Dear Jacques, true, true.... but rest assured that "Mom always wins"! The language your mother ingrains in you as a babe will become your mothertongue.... irregardless of politics. You'll agree that language is a living thing...it cannot be dictated .... it develops, grows and changes at a natural pace, disregarding borders or dictators. And so it is with a died-in-the-wool Alsatian..... the most colorful and crazy melting of dialects I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. Its like strange and yet familiar music. If you only understand French, you may understand a word here and there...albeit laced with a heavy accent. If additionally you understand Standard German (book German) you have a better chance to get the drift. But if you were also raised speaking Allemannisch (the Rheinborder dialects of Basel, Mulhouse regions), then you're really "in the game" . For me, ( Aargauer dialect) it is a fun challenge to see how much I can understand (very little). Your mind has to be open to all those languages and jump in and out of them. And when I think I'm "getting it".... they throw in their colorful colloquialisms. Nope, no legislation will ever change the true Alsatian. Hanneli ----- Original Message ----- From: Estudio de Investigaciones Genealogicas /CGR /CEG <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 4:13 AM Subject: [SWITZ] Name changes in Alsace. > Hello the List! > > I am posting this to the SWISS list because of the fact that there were so many interchanges between Swiss leaving Switzerland and Alsatians in the last 150 years ago. I do appreciate the listowner who allowed this piece to be palced on the Swiss list. > > QUOTE: > Reference your mail to the list concerning the METZGER families in Alsace. You should be aware that the Germans did indeed forcibly change many names of cities, of name palces, even names of people after the Franco-Prussian War. The idea was that no "franzöziche namen" or anything relative to the French be left standing or exist in lands considered belonging to Germany. > > Another sad moment for Alsatians was when the French did the same when they took over the territories from the Germans. The French, however did that in a much more subtle way. The de-Germanising and en-Frenchising was done by society itself with the help of the then French government. There were different ways of "encouraging" en-Frenchising: bringing in more French people from inner France, proclaiming that the Germans had invaded lands that did not belong to them and therefore any testaments to "the occupation" should be either changed or kept. > > This language business, the forcing of the the German and the French governments to speak either German or French made many Alsatians sick. Alsace had its own language, Alsatian, which ressembles the German spoken in northern Switzerland. Imagine the education system and you as a student. If you were a student attending public school, imagine having to change all of your curriculum in order to satisfy the new government's school system! Imagine one morning going to school and suddenly all of your teachers are speaking German, that you can no longer use French or even Alsatian as is now banned. Imagine that your cousins or brothers or sisters, uncles can no longer be seen because they live in Paris and/ or Frankfurt! Imagine what it must be to be speaking a dialect of German, Alsatian or Lorraine German, and then having your own language banned from speaking it. The evidence is the prohibition notices of the German Government pasted on doors and in many public plac! es! > that Alsatian language, and French was banned. The evidence can also be found in schools where these languages where prohibited. > > Consider the city of METZ in Lorraine which was occupied for about 70 years. When the city was liberated at the end of World War II, French having not been spoken for two generations, the new mayor of the city was virtually unable to make his victory speech in French. I do believe that he spoke it in German. > > In our archives, we have numerous recitals of Alsatian professors, teachers, intelellectuals who write about this period describing the problems that they had with the changes of authorities one way or the other, the incidence of the Catholic church into the affairs of the schools, and the relationships that changed in Alsatian families because certain Families were more German-oriented than French-oriented. Some Families were obliged to chose sides and / or change sides between an uneasy alliance with the French or the German governments. > > This is a really complicated discussion but one which should be remembered for all those researching their Families in ALSACE and LORRAINE. The fact was that Alsatians and Lorrainers, were faced with the Germanization process, the Frenchisation process. Having met many people who emigrated from these two areas, the inability to speak one's dialect certainly was held in consideration to leave. Add one more reason for emigration to the long list! > > UNQUOTE > > Sincerely yours, > > Jacques de Guise > EIG / CGR / CEG > Estudio de Investigaciones Genealógicas > Center for Genealogical Research > Cabinet d'Etudes Généalogiques > Spain and Switzerland > > E-mail: [email protected] > > > > ==== SWITZERLAND Mailing List ==== > Going on vacation? Gone longer than 4 days? Go to > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/CHE/SWITZERLAND.html > to unsubscribe >