Tom Disque wrote:

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 01:38:15 GMT, USENET READER
wrote:

Let's hope they make you go back! Actually, depending on where he was
from (I am thinking Alsace-Lorraine) he could have been French or German
at one time or the other. Did he speak both languages?

I don't know. The few remaining scraps from his diary are written in
German. There is a Chateau D'Isque in Alsace-Lorraine, however. It
seems they got chased out of France into Germany in the 1200s by the
peasants. I dunno if there is any connection between them and my
great-great grandfather.

I dunno if I'd make claims to being French, Tom. I lived
just across the border from Lorraine for a few years; crossing
the border was like walking into a trash dump. They had
huge amounts of common litter everywhere in the streets and
on the sidewalks. The best one-word description I can give it
would be "seedy" or "unkempt".

FYI - many of the local Germans spoke quite a bit of French,
too - and they all used a French pronunciation for the town
of Bitburg ("bit-bourgh" - which is why the GIs called it
"bit-bush").
Just a few miles north, the Luxembourgers concocted a strange
language out of it: Luxembourgish, which is just about half
German and half old French.