West Frisian language Totally Explained

Everything about West Frisian Language totally explained

West Frisian (Frysk) is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland (Fryslân) in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside of the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian, which are spoken in Germany. Within the Netherlands however, the West Frisian language is the language of the province of Fryslân and is virtually always just called Frisian: Fries in Dutch, and Frysk in Frisian. The 'official' name used by linguists in the Netherlands to indicate the West Frisian language is Westerlauwers Fries (West Lauwers Frisian), the Lauwers being a border stream which separates the Dutch provinces of Fryslân and Groningen.

Speakers

Most speakers of West Frisian live in the province of Fryslân (Friesland in Dutch) in the north of the Netherlands. This province was formerly officially called Friesland, but officially changed its name to Frisian Fryslân in 1997. The province has 643,000 inhabitants (2005); of these 94% can understand spoken Frisian, 74% can speak Frisian, 65% can read Frisian, and 17% can write it.
   For over half of the inhabitants of the province of Fryslân, 55% (c. 354,000 people), Frisian is the native tongue. In the central east, Frisian speakers spill over the province border, with some 4-6,000 of them actually living in the province of Groningen, in the triangular area of the villages Marum (Frisian: Mearum), De Wilp (De Wylp), and Opende (De Grinzer Pein).
   Also, many Frisians have left their province in the last sixty years for more prosperous parts of the Netherlands. Therefore, possibly as many as 150,000 Frisian speakers live in other Dutch provinces now, particularly in the urban agglomeration in the West, and in neighbouring Groningen and newly reclaimed Flevoland.
   In addition, there's a surprisingly large Frisian diaspora abroad, with Fryslân having had in relative terms the highest percentage of emigrants of all Dutch provinces between the Second World War and the 1970s. It is estimated that there may be as many as 80-100,000 Frisian speakers scattered around the world, with the largest concentrations located in Canada, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand. Therefore, the total number of Frisian speakers in the world today may be as high as 600,000.
   Apart from the use of Frisian as a first language, it's also spoken as a second language by about 120,000 people in the province of Fryslân.

Dialects

The West Frisian language consists of eight mutually intelligible dialects, of which four are widely spoken and the other four are confined to small communities of less than a hundred to several hundreds of speakers.
   The least used dialect of West Frisian is Skiermûntseagersk, the island dialect of Schiermonnikoog (Frisian: Skiermûntseach), which is actually on the verge of extinction, spoken as it's by no more than 50-100 people (out of an island population of 900 people). Hylpersk (in Dutch known as Hindeloopers), the archaic Frisian dialect of the peninsular harbour town of Hindeloopen (Hylpen), on the west coast, is still spoken by some 300 people at the most. Skylgersk (also known as Westersk) and Aastersk are the dialects of the western and eastern parts of the island of Terschelling (Skylge) and have about 800 and 400 speakers respectively. They are separated from each other by the Dutch dialect of Midslands, which is spoken in the central part of Terschelling.
   Because of their insular nature these four less-used dialects are also those that have deviated the most from mainstream Frisian. In fact, three of the four widely used mainland dialects are so much alike that a non-Frisian could probably not make out any differences.
   The fourth mainland dialect, that of Súdwesthoeksk ("South Western"), which is spoken in an area called de Súdwesthoeke ("the South West Corner"), deviates from mainstream Frisian in that it doesn't adhere to the so-called newer breaking system, a prominent grammatical feature in the three other main dialects.
   The Noardhoeksk ("Northern") dialect is spoken in the north eastern corner of the province. It actually differs from Wâldfrysk so little that it's quite often not acknowledged to be a dialect within its own right, but merely the northern variety of Wâldfrysk.
   By far the two most widely spoken West Frisian dialects are Klaaifrysk and Wâldfrysk. Both these names are derived from the Frisian landscape. In the western and north-western parts of the province, the region where Klaaifrysk is spoken, the soil is made up of thick marine clay, hence the name Klaaifrysk, which literally means "Clay Frisian". While in the Klaaifrysk speaking area ditches are used to separate the pastures, in the eastern part of the province, where the soil is sandy, and water sinks away much faster, rows of trees are used to that purpose. Therefore, the dialect spoken in the eastern area is called Wâldfrysk, meaning "Wood Frisian" or "Forest Frisian".
   Although Klaaifrysk and Wâldfrysk are mutually very easily intelligible, there are, at least to native Frisian speakers, a few very conspicuous differences. These include the pronunciation of the words my ("me"), dy ("you"), hy ("he"), sy ("she" or "they"), wy ("we") and by ("by"), and the diphthongs ei and aai.
   Of the two, Wâldfrysk probably has the most speakers, but because the western clay area was originally the more prosperous part of the mostly agricultural province, Klaaifrysk has had the larger influence on the West Frisian standardised language.

History

Old Frisian

In the early Middle Ages the Frisian lands stretched from the area around Bruges, in what is now Belgium, to the river Weser, in northern Germany. At that time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. Today this region is sometimes referred to as Greater Frisia or Frisia Magna, and many of the areas within it still treasure their Frisian heritage, even though in most places the Frisian language has been lost.
   Originally, Frisian was much more similar to English than it's today, but after at least five hundred years of being subjected to the influence of Dutch it's obvious to most observers that nowadays it also bears greater similarity to Dutch. Also, one has to take into account the centuries long drift of English away from Frisian. Old Frisian, however, did bear a striking similarity to Old English. This similarity was reinforced in the late Middle Ages by the Ingaevonic sound shift, which affected Frisian and English, but hardly the other West Germanic varieties at all. Historically, both English and Frisian are marked by the suppression of the Germanic nasal in a word like us (ús), soft (sêft) or goose (goes): see Anglo-Frisian nasal spirant law. Also, when followed by some vowels the Germanic k softened to a ch sound. For example, the Frisian for cheese and church is tsiis and tsjerke, whereas in Dutch it's kaas and kerk.
   One rhyme demonstrates the palpable similarity between Frisian and English: "Bread, butter and green cheese is good English and good Friese," which is pronounced more or less the same in both languages (Frisian: "Brea, bûter, en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk.")
   One major difference between Old Frisian and modern Frisian is that in the Old Frisian period (c.1150-c.1550) grammatical cases still occurred. Some of the texts that are preserved from this period are from the twelfth or thirteenth, but most are from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Generally, all these texts are restricted to legalistic writings. Although the earliest definite written examples of Frisian are from approximately the 9th century, there are a few examples of runic inscriptions from the region which are probably older and possibly in the Frisian language. These runic writings however usually don't amount to more than single- or few-word inscriptions, and can't be said to constitute literature as such. The transition from the Old Frisian to the Middle Frisian period (c.1550-c.1820) in the sixteenth century, is based on the fairly abrupt halt in the use of Frisian as a written language.

Middle Frisian and New Frisian

Up until the fifteenth century Frisian was a language widely spoken and written, but from 1500 onwards it became an almost exclusively oral language, mainly used in rural areas. This was in part due to the occupation of its stronghold, the Dutch province of Friesland (Fryslân), in 1498, by Duke Albert of Saxony, who replaced Frisian as the language of government with Dutch.
   Afterwards this practice was continued under the Habsburg rulers of the Netherlands (the German Emperor Charles V and his son, the Spanish King Philip II), and even when the Netherlands became independent, in 1585, Frisian didn't regain its former status. The reason for this was the rise of Holland as the dominant part of the Netherlands and its language, Dutch, as the dominant language in judicial, administrative and religious affairs.
   In this period the great Frisian poet Gysbert Japix (1603-66), a schoolteacher and cantor from the city of Bolsward (Boalsert), who largely fathered modern Frisian literature and orthography, was really an exception to the rule.
   His example wasn't followed until the nineteenth century, when entire generations of Frisian authors and poets appeared. This coincided with the introduction of the so-called newer breaking system, a prominent grammatical feature in almost all West Frisian dialects, with the notable exception of Súdwesthoeksk. Therefore, the New Frisian period is considered to have begun at this point in time, around 1820.

Alphabet

The West Frisian alphabet consists of 23 characters. These are: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, W and Z. The characters Y and ij are not considered to be part of the alphabet. Y is considered as a form of I and ij is considered to be an I followed by a J while in written form only one character is used, for more info see IJ (digraph) Contrary to Dutch, West-Frisian words never start with ij and therefore the IJ never appears in the West Frisian language. The same applies to the V and Z. The C is only used in combination with ch and is also never used at the beginning of a word. ch is used to describe a voiced velar fricative while G represents a voiceless velar fricative and a voiced velar plosive. Furthermore the G is used in a digraph together with N to represent a velar nasal.
In West Frisian diacritic signs can be used with A, E, I, O, U, and Y. Letters with diacritics are not considered to be independent vowels, but are seen as letter-diacritics combinations. Used diacritical symbols are circumflexes, acute accents, grave accents and diaeresis marks. Diaeresis marks can be used with A, E, I, O, and U (ä, ë, ï, ö, ü) and mark diaeresis. Grave accents can be used with A, E, I, O, U and Y (à, è, ì, ò, ù, ỳ) and are used to identify stressed syllables and words. Circumflexes and acute accents are used to identify different sounds. They can be used with A, E, I, O and U (â, ê, é, í, ô, û, ú). In West Frisian different diacritics can't be combined on single characters.
Æ is seen as archaic, but can sometimes still be found back in names and old spellings.

Sounds

Vowels

Frisian Vowels with Example Words>

		orthography	English translation
Symbol	Example
i	vit	wyt	'white'
iː	tiːt	tiid	'time'
ɪ	sɪt	sit	'seat'
eː ¹	seː	see	'sea'
ɛ	lɛt	let	'late'
ɛː ²	fɛːst	fêst	'firm'
ə	də	de	'the'
a	axt	acht	'eight'
aː	aːd	aard	'earth'
ɔ	gɔt	gat	'hole'
ɔː ²	vɔːd	wâld	'forest'
o	op	op	'on, at'
oː ¹	hoːpjə	hoopje	'to hope'
u	busə	bûse	'bag'
uː	huːt	hûd	'skin'
y	yt	út	'out'
yː	dryːf	drúf	'grape'
ø	pøt	put	'(water) well'
øː ¹	løːnə	leune	'to support, to lean'
iə	stiən	stien	'stone'
ɪə	ɪər	ear	'ear'
uə	huət	hoed	'hat'
oə	oər	oar	'other'
yə	nyət	nuet	'tame'
øə	frøən	freon	'friend'
ɛi	hɛi, bakərɛi	hy, bakkerij	'he', 'bakery'
øy	strøyə	struie	'to sprinkle'
ui	bluiə	bloeie	'blossom'
oəi	moəi	moai	'beautiful'
aːi	aːi	kaai	'key'
ai	mais	mais	'corn'
au	haut, gau	hout, gau	'wood, soon'

Consonants

b	ch	d	f	g	h	j	k	l	m	n	p	r	s	sj	t	tsj	v	w	x	y	z
b	x	d, r	f	g, ɣ	h	j	k	l	m	n	p	r	s	sj	t	tsj	v	v, f, w	ks	j	z

1) /eː/, /oː/ and /øː/ are commonly realized as the diphthongs [eɪ], [oʊ] and [øʏ].
   2) /ɛː/ and /ɔː/ are commonly realized as [ɛ.ə] and [ɔ.ə].
   3) a is pronounced [ɔ] before d, t, l, n, s
   4) er is pronounced [ɛ:] in bern, gers and ferzen
   5) eau is pronounced [øə] in past participles and [jo:] in preterites and other words
   6) ei is pronounced [i] in Moandei and other compounds with -dei
   7) eur is pronounced [øə]
   8) the word ôf is pronounced [ɔu] or [ɔ:]
   9) oa becomes [a] in moatte and Moandei, and [ã:] in Woansdei
   10) oe is pronounced [u] before ch, g, k
   11) y is pronounced [ɛi] in my, dy, hy, wy, by, but [i] in dy as demonstrative pronoun
   12) any vowel or diphthong before n + s, z, f, v, w, j, l, r, is nasalised
   13) any nasalised vowel is lengthened before ns, nz
   14) d is silent before l. often pronounced [r] in intervocalic position
   15) h is silent before [j], [w] and in thús
   16) j is often silent before [i]
   17) in âl, l is silent before d, t
   18) when assimilated, n becomes [m] before p, [ŋ] before k, or is dropped while nasalising the preceding vowel
   19) r is silent before t, d, n, l, s, z
   20) w is pronounced [v] at the beginning of a word, [f] in final, [w] elsewhere. It is silent before [w]. ww is pronounced [v]

Status

Since 1956, West Frisian has an official status along with and equal to Dutch, in the province of Fryslân. It is used in many domains of Frisian society, among which are education, legislation, and administration.
   Although in the courts of law the Dutch language is still mainly used, in the province of Fryslân Frisians have the right to give evidence in their own language. Also, they can take the oath in Frisian in courts anywhere in the Netherlands.
   Primary education in Fryslân was made bilingual in 1956, which means Frisian can be used as a teaching medium. In the same year, Frisian became an official school subject, having been introduced to primary education as an optional extra in 1937. It wasn't until 1980, however, that Frisian got the status of a fully-fledged, for example, required, subject in primary schools, and not until 1993 that it got the same position in secondary education.
   In 1997, the province of Fryslân officially changed its name from the Dutch form Friesland to the Frisian Fryslân. So far 4 out of 31 municipalities (Tytsjerksteradiel, Boarnsterhim, Littenseradiel, and Ferwerderadiel) have changed their official geographical names from Dutch to Frisian.
   Within ISO 639 West Frisian falls under the codes 'fy' and 'fry', which were assigned to the collective Frisian languages.

Westernlauwers Frisian

West Frisian can be confused with an area (or its local language) in the Dutch province Noord-Holland (NL: area=West-Friesland or local language=West-Fries), that's why the term Westlauwersk Frysk or Westernlauwersk Frisian has been introduced, The River Lauwers is the part of the border between the Dutch provinces Frisian and Groningen.
In the Netherlands: West Frisian can refer to the local language spoken in the region Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Medemblik. To avoid this confusion

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