WA Craigie Source: the Modern Language Review, Vol. 5
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Review Author(s): W. A. Craigie Review by: W. A. Craigie Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jul., 1910), pp. 382-388 Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3713382 Accessed: 15-01-2016 11:00 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Modern Humanities Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Modern Language Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 131.172.36.29 on Fri, 15 Jan 2016 11:00:24 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 382 Reviews Lytse Fryske Spraekleare. Westerlauwersk om 1900 hinne oangeande Fen G. POSTMAen P. DE CLERCQ. Ljouwert, 1904. 8vo. pp. vii + 128. Frysk Les- en Taelboekje, troch P. SIPMA. 2 Parts. Leiden, 1906. 8vo. pp. 67 and 68. Yn eigen TMn. Frysk Lesboekje. Fen J. J. HOF. 2 Parts. Hearenfean, 1909. 8vo. pp. 68 and 84. Sol' ring Leesbok. Lesebuch in Sylter Mundart, von BoY P. MOLLER. Altona, 1909. 8vo. pp. viii + 164. For some two thousand years at least, the land between the Flie and the Lauwers (the present province of Friesland) has been inhabited by an ancient branch of the Germanic stock,-one which has delighted to call itself by the name of 'free Frisians.' During all that long time they have been able to defend their land against the assaults of the North Sea, and to maintain their own speech against the encroachments of Saxon and Frankish, though not without serious loss in both respects; Friesland itself, and the range of the Frisian tongue, are smaller than they were some centuries ago. Yet the land is well-peopled, and the language is still in daily use over nearly its whole extent. It is a fact well-known to every student of the Germanic tongues, that Frisian is the nearest relative of English, and it would probably be no over-statement to say that at the time of the conquest of Britain the Frisians were speaking practically the same language as the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. Since that date their fortunes have lain widely apart. Whatever the reason may have been, the old Frisians showed little taste for the written word; as one of their own writers has said, they were afraid of nothing so much as pen and ink. The result is that with the exception of the old laws and other legal documents (dating from the thirteenth century to the early part of the sixteenth) there is no old Frisian literature to set over against that of the other Germanic peoples. The fall of Frisian independence in 1498 led to the introduc- tion of Dutch as the official language, and in course of time the native tongue remained unrepresented in church and school, and even ceased to be commonly spoken in the towns. Yet it was in the seventeenth century, after this decline had set in, that Friesland found its first poet of note in Gysbert Japix (1603-66). After his day, however, with but few exceptions, Frisians who wrote at all preferred Dutch or Latin to their own tongue. When Boswell was in Utrecht in 1763, Dr Johnson wrote requesting him to procure some 'books in the Frisick language.' To this Boswell replied: 'I have made all possible inquiry with respect to the Frisick language, and find that it has been less cultivated than any other of the northern dialects; a certain proof of which is their deficiency of books....Of the modern Frisick, or what is spoken by the boors of this day, I have procured a specimen. It is Gisbert Japix's Rymelerie, which is the only book that they have. It is amazing that This content downloaded from 131.172.36.29 on Fri, 15 Jan 2016 11:00:24 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Reviews 383 they have no translation of the bible, no treatises of devotion, nor even any of the ballads and story-books which are so agreeable to country people.' 'The only book that they have' was almost literally true, but that one book had much to do with the revival of Frisian in the nineteenth century, which mainly dates from the time when the bust of Gysbert was set up in the church of Bolsward in 1823. It is unnecessary here to trace the course of modern Frisian literature since that date; under the example of the brothers Halbertsma the former dread of pen and ink has disappeared, and during the past sixty years a surprising amount of Frisian has found its way into print. Important stages in the work are marked by the foundation of the Frisian Literary Society (Selskip for Fryske Tael- en Skriftenkennisse) in 1844, the introduction of a uniform spelling in 1876, and the publication of a dictionary under the editorship of the veteran writer Waling Dykstra, begun in 1896 and now approaching completion. These recent developments have perhaps not received so much attention outside of Friesland as they deserve. For comparison with English or the other Germanic languages it is no longer necessary to cite Frisian forms in the archaic and often grotesque spelling of Gysbert Japix and his editor Epkema, while the information now available as to the range of the Frisian vocabulary is immensely greater than it was half a century ago. Like most of the small languages, Frisian has not escaped the pessimistic prophet. Even in the seventeenth century the pedantic friend of Gysbert, Simon Gabbema, was afraid that the language might die out before long, and all through the eighteenth century the outward signs of life were feeble enough. But the steady conservatism of the people has succeeded in preserving their tongue with very little change during the past three hundred years, and with an increase in the popu- lation it is now actually used by more persons than it was a century ago. According to recent estimates the number of Frisian speakers in the province itself is somewhere about 250,000, almost exclusively living in the villages and country districts. In all the larger towns of the Netherlands there are also Frisian societies, which hold regular meetings during the winter months; one of the favourite entertainments at these is the performance of Frisian comedies and farces, of which there is an incredible and steadily increasing number. Improved means of communication, however, are rapidly enlarging the immediate area of Dutch influence in Friesland itself, and it is beginning to be doubtful how far the language would be naturally able to resist the effects of this. It has seemed to some of those who are strongly attached to their mother-tongue, that if their own language is to have a fair chance of survival under the new conditions, it can no longer remain a mere medium of every-day intercourse, but must be commonly known also in its written form. For this end steps have recently been taken towards making Frisian a subject of instruction in schools, and a special fund has been established for that purpose. It is to forward this movement that three of the books named at the head of This content downloaded from 131.172.36.29 on Fri, 15 Jan 2016 11:00:24 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 384 Reviews this notice have been prepared, and the following remarks suggested by them may give some useful information on the present state of the language. The Little Frisian Grammar of Postma and De Clercql is intended as a guide for teachers who are already familiar with the language in its spoken form. Being also written in Frisian, and naturally containing a good many technical terms, it is not the best book for the outsider to begin upon, yet even a cursory examination of it will reveal to the student a certain number of the most prominent features of the language. The preface begins by defining the subject-matter as the most usual form of Westerlauwersk Lanfrysk, and each of these words deserves some remark. Ldnfrysk, the Frisian of the country districts, is used in contrast to Stedfrysk, the Dutch with some degree of Frisian colouring which is spoken in the towns. Westerlauwerskis used instead of 'West Frisian,' because West Friesland is still current as the name for part of the province of North Holland, where Frisian is no longer spoken. Although the language is not quite uniform over the whole of Friesland (there being at least three main divisions), the only dialects which differ in a very marked way from the others are those of Hindelopen (Hynljippen) on the west and Schiermonnikoog (SkiermAntseach,Grey Monks' Isle) to the north-east. On turning to the grammar itself, one notices at the outset the richness of the vowel-system, the simple vowels being denoted by no less than eighteen symbols (several of which have more than one value), the diphthongs by twenty, and triphthongs by five. For the better understanding of these one must still turn to the older grammar in Dutch by Ph. van Blom (Belnopte Friesche Spraakkunst 1889), or to the article by Prof.