LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.12.29 (04) [E/German]

Sun Dec 29 23:22:38 UTC 2002

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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic
               V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Dan Prohaska <daniel at ryan-prohaska.com>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2002.12.28 (01) [E]

Richard Nash Creel <gringudo at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> I need information about Frisian and maybe also Zeelandic.<<

Dear Richard, I`d be glad to help you with Frisian. As you mentioned
Zeelandic I reckon you`re more interested in the Westfrisian variety.
However I`m afraid I know more about the Frisian dialects spoken in Germany.
This already shows the dilemma to the beginner of Frisian as there are very
many different "Frisians":

!) West Frisian in the Dutch province of Frysklân/Friesland, spoken by about
400 000 Frisians who are mostly bilingual with Dutch. The provincial borders
do not exactly coincide with the language border. Traditionally Frisian is
not spoken in It Bilt/Het Bildt, a part of the coast which was claimed from
the sea in the 16-17 centuries and settled by Dutch speakers, as well as
Stellingwerven (where to my knowledge North Saxon dialects are spoken). The
Frisian language nowadays is confined to the rural areas whereas in the
Frisian towns varieties are spoken, with which it is not always clear to
state whether they are Frisian dialects heavily influenced by Duch or Dutch
dialects heavily influenced by Frisian. These Town-Dialects are called
Stedfrysk (Ljowert/Leeuwarden; Snits/Sneek; Frjentjer; Franeker; Boalsert
/Bolsward); Harns/Harlingen; Starum/Staveren). West Frisian is also spoken
on the islands of Skiermûnseach and Hylpen.

West Frisian is dialectally more homogeneous than North Frisian, however
following dialectal divisions can be heard: a) Klaaifrysk (West), b)
Wâldfrysk (East); c) Súdwesthoeksk (South-west) as well as the island
dialects d) Skiermûntseachsk, e) dialects of Skylge: e1) Aasters, e2)
Westers.

2) East Frisian: Careful not to confuse this with the East Frisian dialects
of Northn Saxon spoken traditionally today: The Frisian of East Frisian
survives only in its colonial dialect in the moors of Saterland. This
variety is called Seeltersk (Saterfriesisch). The east Frisian dialect of
Wangerooge died out around the turn of the last century. The Frisian
dialects were replaced by North Saxon throughout the rest of Eeast Frisia.
The term for the language, East Frisian, remaind and continued to be used
for the Frisian influenced North Saxon dialects, which are today under
strong pressure from High German (standard German).

Saterland Frisian as the sole survivor or East Frisian proper is spoken in
the three villages of the Saterland: Schäddel (Scharrel); Strukelje
(Strücklingen) and Roomelse (Ramsloh) where there are some 1000-2000
speakers of Seeltersk. There are even minute dialectal differences between
the villages.

3) North Frisian is spoken in the administrative district of Nordfriesland
in the German Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein; the number of speakers is
estimated around 10 000 (of about 60 000 who claim Frisian heritage).
Dialectal diversity is enormous in North Frisian. There are two main
dialectal divisions a) Island Frisian; and b) Mainland Frisian:

a) Island Frisian, the dialects of a1) Söl (Sylt), a2) Feer (Föhr) and a3)
Oomram (Amrum), The latter two are more closely related, and a4) Heligoland;

b) Mainland Frisian (from North to South): b1) Wiedingharde; b2)
Bökingharde; b3) West Mooring; b4) East Mooring; b5) Karrharde; b6) North
Goesharde; b7) Middle Goesharde; b8) South Goesharde (moribund); b9) the
Halligen;

These dialects are so different from eachother that comprehension
difficulties may arise, although on "interfrisian get-togethers" speakers
are encouraged to speak Frisian in order to increase exposure to the unknown
neighbouring variety. This inability to communicate in Frisian beyond the
parish boundary is linguistic only to a certain extent. The main reason for
this was that Frisian was traditionally only used within the parish. All
external business was done either through Low Saxon or Danish. Even today
many North Frisians are trilingual (Frisian, Low saxon, High German) or even
quadtrilingual (afore mentioned + Danish). The whole area is polyglott.

Some lexical examples:

English West Frisian East Frisian North Frisian
Seeltersk Mooring Fering (Föhr)

eel iel äil äil ial
old âld oold üülj ual
arm earm äärm ärm iarem
to bite bite biete bite bitj
to bleed bliede bläide blädje bled
to thank tankje tonkje tunke toonke
village doarp täärp toorp taarep
own eigen oain äin aanj
iron izer ierzen joorn iisen
to eat ite iete ääse iidj
to fall falle fale fále faal
foot foet fout fötj fut
feet fuotten fäite fätj fet
grass gêrs gäärs gjars gärs
to hear hearre here hiire hiar
cheese tsiies síes säis sees
church tsjerke säärke schörk sark
day dei dai däi dai
days dagen dege deege daar
to forget ferjitte ferjete ferjeese ferjid
to know witte wiete waase wed
(I) know wit weet wiitj witj
two twa twäin/two twäär/tuu tau

I hope this little introduction was helpful. If you have any more questions
just fire away. For more information try the links on the LL-L website.

Yehes da lemmyn ha woja hemma ynwedh,

***

Here a question I posted some weeks ago, which was never answered concerning
the relationship between Old Frisian and Old Saxon, as well as Old Frisian
developments, Since my last posting was in Englisch and remained ananswered
I`ll ty in German. Ron ???

Zum Altfriesischen (AF):
Mir ist aufgefallen, dass in der Entwickling von Nordwestgermanischen (NWG)
zum AF der Zwielaut /ai/ eine Phonemspaltung erfahren hat (i-Umlaut nicht
migerechnet) und den AF Reflex /ē/ (stēn, bēn stc.) oder /ā/ (māra, rāp)
aufweist. Die Monophthongierung zu /ē/ ist mir relativ klar. Jene zu /ā/
jedoch weniger: Unter welchen Voraussetzungen wurde NWG */ai/ zu AF /ā/ ?
Ich habe gelesen, dass die lexikalische Distribution im ganzen
friesischsprachigen Raum gleich ist, also, dass die Phonemspaltung
Gemeinfriesisch ist.
War das vor-AF Verhältnis zwischen /ā/ und /ē/ ein Allophonisches, wie
Altenglisch (AE) / AF kurzes NWG */a/ zu tonerhöhtem /æ/ bzw. /e/ ? Und ist
es vielleicht analog zum Kurzvokal zu einem Ausgleich gekommen, der
phonemisiert wurde?
Wie verhielt sich dieses AF /ā/ (> */ai/) zum Produkt AF /ā/ aus der
Monophthongierung von NWG */au/ ? Sind die Laute im ganzen
friesischsprachigen Raum zusammengefallen?

Zum Niederdeutschen:
Um den ingvaeonischeren Charakter des Altniederdeutschen (AND) der
vorliterarischen Zeit, gegenüber dem überlieferten Altsächsischen, weiß ich.
Mir ist jedoch aufgefallen, dass die modernen östlich westphälischen (O-Wph)
und ostphälischen (Oph) Dialekte ebenfalls eine Phonemspaltung von AND /é2/
(> NWG */ai/) aufweisen. Meine Frage daher: Kennt ihr vielleicht die
lexikalische Distribution dieser Spaltung, und wisst ihr ob sich diese mit
jener des Friesischen deckt? Ist sie vermutlicherweise in der gleichen Zeit
entstanden, oder handelt es sich um eine jüngere Entwicklung? Ich kenne
keine Wortbeispiele, nur dass AND */é2a/ im O-Wph & SW-Oph zu /EI/ und AND *
/é2b/ zu /aI/ wurde; während die Realisierung der Laute im N-Oph jeweils
/EI/ und /e:/ ist und im zentralen Oph. respektive /aI/ und /e:/ (laut
Ross.).

Ich weiß, dass die textuelle Überlieferung in der betreffenden Zeit mager
bis nicht existent ist, aber vielleicht könnt ihr mir ja trotzdem
weiterhelfen.

Grüße,
Dan

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