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Nostalgy-tv: The other Fryslân

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    In the whole of Europe there almost doesn't exist a more colourful mix of languages, as in Nordfriesland.
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    A unity that only since the 1970's exists as a separate district.
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    Of the 160.000 inhabitants, only about 10.000 speak one of the nine Nordfrisian dialects,
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    of the islands, or of the coastal region.
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    Have you silaged already?
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    We have just finished, there lies the heap.
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    That big one there. We finished yesterday.
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    How many tons, or how do you call that?
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    How many däämde, you mean?
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    Is it called that?
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    Up and around 70 däämde.
    That is 35 hectares.
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    Can you feed the cattle like that for the whole winter?
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    Yes, we mow two, three times.
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    First, second, third cut we call it.
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    That is the first, that the second and there comes the third.
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    And then we also have corn. 17 hectares.
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    Every year it went worse with Frisian.
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    Especially the last few years. But now it has stabilised.
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    Maybe it even gets better now.
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    But they are countable on the fingers of one hand,
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    the kids that still speak Frisian.
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    But there are coming more the last years.
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    Can you still speak Frisian anywhere you want to?
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    Here in the village you can. At the bank you can speak Frisian.
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    When you go to the store, you can speak Frisian.
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    In many places you can. At the bank and such.
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    And at the townhall. There they all speak Frisian.
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    There you can use it. And i do so very consciously.
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    When i first came here, everything was in Frisian.
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    You have to call the animals, the dogs, in Frisian.
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    When you want to play with the children, you have to speak Frisian.
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    Grandfather and grandmother here also speak Frisian of course.
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    So you don't hear German for weeks.
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    That is something else.
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    Have you learned a lot here?
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    I don't even know how long i was here, two months?
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    Six weeks? The first time six weeks.
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    When i went again, i could speak Frisian quite well.
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    After a few more times, it becomes very normal to speak.
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    There also always were a lot of contacts with the Dutch Fryslân.
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    A library with all kinds of literature from the Frisian lands, was founded by Frederik Paulsen.
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    The Ferring Stiftung, that runs the library now,
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    supports research and Frisians from the three Frisian lands have meetings here.
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    I think we are less of a unity here than you in West-Frisia.
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    We also don't really have a centre here, that could have made us feel like a unity as Nord Frisians.
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    The Nord Frisian movement has to work on that. Then it will come.
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    Because of the existance of the Nordfriisk Instituut in Bredstedt...
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    ... it is clear we belong together as Nordfrisians.
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    We as Nordfrisians shouldn't cut ourselves off from our common roots.
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    Do you speak Frisian?
    Not so much.
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    We spoke High-German at home. At my grandfathers' they did speak Frisian.
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    But we are from another generation, aren't we.
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    They still learn it at school.
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    I am Frisian. That is just a part of us.
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    But i don't really practise it much.
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    My wife speaks High- and Low-German.
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    My son said something in Frisian, but she didn't understand that.
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    With my wife Low-German, with my children Frisian and with my dog High-German.
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    What kind of language is this?
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    This is the Nordfrisian dialect 'Süder goesharder'.
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    It became extinct in the 80's. Nobody still speaks it.
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    We try to reconstruct it by use of old recordings.
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    This language doesn't exist anymore?
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    The last speaker has past away. It was spoken in Schöbull and Hattstedt.
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    In Schöbull it died out in the 60's and in Hattstedt in the 80's.
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    The last speaker past away in 86'.
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    With such recordings from the 50's, you amusingly hear...
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    ...that the ordinary people didn't have false teeth yet.
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    You already can not understand it very well, because the dialect has gone extinct.
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    With the teeth out, you only hear mumble, mumble.
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    It is almost impossible to follow what they say.
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    When the recordings get digitalized, the quality will be much better.
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    It is difficult to understand right now.
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    We want to reconstruct the grammar and words from this dialect.
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    Because it is a shame that such a language disappears from the face of the earth, just like that.
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    When science would say: your language has no chance of survival...
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    ... then we could say to the media:
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    All Nordfrisians go to Heligoland and jump in the sea.
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    That would be a spectacle. Fine to broadcast on television:
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    The great end of 'The drama of the Nordfrisian'.
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    But we are not like that. We go on with what lives in us.
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    Things we don't want to do, we don't do.
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    We live our lifes as we are.
Title:
Nostalgy-tv: The other Fryslân
Description:

On good friday, the 6th of april Omrop Fryslân in the framework of Nostalgy-tv replayed a piece of the three-part documentary 'It oare Fryslân' about Nordfriesland and Nordfrisian. De documentary makers have taken a look in Risum-Lindholm, on the farm of the Boysen family and also talked to the young linguist Gary Funck.
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Video Language:
Frisian
Duration:
09:57

English subtitles

Revisions

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