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Have you ever wondered why foreign languages are so different from your own? Or what sounds their speakers produce? Or how they say "the big book"? Then the Language Index is for you.
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North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. There are two main dialectal divisions: those of the mainland and the insular dialects. There is no standard variety, although some have suggested the mainland Mooring dialect. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages.
North Frisian is an endangered language, as in most places children no longer learn it. Exceptions are a few villages on the islands of Föhr and Amrum and the Risum area. All speakers of North Frisian are at least bilingual (North Frisian and Standard German). The variety presented here is Öömrang Frisian spoken on the island of Amrum where the main language is German. The Frisian language in the Öömrang dialect is spoken by roughly a third of the population, i.e. by ca. 800 people. However, many Amrumers cannot read North Frisian (Öömrang) making Öömrang a spoken rather than a written North-Frisian dialect. Many Amrumers moreover speak Low German, since it had been the language of the coastal sailors. Only a few people speak the Danish language.
Syntactic: | SOV, SVO, Prepositions, Adjective - Noun |
Morphological: | Little Affixation, Weakly Suffixing |
Phonological: | Rounded Front Vowels |
Miscellaneous: | Decimal System |
Status: | Endangered |
Name: | Jens Q. |
Age: | 55 |
Community: | Wittdün, Amrum |
Occupation: | Publicist, Manager |
National Ancestry: | Frisian |
Year Interviewed: | 2008 |
Play a welcome message spoken by Jens Q.:
Ik begrööte altuumal, wat det linguistik websidj natge.
Ik begrööt-e altuumal, wat det linguistik websidj natge.
ɪk bə'grø:tə altʊ'mɑl vat dɛt lɪŋgʊ'ɪstɪs 'vɛpsit 'ɲɑtgə.
I welcome-1.SG all.together, who the.N.SG linguistic website use.
Ik het Jens Quedens an snake Öömrang.
Ik het Jens Quedens an snak-e Öömrang.
ɪk hɛt 'jɛns 'kve:dəns ən 'snɑ:kə 'ø:mrɑŋ.
I be.called Jens Quedens and speak-1.SG Öömrang (Amrum.Frisian).
The examples below document the strong fusional character of North Frisian as well as the use of SVO in main and of SOV in subordinate clauses.
at buk
at 'bʊk
the.N.SG book.SG
a buk-en
a 'bʊkŋ
the book-PL
det grat buk
dɛt 'grat bʊk
the.N.SG big book.SG
det rocht grat buk
dɛt 'rɔxt grat bʊk
the.N.SG rightly big book.SG
ūūn det buk
'u:n dɛt bʊk
in the.N.SG book.SG
ūūn det buk
'u:n dɛt bʊk
on the.N.SG book.SG
De maan slääp-t.
dɪ 'mɑ:n slɛ:pt
the.M.SG man.SG sleep-3.SG.PRES
Jü wüf slep.
jy 'vʏf slɛ:p
the.F.SG woman.SG sleep.PST.3.SG
De maan sjoch-t det wüf.
dɪ 'mɑ:n ʃʲɔxt dɛt 'vʏf
the.M.SG man.SG see-PRES.3.SG the.N.SG woman.SG
... aner det wüf de maan sjoch-t.
... aʊə dɛt 'vʏf dɪ 'mɑ:n ʃʲɔxt
... when the.N.SG woman.SG the.M.SG man.SG see-PRES.3.SG
De maan dää det wüf det buk.
dɪ 'mɑ:n dɛ: dət 'vʏf dət 'bʊk
the.M.SG man.SG give.PRES.3.SG the.N.SG woman.SG the.N.SG.book
The speaker tells the story 'The Northwind and the Sun'.
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger,
Iar strääd ham nuurdwinj an san, hoker van biale-n wel stark-er wjar,
Once argued REFL North.wind and sun, which of both-DAT really strong-COMPR was,
when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.
üs en waanersmaan, diar en warm-en auerrock uum-hed, loongs a wai kam.
when a wanderer, who a warm-ACC coat on-had, along the way came.
They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off
So wurd ianag, dat de a stark-er wees skul, wat de waanersmaan twing küd,
They were agreed, that that the strong-er be shall, that the wanderer force could
should be considered stronger than the other. The North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more
san auerrock uf to-tjien. A nuurdwinj blooset mä al sin maacht, man a hard-er
his coat off to-take. The North.wind blew with all his strength, but the hard-COMPR
he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last
he blooset, a fääst-er wolet de waanersmaan ham uun san rok. To leetst
he blew, the tight-COMPR wrapped the wanderer REFL in his coat. At last
the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly,
ded a nuurdwinj de stridj up. Nu waremt a san a loft mä hör frinjelh strual-er,
gave the North.wind the strife up. Now warmed the Sun the air with her friendly beam-PL
and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.
an al after flook uuge-n blak-er toog de waanersmaan san auerrok uf.
and all after few eye-PL blink-PL took the wanderer his coat off.
And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
Diar moos a nuurdwinj tujiw, dat a san faan biale-n a stark-er wjar.
Thus must the North.wind confess, that the Sun of both-DAT the strong-COMPR was.
1
ian
'ian
2
tau
tʰaʊ
3
trii
tɾ̥i:
4
sjauer
'ʃaʊə
5
fiiw
'fiu
6
seeks
sɛ:ks
7
sööven
'so̷vən
8
aacht
ɑ:xt
9
njuagen
'ɲʏgən
10
tjiin
ʧi:n
Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar |
Retro- flex |
Alveolo-Palatal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyn- geal |
Glottal | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||||||||||||||||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||||||||||||||
Trill | r | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Tap or Flap | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Affrikate | ʧ | ʨ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | ç | ʝ | x | h | |||||||||||||||
Lateral Fricative | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Approximant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lateral Approximant | l |
Since Öömrang Frisian is a spoken rather than a written variety of North Frisian, there is disagreement among Öömrang speakers about how to write this variety.
Here is a generalized alphabet of North Frisian (adapted from www.omniglot.com):
Contributors to this VLC Language Index entry:
Ik begrööte altuumal, wat det linguistik websidj natge.
Ik begrööt-e altuumal, wat det linguistik websidj natge.
ɪk bə'grø:tə altʊ'mɑl vat dɛt lɪŋgʊ'ɪstɪs 'vɛpsit 'ɲɑtgə.
I welcome-1.SG all.together, who the.N.SG linguistic website use.
Ik het Jens Quedens an snake Öömrang.
Ik het Jens Quedens an snak-e Öömrang.
ɪk hɛt 'jɛns 'kve:dəns ən 'snɑ:kə 'ø:mrɑŋ.
I be.called Jens Quedens and speak-1.SG Öömrang (Amrum.Frisian).
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