Minority language of Germany, spoken mostly by people in North Frisia
North Frisian
is a
minority language
of
Germany
, spoken by about 10,000 people in
North Frisia
.
[2]
The language is part of the larger group of the
West Germanic
Frisian languages
. The language comprises 10 dialects which are themselves divided into an insular and a mainland group.
North Frisian is closely related to the
Saterland Frisian language
of Northwest Germany and
West Frisian
which is spoken in the Netherlands. All of these are also closely related to the
English language
forming the
Anglo-Frisian
group.
The phonological system of the North Frisian dialects is strongly being influenced by Standard German and is slowly adapting to that of the German language. With a number of native speakers probably even less than 10,000 and decreasing use in mainland North Frisia, the North Frisian language is endangered. It is protected as a minority language and has become an official language in the
Nordfriesland
district and on
Heligoland
island.
Classification
[
edit
]
The closest relatives of North Frisian are the two other Frisian languages, the
Saterland Frisian
of north-western
Lower Saxony
, Germany, and the
West Frisian language
spoken in the northern
Netherlands
. Together, the three sub-groups form the group of Frisian languages.
English
is also closely related to Frisian. The two are classified in a common
Anglo-Frisian
group, which is grouped among the
Ingvaeonic languages
, together with
Low German
. The related Low German has developed differently since
Old Saxon
times and has lost many Ingvaeonic characteristics.
[3]
Dialects
[
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]
Overview
[
edit
]
The North Frisian dialects can be grouped into two main dialectal divisions: mainland and insular dialects. Altogether, both groups have 10 dialects.
[4]
Since the beginning of Frisian linguistic studies in the 19th century, the following ten dialects have typically been noted as distinct:
- Insular North Frisian
- Mainland North Frisian
The mainland and insular dialects clearly differ from each other because they were shaped by Frisian immigrants in different centuries. The islands of
Sylt
,
Fohr
and
Amrum
were colonised in around AD 800, and the mainland was settled by Frisians in AD 1100.
There are also various influences of neighbouring languages on the dialects. On Sylt, Fohr and Amrum and in parts of the northern mainland such as Wiedingharde, there is a strong
Danish
(
South Jutlandic
) influence, but on
Heligoland
and the rest of mainland North Frisia, the Low German influence is predominant. Moreover, there has historically been little exchange between the dialects and so hardly any
lingua franca
could develop and there was no cultural centre in North Frisia for which the dialect could have had a leading role.
Samples
[
edit
]
The sentence displayed below in many variants reads,
"
'Shine, old moon, shine!', cried Hawelmann, but the moon was nowhere to be seen and the stars neither; they had all already gone to bed" (based on
Theodor Storm
's
Der kleine Hawelmann
).
[5]
- Insular
Sol'ring
(dialect of
Sylt
)
- "Ljucht, ual Muun, ljucht!" skriilt Hawelmann, man di Muun wiar narigen to sen en uk di Stiaren ek; ja wiar al altermaal to B?r gingen.
Fering
-
Oomrang
(dialect of
Fohr
and
Amrum
)
- "Locht, ual muun, locht!" rep Heewelmaan, man a muun wiar nochhuaren tu sen an a staaren uk ei; jo wiar al altermaal tu baad gingen.
Heligolandic
(dialect of
Helgoland
)
- "Lochte, ool Muun, lochte!" rup Heawelman, oawers de Muun wear naarni tu sin'n en uk de Steern ni; dja wear al allemoal tu Baad gingen.
- Mainland
Northern Goesharde Frisian
, Hoorninger Fraisch variety of
Langenhorn
- "Jocht, uule moune, jocht!" biilked Haawelmoon, ors e moune waas narngs to schuns an da steere ok ai; ja weern al aal to beede gingen.
Wiedingharde Frisian
- "Ljocht, uuile moone, ljocht!" biilked Haawelmuon, man e moone was naargen to schuns an uk e steere ai; ja wurn al altomoale to beerd gingen.
Halligen Frisian
(although it is spoken on the
Halligen
islands, it is linguistically grouped with the mainland dialects)
- "Jaacht, uale moone, jaacht!" bolked Haawelmoon, man de moone woas naarngs to siinen an de steere uk ee; ja weern al altomaole to beed giangen.
Mooring
(dialect of
Bokingharde
)
- "Jucht, uulje moune, jucht!" biiljked Haawelmoon, ouers e moune wus nargne tu schuns an e staare uk ai; ja wjarn al altumaale tu beed lim.
Despite the differences between the dialects, the Fering and Oomrang are highly similar; in this example nearly identical.
Another source that highlights the differences between all of the main dialects of North Frisian (even extinct ones) are
translations of the Lord's Prayer.
The following table further demonstrates the similarities and differences between the various dialects.
[6]
Extinct dialects
[
edit
]
The
Eiderstedt Frisian
on the
Eiderstedt
peninsula were abandoned in favour of Low German during the 17th and 18th centuries. In contrast to the northern
hundreds
, Eiderstedt was economically strong and wealthy and was oriented towards the southern, Low German parts of Schleswig-Holstein. Moreover, there was a strong Dutch immigration during the 16th century.
[7]
A similar situation was to be found on the island of
Strand
, which was destroyed during the
Burchardi flood
. The population of the eastern, remaining part of Strand, the modern
Nordstrand
, did not succeed in rebuilding the dikes on their own. Therefore, many Frisian speaking people left their homeland on Strand or were otherwise not able to maintain their native language against mostly Dutch-speaking immigrants. On
Pellworm
, the western remainder of Strand, the repair of the dikes was quickly accomplished and so the Frisian language was still spoken in the 18th century, until it also vanished due to changes in population structure. The old
Strand Frisian
was presumably closest to Halligen Frisian.
Likewise close to Halligen Frisian was the Wyk Frisian that used to be spoken in
Wyk auf Fohr
until the town completely shifted to Low German. The Wyk dialect is thought to have developed from the dialects of immigrants from the Halligen and Strand island.
The dialect that most recently died out is Southern Goesharde Frisian which became extinct with the death of its last speaker in the early 1980s. Other mainland dialects are also facing extinction.
North of the German-Danish border North Frisian was spoken only in some marsh-farms, located directly at the border.
[8]
Self-designation
[
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]
Due to the large number of dialects there is no original native name for the North Frisian language as such. E.g. the Wiedingharde and Halligen Frisians call their language
freesk
, in the Bokingharde it is called
frasch
, and in the Goesharde likewise
fraisch
or
freesch
. While these names all translate to "Frisian" the native names of the insular dialects refer to the particular islands as in
Fering
,
Oomrang
,
Sol'ring
or
Halunder
. E.g. "Frisian" would mean
"fresk"
in the Fohr dialect.
The North Frisians eventually agreed upon the inter-dialectal name
"friisk"
which corresponds to the West Frisian native name
"frysk"
. This designation is today mostly used when the North Frisian collectivity is addressed or in the names of official institutions such as Nordfriisk Instituut, Friisk Foriining or Friisk Gesats. The northern section of the Interfrisian Council has however kept its name "Frasche Radj" in the Mooring dialect.
Phonology
[
edit
]
Consonants
[
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]
- The Fohr (Weesdring) dialect contrasts dental /
t?
,
d?
,
s?
,
z?
,
n?
,
l?
/ with alveolar /
t
,
d
,
s
,
z
,
n
,
l
/.
- /
z
/ is replaced with a non-sibilant sound /
ð
/ in the Sylt dialect.
- The alveolar trill /
r
/ is replaced with the uvular /
?
/ in the Bokingharde (Mooring) dialect.
Vowels
[
edit
]
- One triphthong sound /
uai
/ only occurs in the Fohr dialect.
- /
ia
/ and /
ua
/ do not occur in the Bokingharde (mainland) dialect.
- /
øi
/ and /
?ːi
/ only occur in the Fohr dialect.
- /
a?i
/, /
œi
/, /
??i
/, and /
ou
/ only occur in the Bokingharde dialect.
[9]
Despite the strong differences among the North Frisian dialects, there are still some traits of phonology that are more or less common to all dialects. Among them is the lowering from
[
?
]
to
[
a
]
, which is mostly complete in the central dialects but is only at the stage
[
?
]
or
[
eː
]
in the periphery. For example, the word "fish" translates to Mooring
fasch
and Fering-Oomrang
fask
but Sol'ring
fesk
(cf. Low German:
Fisch/Fisk
,
Danish
:
fisk
, German:
Fisch
,
Dutch
:
vis
).
The distribution of the
lenition
of the unvoiced
plosives
p
,
t
and
k
is similar as they have become voiced plosives and partially even developed to
fricatives
in the central dialects. That can be demonstrated from the
verb
"to know": Mooring
waase
, Fering-Oomrang
wed
, Solring
weet
, Halunder
wet
(cf. West Frisian
witte
, Low German
weten
, German
wissen
).
The North Frisian dialects differ from modern
Standard German
by a more diverse system of
diphthongs
and consonants. All of the dialects have an additional line of
palatalizations
, which is uncommon for a Germanic language. Until recently, an additional number of dental consonants contrasted phonemically with their alveolar counterparts in the
dialect of Fohr
. In general, the insular dialects feature a relatively complicated consonantal system, but the mainland dialects have more diverse vowels.
Recently, the phonological system of the North Frisian dialects has been strongly influenced by Standard German and is slowly adapting to its system.
[9]
[
specify
]
Current situation
[
edit
]
Officially, the number of North Frisian speakers ranges from 8,000 to 10,000
[2]
but linguists propose significantly lower numbers. In 2007, Arhammar estimated a total of 5,000 speakers inside and 1,500 to 2,000 speakers outside North Frisia proper.
[4]
Exact surveys do not exist.
North Frisian is an endangered language, as in most places, children no longer learn it. In UNESCO's
Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
, North Frisian is classified as "severely endangered".
[10]
Exceptions are a few villages on the islands of
Fohr
and
Amrum
and the
Risum-Lindholm
area. Especially in the western parts of Fohr, the language community is still relatively common.
[4]
The number of speakers on Fohr and Amrum alone is estimated to around 3,500. The other dialects are, in fact, seriously endangered, like Karrharde Frisian, Central Goesharde and Halligen Frisian.
The elementary and grammar school on Amrum is called
Oomrang Skuul
and, among other subjects, focuses on teaching the local dialect. Fering is also taught in schools on Fohr and the
Risum Skole/Risem Scholj
in
Risum-Lindholm
on the mainland is a combined Danish-North Frisian elementary school.
All speakers of North Frisian are at least bilingual (North Frisian and
German
). Many are trilingual (North Frisian, Standard German and
Low German
) and, especially along the Danish border, quadrilingualism used to be widespread (North Frisian, Standard German, Low German and
South Jutlandic
).
In Schleswig-Holstein, North Frisian is protected by the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
as a minority language. On 24 December 2004 a state law became effective in Schleswig-Holstein that recognises the North Frisian language for official use in the
Nordfriesland
district and on
Heligoland
.
[11]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- General references
- Walker, Alastair G.H.; Ommo Wilts (2001). "Die nordfriesischen Mundarten". In Horst H. Munske (ed.).
Handbuch des Friesischen ? Handbook of Frisian Studies
(in German and English). Tubingen: Niemeyer.
ISBN
3-484-73048-X
.
- Huttenrauch, Tanno; Wehar, Michael (2022).
An Online Dictionary for Dialects of North Frisian
(PDF)
. Workshop on Resources and Technologies for Indigenous, Endangered and Lesser-resourced Languages in Eurasia (EURALI) @ LREC2022. European Language Resources Association (ELRA). pp. 88?89.
- Citations
- ^
North Frisian
at
Ethnologue
(18th ed., 2015)
(subscription required)
- ^
a
b
"Minderheiten in Schleswig-Holstein ? Friesen"
(in German). Government of Schleswig-Holstein
. Retrieved
4 April
2017
.
- ^
Nielsen, Hans Frede (2001). "Frisian and the Grouping of the Older Germanic Languages". In Horst H. Munske (ed.).
Handbuch des Friesischen ? Handbook of Frisian Studies
(in German and English). Tubingen: Niemeyer.
ISBN
3-484-73048-X
.
- ^
a
b
c
Arhammar, Nils (2007). Munske, Horst H. (ed.).
"Das Nordfriesische, eine bedrohte Minderheitensprache in zehn Dialekten: eine Bestandsaufnahme"
(PDF)
.
Sterben die Dialekte aus? Vortrage am Interdisziplinaren Zentrum fur Dialektforschung an der Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg
(in German). University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
- ^
"Die Nordfriesen und ihre Sprache"
(in German). Nordfriisk Instituut. Archived from
the original
on 27 September 2007
. Retrieved
5 December
2011
.
Click on the map to access the regional dialects.
- ^
After Walker and Wilts, p. 286
- ^
Steensen, Thomas (2010).
"Hollander"
.
Geschichte in Schleswig-Holstein
(in German). Gesellschaft fur Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte. Archived from
the original
on 18 January 2015.
- ^
Knottnerus, Otto S. (2008). "De vergeten Friezen - Mislukt pamflet van Benny Siewertsen over een boeiend thema".
De Vrije Fries
(in Dutch). Leeuwarden: Fryske Akademy.
ISBN
978-90-6171-0165
.
in reply to the pamphlet
Siewertsen, Benny (2004).
Friserne ? vore glemte forfædre
(in Danish). Lyngby: Slot Forlag.
ISBN
978-87-90476-08-3
.
- ^
a
b
Walker and Wilts
- ^
Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2010).
"North Frisian"
.
Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
(3rd ed.). Paris:
UNESCO
Publishing.
- ^
"Gesetz zur Forderung des Friesischen im offentlichen Raum"
.
Wikisource
(in German).
External links
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]
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Regional/Minority
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