David, as a native of the region and a dialectspeaker, I can't find myself in your description. I never met a person in the region, except academics and clerics, that spoke latin. And French is not the common language in the region, we have to learn it in school as all other foreign languages. There are a lot of words in our dialect that have a french origin. That's mostly a result of the area being part of the french empire from 1794 to 1814. But french as a complete language is not in use in any part of the region. Only Luxemburg has three official languages, Letzeburgisch, French and German. Letzeburgisch is not an odd mixture. It is a language that is very close related to the german dialect spoken in the region. This dialectgroup is called "Moselfränkisch" and has nothing in common with Plattdeutsch, which is the dialect spoken in North Germany. We call our dialect in dialect "Platt" too, but this has nothing to do with Plattdeutsch. Moselfränkisch, is spoken in a wide area between Luxembourg in the west and Coblence in the east. It is spread from the southern half of the Eifel in the north to the Hunsrück in the south. Moselfränkisch is also spoken in parts of german speaking Belgium and smaller parts of the Saarland, while most of the Saarland speaks Saarländisch, a dialect that does not belong to Moselfränkisch but to the Rheinfränkisch-dialectgroup. As I'm able to communicate without problems with people from Eifel, Mosel, and Luxembourg in my dialect (s-w Eifel) , I'm unable to do so with native Saarländisch speakers. So, in the Trier and Saar-region there are only two dialects spoken, Moselfränkisch and Saarländisch. What you mean, is that the dialect varies from village to village. At http://www.suertenich.com/html/moselfr.html you will find a meap, that shows you where our dialect is spoken. At http://www.roscheiderhof.de/moselfraenkisch you can hear samples of the different types of Moselfränkisch spoken in the Eifel, Saar, Mosel and Hunsrück region. Regards, Ernst W. David Samuelsen schrieb: > German, French, Latin, Letzenberger and Hunsruck languages. > > French is very much in use closer to Saarbrucken area and to the east of > it along with Latin rather than German. > > Letzenberger is an odd mixture of French, German, Plattedeutsch, Latin > and found mostly west of Mosel River. Hunsruck have their own words you > will not recognize - the area is just north of Rheinland-Pfalz/Saarland > border, being near Hermeskeil region. > > What you hear and what you read if you were on vacation visiting this > area, you will be confused by different dialects being spoken there. > > David Samuelsen > > kql wrote: > >> Renee Herres wrote: >> >>> Okay, here goes. My great grandfather, Johann Herres, was born in >>> the town of Wittlich, Rhineland, Germany on 20 Sept 1824 to Georg >>> Jacob Herres and Susanna Blasius. I would so like to find more about >>> my Herres and Blasius families, but also about Wittlich. How do I go >>> about it? I have shied away from German genealogy as I do not speak >>> or read German. Any suggestions? >>> >> You can find out a lot about the area by googling. I've found a lot of >> pictures, historical accounts, and more, in both English and German. To >> translate, you can use the Babelfish link that has been posted several >> times this week. >> >> If you want to examine records, check out the Family History Library >> catalog: >> http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp >> Its film can be rented and viewed at any Family History Center. I >> strongly urge everyone to go beyond the Internet in their family history >> search. If your ancestors were Catholic, the church records will be >> mostly in Latin. Family History Centers also have word lists that help >> in the translation of important genealogical terms >> http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/rg/frameset_rhelps.asp?Page=./research/type/Word_List.asp >> Some can be downloaded. >> >> Good luck! >> Kathy >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TRIER-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> >> > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TRIER-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >