[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] High German and Low German

[Günther Böhm]

Loren Koehler schrieb:

>cf. Hamburg, where the local dialect, known as 
Messings,

>i.e., brass(an alloy of two different metals) is a mixture of spelling
>pronunciation and local Low German peculiarities.
>
Loren,
a little correction:
originally, the term reads "Missingsch" and has nothing to do with a 
brass metal but stems from the town of Meissen in Saxonia and the (more 
or less noble) German language of its clerks in 18th century, the 
"Meißener Kanzleisprache". In fact, the Hamburg ship owners and 
merchants wanted to express that they are NOT speaking Plattdeutsch but 
Hochdeutsch, the language of the ruling classes.

Guenther