Today's Train of Thought: Judy Garland to France, by Way of Austria

While I was waiting for my Hot Pockets to cook, I read the back page of Sports Illustrated, about athletes (and others) who return to Minnesota.

At the end, it mentioned Judy Garland.

So I went to Wikipedia to read up...
...which lead to "Judgement at Nuremberg"

...which lead to Stanley Kramer

...which lead to Oskar Werner

...who went AWOL from the German Army during World War II and hid in the Wienerwald with his wife in 1944.

So then I pulled up the Wikipedia article on that massive forest, which led to Google Maps, which made me curious about Niederösterreich.

So I opened the article on Austrian states, which led me to Voralberg, all the way on the western edge.

They don't speak the Bavarian dialect (which sounds like drunken German), but Allemannic, which is similar to Swiss-German.  (Interesting bit of trivia: after World War One, Voralberg voted to join Switzerland.  But the Swiss and the allies didn't approve.)

This led to the dialect map, which showed "Langues d'oïl", which is sort of a mixture of Flemish and French.  (Walloon is the most well known example.)

This also led to the other French dialect, lenga d'oc, or Occitan, which is prevalent in southern France.

All because I needed something to read for three minutes...

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