1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 My name is Dominique Lang, I live here in Molsheim, 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:09,000 a little city about 25 km from Strasbourg. 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:19,000 To be true, I’m not entirely Alsatian, I was born in Alsace 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:24,000 I was born in Mulhouse, Upper Alsace, Haut-Rhin, 5 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:36,000 have spent my childhoood near Paris and came back later in Alsace 6 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:47,000 for my Medicine studies in 1974 and have been staying here since. 7 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:52,000 I’ve always stayed here, always worked here and still work here 8 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:04,000 in Molsheim, I’m an MD, working with elderlies in the Molsheim hospital. 9 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:15,000 What can I say? About Alsatian… Alsatian is a very special dialect, 10 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:25,000 a language could we say since it doesn’t exactly come from today’s German, 11 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:50,000 it is an heir of the “Mittelhochdeutsch”, which is a medieval language 12 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:57,000 that was spoken in the Middle Ages in Germany and has become Alsatian 13 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:06,000 through the centuries whereas German evolved on its own side. 14 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:18,000 Hence the many differences between German and Alsatian. 15 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:31,000 The pronunciation is not the same, the Germans have today the “Hochdeutsch”, 16 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:40,000 we have Alsatian and what we can still say is that Alsatian is really different 17 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:47,000 between North and South, the dialects are totally different; in Southern Alsace, 18 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:57,000 the language is much closer to the Swiss German, the “Schwiztg’r Düetsch”, 19 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:19,000 which is really particular; the Northern dialect resembles the German dialect 20 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:25,000 of Saarland or Baden-Württenberg. 21 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:33,000 In Alsace, we also have many wines, the best ones being produced in the South, 22 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:45,000 the Haut-Rhin, where we have the best types of vine from Alsace. 23 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:53,000 The Alsatian wine is really particular, there are almost only white wines, 24 00:03:53,000 --> 00:04:05,000 we have some rosés and only one real red wine, the Rouge d’Ottrott, 25 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:07,000 produced a couple of km from here, that means in the Bas-Rhin. 26 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:12,000 We have some good wines in the Bas-Rhin, also very special 27 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:18,000 and the Rouge d’Ottrott comes from the Bas-Rhin. So. 28 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:28,000 Now, how did I come to Alsatian language? Well. As said, 29 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:37,000 I spent my childhood in Paris and came back to my roots in Alsace in 1974 30 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:50,000 At this time, I began to work with elderlies in the hospital and, at this time 31 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,000 the elderlies were almost only speaking Alsatian or German. 32 00:04:54,000 --> 00:05:04,000 I hence have been obliged to learn Alsatian and, since I also speak German, 33 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:17,000 it has been let’s say natural for me to switch from German onto Alsatian. 34 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:27,000 And afterwards, speaking, as I further talked to the people, year after year, 35 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:28,000 it entered.