Fwd: [Wikipedia-l] Saterlandic Frisian Wikipedia

[Stephen Forrest]

Forwarded to Wikipedia-l as requested by the author, who mistakenly
sent it only to me...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wouter Steenbeek <musiqolog at hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 00:00:13 +0100
Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Saterlandic Frisian Wikipedia
To: stephen.forrest at gmail.com

>I believe you mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saterland_Frisian_language.
>
>For the purposes of ISO 639 codes, Saterland Frisian is regarded as a
>dialect of Frisian.  Can you provide a rationale for why working
>within the Frisian Wikipedia is not tenable?
>
>I seem to recall reading that there were different spelling
>conventions for the Frisian spoken in Germany and that spoken in the
>Netherlands.  I have no idea how significant these differences are.
>
>Steve
>_______________________________________________
>Wikipedia-l mailing list
>Wikipedia-l at Wikimedia.org
>http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l

You were right: I used the wrong link. Just a matter of mental absence ;).

What is a dialect? There is a seperate Wiki for Aromanian, though it can
easily be classified as a Romanian dialect. There are Limburgish, Low Saxon
and Alemannic Wikis, though German and Dutch would do well for all three of
them. Some tend to classify Czech, Slowakian and even Polish as one
language, but no-one question the legitimity of the seperate wikis.
According to many scolars, West Lauwer Frisian and Saterland Frisian are
dialects of the Frisian language, along with North Frisian. Some do,
however, consider it a separate language. Let me point out the differences
and similarities.

Westlauwer Frisian has, like Hollandic Dutch, only two genders: gendered and
neuter (de man, de frou, it ding). Saterlandic has three (di Mon, ju Fauene,
dät Diert). Westlauwer Frisian lost, again along with Dutch, its cases,
while Saterlandic preserved its dative and accusative cases. Westlauwer
Frisian has a complex system of diphthong which are the consequences of an
elaborate breaking process during the early Modern Age; this process has
left Saterlandic totally untouched; instead it developed other
mutation(ljibbe - lieuwje; swiet - swäit; leaf - ljoof). As a result,
Westlauwer Frisians and Saterland Frisians cannot understand each other,
unless they studied the other language.
Another important difference is in the vocabulary: Westlauwer Frisian draws
on Dutch, Saterland Frisian on German. Finally, Standard Westlauwer Frisian
has no official or prescriptive status in the Saterland: If Frisian is used
at all officially (which happens increasingly), Saterfrisian is used.

Maybe I will point this out with some comparative samples in the article on
Saterlandic.

Wouter

_________________________________________________________________
Altijd in contact met de kleinkinderen: MSN Messenger
http://messenger.msn.nl/