Pronunciation of 'France'

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<As far as I know, the Hannover accent is assumed to be the 'best' variety of German>

I have to agree with you on that Candy. It's strangly similar to England's and the USA with the 'North vs South accents'. For most people the Southern accents in their country are not as appealing to the ear as Northern accents. I don't know why but there must be something to explain this 'North vs South Accent' and why Northern accents generally viewed 'better' to Southern Accents.

Yes local German dialects are slowly but surely dying out quite fast to Hochdeutsch (standard German). Most cases these dialects are only used in small towns and some islands on the coast of Northern Germany. The sad truth most of these dialects only survive due to isolation. There has been attempts to promote local dialects by introducing local media programmes in areas where dialects still are in use. North of my town of Nordboren is the Friesisch speakers which also spoken in the Northern Netherlands. They have been successful preserving their unique language while embracing Hochdeutsch. Many people use them as an example to save their local dialect.

Another thing I also was interested in is Friesisch (I don't know how to translate 'Friesisch' into English) is what English would of sounded like or quite similar to it if it wasn't for the large injection of French words into English.

Can someone explain this idea?

In English it's "Friesian", and yes, it is the closest language to English. It's still not intelligible to us, as Sander proved one day by posting a song in Friesian, but we can still see the similarities. I agree that the large amount of French loan-words in English has widened a gulf between English and the other Germanic languages.

The only time Frisian is intelligible to English speakers is when you specifically contrive certain (mostly basic) constructions. The longest you can probably get is something like the famous comparison between the two: "Bread, butter and green cheese is good English and good Friese," and in Frisian "Brea, bûter, en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk." The spoken language varieties for those two are similar enough that it's likely speakers of both languages could understand the other with little difficulty.

<It's still not intelligible to us, as Sander proved one day by posting a song in Friesian,>

Who is Sander? Is he Friesian? If so in Germany or the Netherlands?

Thankyou Kirk your example was an eye opener for me. I have tried reading some Friesian text and managed pretty well especially with my knowledge of both English and German. I would think the average Dutch person would be able to read Friesian better than the average German person I Suspose. It looks pretty similar (written and spoken) to the Dutch language.

Sander is Dutch.

Although Frisian and English are not usually mutually intelligible, Scots and English are. Although some people would claim that Scots is merely an English dialect, it is officially (I think) considered to be a separate language with it's own grammar and spelling system. Note that Scots is not the language which most Scottish people use most of the time. It's also different from Scottish-Gaelic.

That is quite of interest Benjamin. So there is also a Germanic language native to the Scots? I thought the Scottish people were only of Gaelic stock. Can you give examples of this language in the form of sentences though I would love to hear a audio clip.

Here's an account of Scots from the BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/multilingual/scots.shtml Note the word 'Scots' with an arrow pointing to a picture of cattle. First the English writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson describes the people of Scotland as eaters of food suitable for horses (oats - "a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people"), and now the BBC illustrates an account of Scots with a picture of cattle. :-)

The BBC site includes recordings. Here's the address of one that can be opened in RealPlayer (allow 20 seconds for loading), along with a browser address to display the text of what the speaker said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/media/radioscotland-leith-gray-mildred_au_nb.rpm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/whereilive/edinburghandlothian/voices/transcripts.shtml?transcript=1

The transcript isn't perfect -- "bend to my will" should be "bend to your will", and I believe the "said tae her" part may be wrong too. Also if somebody can tell me what the last sentence means, I'd appreciate it -- "aw they'd a said wis [all they would have said was], "away an [on?] bile [?] yer heid [your head?]!'."

I found this recording by a man (a retired teacher) easier to understand:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/media/radioscotland-leith-fee-john_au_nb.rpm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/whereilive/edinburghandlothian/voices/transcripts.shtml?transcript=2

Johannes, let me compliment you too on how well you write English, especially for a non-native who's so young.

>...also the Great President kennedy with his famous quite 'Ich bin berliner' though I suspect President Kennedy wasn't fluent.

Kennedy couldn't speak German and relied on a speech writer who'd been educated in Germany for the German words. I believe the exact words were "Ich bin ein Berliner" with the indefinite article 'ein'. "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner." Here's a transcript of the whole speech along with RealPlayer recordings. http://www.jfklibrary.org/j062663.htm Here's one with photos, mpg3 file, and a mp3 stream: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkichbineinberliner.html

Kennedy was emphasizing that he was symbolically one of the citizens of Berlin, and apparently under those circumstances using 'ein' would not only be permissible but be especially appropriate. (That kind of subtlety in German is beyond me, but that's what I've read.) A couple of decades later, though, an urban legend arose that claims that he had made a bad mistake and by using 'ein' really said that he was a kind of pastry (short for 'Berliner Pfannkuchen'). This faulty account was published in major news media such as the New York Times and the BBC, and in countless other media outlets that get their information from those sources. You still see it on the internet often, though finally refutations of the legend are becoming more common.

a mp3 stream -- an mp3 stream

For me, 'Berliner' is a jam-filled doughnut. I've heard that it's possible in some bakeries (or used to be, at any rate) to buy them in a paper bag bearing the slogan 'Ich bin ein Berliner'. :-)

Yeah, as a humorous play on words, "Common souvenirs in Berlin depicting a doughnut covered with the inscription "Ich bin ein Berliner," which are often thought by American tourists to refer to this legend, represent little more than a play on words." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner

People of Berlin in their native costumes -- http://forum.vechta.de/events.asp?date=10.03.2006&month=3&year=2006

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