Drèents Huus van de Taol (House of

1053-437: The languages concerned. Part III details comprehensive rules, across a number of sectors, by which states agree to abide. Each language to which Part III of the Charter is applied must be named specifically by the government. States must select at least thirty-five of the undertakings in respect to each language. Many provisions contain several options, of varying degrees of stringency, one of which has to be chosen "according to

1092-409: The languages made Low Saxon be regarded a dialect of Dutch, and shifting from Low Saxon to Dutch would be relatively easy. Instead of adapting the school curriculum and guiding the children into learning Dutch as a second language and embracing the potential of the Low Saxon language, non-Dutch speaking parents were advised to speak Dutch with their children instead to increase their chances of success on

1131-599: The largest single body of work ever produced in Dutch Low Saxon is the Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages , begun in 2006 as a separate project from the German Low Saxon Misplaced Pages, which preceded it by three years. A lot of the dialects have been affected by the Hollandic expansion of the 17th century. All of them are lexically dependent on Dutch rather than German for neologisms. When written down, they use

1170-406: The long open or open-mid back rounded vowel (pronounced [ɒː] or [ɔː] , depending on the dialect) should be written as either ⟨oa⟩ or ⟨ao⟩ . That resulted in little co-operation and no nationwide coordination. Other attempts to unite the different dialect circles were met with cynicism. The conception prevailed that the dialects were too different to unite. In 1975,

1209-461: The lower level of protection to qualifying languages. Signatories may further declare that a qualifying language or languages will benefit from the higher level of protection, which lists a range of actions from which states must agree to undertake at least 35. Countries can ratify the charter in respect of its minority languages based on Part II or Part III of the charter, which contain varying principles. Countries can treat languages differently under

Witte Wieven - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-610: The page was based on the Internet meme "Bitches be like", which gained enormous popularity in 2013, and inspired many to create their own versions. The meme presents an image of a certain situation, to which a certain group would respond in a typical way. Dutch Low Saxon has long been stigmatised and kept out of schools. People of older generations may relate numerous accounts of their childhood in which contemporaries were afraid to go to school for fear of being reprimanded, or purposely ignored, for not speaking Dutch. The similarities between

1287-486: The same period. According to a 2005 study 53% indicated to speak Low Saxon or Low Saxon and Dutch at home and 71% they could speak Low Saxon in the researched area, accounting for a total of 1.6 million speakers at home and 2.15 million total, ranging from "reasonably" to "very well" in terms of proficiency. The Netherlands recognizes Dutch Low Saxon as a regional language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . The classification of Dutch Low Saxon

1326-998: The situation of each language". The areas from which these specific undertakings must be chosen are as follows: ratification: 25 January 2002 ratification: 28 June 2001 ratification: 21 September 2010 ratification: 5 November 1997 ratification: 26 August 2002 ratification: 15 November 2006 ratification: 8 September 2000 ratification: 9 November 1994 ratification: 16 September 1998 ratification: 26 April 1995 ratification: 18 November 1997 ratification: 22 June 2005 ratification: 15 February 2006 ratification: 2 May 1996 ratification: 10 November 1993 ratification: 12 February 2009 ratification 29 January 2008 ratification: 15 February 2006 ratification: 5 September 2001 ratification: 4 October 2000 ratification: 9 April 2001 ratification: 9 February 2000 ratification: 23 December 1997 ratification: 19 September 2005 Ukraine does not specify languages by name, but rather ratifies on behalf of "the languages of

1365-697: The witte wieven more like pranksters and pests. Later Christian teaching transformed the idea of a "witte wieven" into mistflarden (wisps of mist or fog): ghost witches — recharacterized as evil and to be avoided. In certain legends "Alvinne" was a ghost in a white cloak. The following places were named after witte wieven, and report witte wieven legends: In the Netherlands: Dutch Low Saxon Dutch Low Saxon ( Nederlaands Leegsaksies [ˈneːdərlaːnts ˈleːxsɑksis] or Nederlaands Nedersaksies ; Dutch : Nederlands Nedersaksisch ) are Low Saxon dialects from

1404-435: Was rather literary in nature. Though well-intended, it caused even more estrangement with younger generations. At the same time, knowledge of and appreciation for related varieties was poor, which stifled cooperation between most of the dialect preservation groups. Instead of forming an organisation to stand together and help one another to improve the status for all the different varieties, fiery discussions arose about whether

1443-437: Was said they had the talent for prophecy and looking into the future. They had a high status in the communities, and so when they died ceremonies were held at their grave sites to honour them. According to mythology , their spirits remained on earth, and they became living spirits (or elven beings) that either helped or hindered people who encountered them. They tended to reside in the burial sites or other sacred places. It

1482-523: Was thought that mist on a gravehill was the spirit of the wise woman appearing, and people would bring them offerings and ask for help. While many scholars believe Witte Wieven originated as above from honoring graves of wise women, others think the mythology of witte wieven come from part of the Germanic belief in disen , land wights , and/or alven (Dutch for "elf") for several reasons: The practice of bringing offerings and asking for help from their graves

1521-580: Was undertaken by the predecessor to the current Congress of Local and Regional Authorities , the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe because involvement of local and regional government was essential. The actual charter was written in the Parliamentary Assembly based on the Congress' Recommendations. It only applies to languages traditionally used by the nationals of

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