Frysk (Frisian)
When this discussion focuses on the Netherlands and Belgium we easily tend to forget the other official language spoken in the Northern section of The Netherlands: Frysk (or 'Frisian' in English), which is much older than the Dutch language. The Frisian identity is very much linked to its language. Even though the tourist information offices in Fryslan sell Frisian passports (out of a certain sense of humour), Frisians are not able to express their nationality in the form of an official document.
Sent by: Irene
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I'm Frisian and I do believe that Frisian should be preserved. Another thing I agree with is that there is not much user friendly Frisian learning material. One thing you all are saying is that we have a right to our nationality through a document. You say this without fully knowing the Frisian culture. We are not a "in your face" as you say, culture. If we wanted more than what we have we would probably be more like Quebec in Canada. All I'm trying to say is we are still proud of our Dutch heritage. We may also be Frisian, but the modern Frisian man is able to blend the two cultures to make his own. And from what I can tell from my fiends who live in Zuid-Holland and Zeeland, they like having a place that they can go that is slightly detached from fully Dutch culture, that they can go without leaving the country. Still, Frisian is a very alive language.
Frysk is a language that definately should be preserved. If you can read Chaucer, you can read Frisian. Frisian is like a modified form of the northern Middle English in the Reeve's Tale. If on the difficulty scale of 1-10 (progressively harder, higher the number) if Chaucer is a 3, then Frisian is a 4. I can almost guarantee that you'll be able to read Frysk as an English speaker without learning it like a new language if you approach it like you would Chaucer. Remember to read aloud, think in terms of the continental vowels, and ask yourself what a difficult word may be in English. I guarantee that even if you can't understand it all, you will understand the general story enough to gain a "bluffer's knowledge". Here is an example.
Dan komt de maitiid, maitiid yn it lân.
Dan laket alles, alles jin sa oan.
De moaie maitiid mei syn blauwe loft,
is foar minsken en foar blom grif it moaiste skoft,
is foar minsken en foar blom grif it moaiste skoft.
If you think a little,
maitiid sounds like "maytide", or "maytime", or "springtime". A close reading will tell you that it's all about the lovely land in springtime with blooming and a gentle wind.
I think that Frisian, both as a language and as a separate culture, should be kept alive. Isn't there a requirement under European law for countries to further the continuance and survival of minority languages in their country? Also, being English and from a historical point of view, I have a vested interest in that I believe that Frisian is the closest language to English. In fact, what we now call Anglo-Saxon, to describe the earliest form of the English language, should be more accurately called Anglo-Frisian. Also, that Frisians were well-represented among the Germanic invaders and settlers in the 5th century Anglo-Saxon invasion and conquest.
Though this is a endangered language there are still a quite amount of people that speak it. Approximately between the 300k and 400k people can speak it. These people are mostly lifing in the Netherlands and are strongly connected to "their" Frisia. We have our own flag, national anthem, national sports and traditions. The most typical sports are Fierljeppen and Kaetsen. When you're fierljepping, you grab a pole and jump as far as you can over water. Kaetsen is a teamsport which I can't explain. But it's about smashing balls with your hand. With kaetsen you still have a championship at Franeker called the PC, and is known to be the oldest sports event in the world. And just to give another example how closely English and Frisian are connected I give you a sentence! Butter, brea en griene tsiis, wa't net seise kin is gjin oprjochte Frysk! Butter, bread and green cheese, whoever can't say that isn't a real Frisian!
Frisian is a strong minor-language although it is under large influence of Dutch. This situation is very understandable as Frisian and Dutch share a lot of grammatical and lexical values. One of the big threads at the moment is that the largest group of Frisian speakers use a variety that is quickly distancing from the 'correct Frisian'. so unlike Wales, where the language is protected by it's incompatibility with English, Frisian is suffering from interferences on all levels from Dutch. To stop this the small group of correct speakers are trying to protect the language by actively distancing it from the Dutch, but by doing so they actually widen the gap between the speakers and themselves. A lot of Frisians will for example not understand Frisian literature because of the difficult (to them) words in it, how common those words may have been at some stage is not relevant. This causes the Frisian to decline faster than ever before and is a considerate threat. Nice bit of not commonly known information about the language is that there are two varieties of Frisian spoken in Germany, Saterlands or Eastern Frisian and Nordfriesisch, North Frisian, both are pockets that remained after the general decline of Frisian along the coast. Saterlands is close to extinction with only 1500 to 2500 passive users. North Frisian has 10 dialectical varieties spread over 7000 speakers, so that too is under a lot of pressure. Although the relation between Old-Frisian and English is strong and many remnants of it are still to be found in Modern Frisian, the closest relation now is Dutch, once again showing how much influence Dutch has had over the past years.
I studied Frisian at the university in Amsterdam (a non-Frisian city). The fact that this country enables one to broaden ones own identity with something the majority ridicules or doesn't understand is certainly a sign of respect. However, Frisian is not being promoted by the Dutch government. The Dutch government is more of an antagonist then a facilitater in this regard. Discrimination is still widespread inside and outside the province. One is better not to identify oneself as being Frisian or to show ones official names too much. I, for example, rather not use my proper name. My surname is neutral enough. Also the fact that Frisians are spread over three countries, the Netherlands, Germany and Danmark, doesn't help their cause. Also there's a strong sense of regionalism among Frisians. Interesting for English speakers is that Middle English and Old Frisian have many similar words. Listeners are called harkers for example. Or the word dung for 'manure'. Knift for 'knive', utensils for 'eating garments', and so on.
The founding of the Frisian Academy (Fryske Akademy) was a giant step for the language and hopefully it means an end to its decline and also its ridicule as a 'vulgar dialect of Dutch' by Dutch speakers. Still, it does remain fairly unknown: the anglophone tends to associate the word 'Frisian' with 'cow'.
I feel that Frysk is not well documented enough, I have tried to learn some but there isn't enough user-friendly material around to do so. Part of my reason for being interested in this language is that pointed out by Peter above as regards its close proximity to English.
And it is the English language's closest relative, having a pre-dominantly West Germanic root, but with extensive influence from North Germanic languages.
Friesian is a minority language, spoken on the N Sea coastal margin from N.W Holland up through N.W Germany and into S.W Denmark. It's worth preserving not least because it is directly linked to 'old' English - the language of the early Angles
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