have you ever heard of Hanoverism?
This is the widespread view that Hanover is the capital of High German.
But is that really true?
I come from Northern Hesse and can hardly make friends with the supposed superiority of Hanover in terms of pronunciation - after all, we Waldeck-Frankenbergers also speak the cleanest High German.
In fact, however, Hanover is mentioned most frequently when asked where in Germany people talk most clearly and use particularly little dialect, as a representative survey has now shown.
The survey with more than 2000 participants is part of the “City Language Hanover” project at the local Leibniz University.
24 percent of those questioned thought of Hanover when it came to the cradle of High German.
As early as 1920, the philosopher Theodor Lessing had a figure explained in a satire, “because it is well known that young people in all countries who are eager to learn, when they learn the purest German wants to learn, flows together in this well-ordered and spiritually active city «.
In the project funded by the German Research Foundation, linguist François Conrad, a native of Luxembourg, and his team now want to systematically clarify whether this is really the case.
The survey is the first part of the endeavor to be completed.
Enlarge image
Equestrian statue on Ernst-August-Platz in front of the main train station in Hanover
Photo: Schöning / imago images
Next, Hanoverians should deliver samples of their art.
Pronunciation expert Conrad wants local test subjects to read texts aloud, describe pictures or combine sentence fragments.
He then compares the language data with codified standard German, as specified in the Duden.
In further sub-projects, the Hannoversche is also examined for differences to the languages of other cities, including the neighboring Braunschweig.
Initial findings already indicate that the unadulterated standard German cannot always be maintained, even in Hanover.
As elsewhere in Northern Germany, Conrad observed that in Hanover, for example, cheese is often pronounced "Kese".
Such peculiarities could also make the Hannoversche more appealing.
Because an all too pure language with no recognizable regional coloring is seen by some as boring and confusable.
And how do you talk at home?
Heartily
Yours Julia Koch
(
Feedback & suggestions?
)
Abstract
My reading recommendations this week:
Not only families, but
also numerous elderly people have acquired a "pandemic pet" since the beginning of the corona crisis, according to a survey by the US University of Michigan.
Be nice to your children, otherwise their brains will shrink:
Canadian developmental psychologists have found that those who are often exposed to outbursts of anger from their parents in childhood have less mass in certain areas of the thinking organ than their peers in a comparison group.
How important it is to make schools fit for the future
should also have become clear
to everyone
.
At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the vision of a school is currently emerging that is more than just a place where knowledge can be imparted as effectively as possible.
"Stupid goat" is an unfair abuse - against goats.
Because they are cognitively more flexible than the genetically closely related sheep, as scientists from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg have discovered.
Quiz*
1. How many dialects are spoken in Germany?
2. What was special about "Dolly" the sheep?
3. What is a Schiege?
* You can find the answers at the bottom of the newsletter.
Picture of the week
Photo: Hu Huhu / Xinhua / eyevine / laif
The Taklamakan Desert in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in northwest China is
almost as big as Germany
.
At the end of February, Chinese geophysicists explored the subsurface of the dry area and collected seismic data.
Such expeditions are only possible between October and March due to the harsh weather conditions.
Their goal is to search for natural resources such as gas and oil that are extracted in the inhospitable area.
Extreme temperature fluctuations and violent sandstorms made exploration difficult.
footnote
140,000
different types of viruses could have been identified in the human digestive tract, report researchers from the Wellcome Sanger and European Bioinformatics Institute.
More than half of these microbes detected by genetic analysis were previously unknown.
Most intestinal viruses are not pathogens, but so-called bacteriophages, which intestinal bacteria serve as host cells.
Recommendations from science
Health: Those who live in harmony with their biorhythm strengthen their immune system and can avoid serious illnesses
Health: The doctor Anna Heidbreder on healthy sleep in times of Corona
Pandemic: With the British mutant, the outbreaks in daycare centers and schools are increasing - the children carry the viruses into the families
History: Why the lessons of the Spanish flu are amazingly topical
* Quiz answers
1) Linguists speak of 16 large dialect families in Germany.
2) "Dolly cloned sheep" was the first animal in 1996 to be cloned from the cells of conspecifics.
3) Schiegen are - rare - hybrid creatures that arise from the mating of sheep and goats.
