German-Frisian

© Yaron Matras

Frisian is a West Germanic language, closely related historically to English, which has been under the influence of Danish and Low German for many centuries. The North Frisian dialects are spoken along the western coast of the Germany, just south of the Danish border, as well as on the Frisian islands, by a population of only several thousand. The recording was made in 1984 in the town of Niebüll, in the German province of Schleswig-Holstein. The speaker is a teacher, who teaches Frisian at the local school. She talks about her work and the books she uses to interest the children in the Frisian language:

Example 1

a.	S:	Än	wat	da	mååste	jungse	gåns
		and	what	the	most	kids	very
		hål	mooge,	as	heer	da	latje/
		much	like.PL	is	here	the	little
		suk	latje	seetinge	tu	leesen	ooder
		such	little	sentences	to	read	or
		suk	latje	gedichte	heer	tu	leesen.
		such	little	poems	here	to	read

Mhm.

c.	S:	Deer	jeeft't	gåns,	gåns	njütie	for	jungse
		there	give.3SG it	very	very	nice	for	kids
		uk,	da	mååge	we	dan	uk	immer
		too	these	make.1PL	we	then	also	always
		iinjsen	tubai.
		once	privately

d.	Das	ist	also	ganz/	Dieses	Buch
	this	is	PART	very	this	book
	hier	ist	ganz	toll,	können	Sie
	here	is	very	nice	can.2POL	you
	ganz	bestimmt	kaufen	im	Nordfriisk	Instituut
	very	certainly	buy	in
	oder	auch	hier,	in	jeder	Buchhandlung
	or	also	here	in	every	bookshop
	hier	bei	uns	hier	oben.
	here	at	us	here	above

Aha.

f.	S:	Än	dän	hääw	ik	uk	nuch	en	bök
		and	then	have.1SG	I	also	still	a	book
		'Max	än	Moritz'	aw	frasch,
					in	Frisian

ja,

mhm,

mhm.

h.	S:	Dåt	hääw	ik	fort	treed	schöljiir,
		that	have.1SG	I	for.the	third	schoolyear
		än	dän	häaw	ik	nuch:	'We
		and	then	have.1SG	I	still	we
		bjarne	foon	Bullerbü'	fort	fiird	schöljiir.
		children	from		for.the	fourth	schoolyear

Example 1 Translation

a.	S:	And what most kids really like is here to read the little/ these little sentences, or to read these little poems.
b.	H:	Mhm.
c.	S:	There are many nice ones, for kids too, we always produce them ourselves, in our spare time.
d.		And this is a very/ This book is very nice, you can certainly purchase it at the North Frisian Institute or even here, in every bookshop in our area up here.
e.	H:	Aha. Aha.
f.	S:	And then I have another book, 'Max and Moritz' in Frisian,
g.	H:	Oh yes, mhm, mhm.
h.	S:	I have that one for year three, and then I also have 'We Children from Bullerby', for year four.

Note the switch to German in line d.: While the main topic of her narration is the books she uses to teach Frisian, and the children's reactions to them, in line d. the speaker departs from this topic to make a side-remark. This side-remark is directed at the listener, evaluating the book and recommending that the listener try and purchase it. When the speaker returns to the main topic of her narrative - the schoolbooks - in line f., she also switches back into Frisian, the main chosen language of the conversation. Codeswitching here has a conversational function: It is used to help structure the conversation, and to highlight a side-comment against the background of the more general narration line.