Where (Early) Modern Frisian shades off into

Dutch

Eric Hoekstra

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Road Map

The multilingual setting: the language situation from a sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic point of view (part 1)

Example of Dutch interference: word order in the verbal cluster (part 2)

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Part I. The multilingual setting

• Early Modern Frisian, spoken by many, written by very few

• Early Modern Dutch, second language, adequately acquired by the upper class (intellectually or socially) only, not acquired or inadequately by the lower class

• Latin

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Early Modern Frisian

• Also called: Middle Frisian• 1550-1800• Surviving material: 1 million words• 17th century: mainly Gysbert Japicx• 18th century: more, and more diverse

material

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What was written in Early Modern Frisian?

• Many short pieces such as congratulatory poems

• Farce (very free translation) and comedy• Psalm translations• Genre: literature• Not: laws, contracts, scientific articles

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How much was written in EMF?

• Very very little compared to the total written production.

• The bulk was written in Dutch or Latin• Early Modern Frisian was written by a few

aficionado’s, or for incidental fun such as almanac pieces and verses written at the occasion of somebody obtaining his doctorate at the university of Franeker.

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Who wrote Frisian?

• Only those, who could write (obviously).• That is, those schooled in writing Dutch or

Latin.• That is, people belonging to middle / high

class (which were then fewer than now).• That is, people with enough leisure time to

write and publish.

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Where did they learn to write Frisian?

• They didn’t.• There was no schooling in Frisian.

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What did the Frisian standard language of 17 / 18th century look like?

• There was no language standard• Some writers expressed respect for the Frisian

of Gysbert Japicx, who wrote Frisian in a baroque style.

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Gysbert Japicx

GJ on the cover of a book by Kalma

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The languages of those who wrote Frisian

• Those who wrote Frisian were proficient bilinguals, who had never learned to spell Frisian, who had hardly read Frisian.

• The only body of written language which they could fall back on, was written Dutch.

• As a result, interference from Dutch shows up in their work.

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Anecdotes

1. When your language enters a domain where it has never been before …

2. Enthousiasts of the Frisian Movement in the 19th century spoke to each other in Frisian but wrote to each other in Dutch.

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Causes of Dutch interference

• When Frisian was written down in literary pieces of the 17th and 18th centuries, it entered a new domain of language. The writers were equiped for that domain with Dutch, on which they fell back.

• Schooled writers must have been in intense contact with Dutch and other languages, because it was the language of the more formal domains in their social environment.

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To sum up

There must have been interference from Dutch throughout the history of Frisian, at least from 1600 onward, considering the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic situation.

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Part II

Example and analysis of Dutch Interference

Word order in the verbal cluster

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The verbal cluster

=

The group of verbs at the end of the ‘Middle Field’ in Continental West Germanic languages (Frisian, Dutch, German, Flemish)

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Example of verbal cluster from Modern Dutch

Omdat ik je wel …I would I you DcPzou hebben willen zien blijven staan toekijken.would have want see stay stand watch‘Because I would have wanted to see you continue stand (there) watching.’

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Example of verbal cluster from Modern Frisian

Omdat ik dy wol …because I you DcPstean bliuwen sjen wollen ha soe.stand continue see want have would‘Because I would have wanted to see you continue standing (there).’

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Word order in the verbal cluster

Modern Frisian: tensed verb is cluster-final:Omdat er rinne wol.because he walk wants‘Because he wants to walk.’

How was this in Early Modern Frisian?

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Data source

Prose tekst, translated from French

Yen suwnerlinge forhânlinge Fen it Libben In fenne Deade ‘An uncommon essay about life and death’ by Philippe du Plessis - Mornay.

Translated by Gysbert Japicx

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Questions

• Does the main verb precede the tensed verb in Japicx’ Early Modern Frisian work?

• Is Early Modern Frisian like Modern Frisian in this respect?

• Does word order in the verbal cluster correlate with other properties, which may explain choice of word order?

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Investigation of verb clusters

A count was made of the word orders found in the verbal cluster.

Deviant word orders in Frisian were found to be identical to Dutch word orders.

Deviant word orders correlated with other phenomena characteristic of written language (that is, written Dutch).

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ResultsTensed verb is cluster-final 288 90%

Tensed verb is cluster-initial 18 6%

Other (tensed verb in the middle of the cluster)

12 4%

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Does the main verb precede the tensed verb in Japicx Early Modern Frisian work?

Yes, in 90 % of all cases.But it has a ‘Dutch’ order in 6 % of all cases

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Is Early Modern Frisian like Modern Frisian in this respect?

Yes, with respect to the cluster-final orders (90%).Not with respect to the cluster-initial orders (6%).

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Example of deviant cluster-initial order in Early Modern Frisian

wier-trog me sommige in socken forbiuesteringewhere-by one some in such senselessnesssiocht fâllensees fall‘By which some are seen to fall prey to such senselessness.’

Such orders were the unmarked word order in 17th century Dutch in this type of clause (Van der Horst 2008:1327-1329)

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Do the deviant word orders correlate with other properties, which may explain choice of word order?

Yes: there are three correlations

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The number of verbs in the verb cluster (correlation 1)

2 verbs 3 verbs

Tensed verb is cluster-final 252 19

Tensed verb is cluster-initial 10 4

More cluster-initial word orders in case there are more verbs in the verb cluster (p = 0.019).

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Causal connection?

Can the higher number of cluster-initial word orders be ascribed to interference from Dutch?

Yes, it can.

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Written Dutch versus spoken Frisian

Note that the two competing languages, inside Japicx’ head (that is, psycholinguistically speaking), are not just Frisian and Dutch, but spoken Frisian and written Dutch, because written Frisian was virtually non-existent.

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Interference from written Dutch

1. Written language is more complex than spoken language.

2. If Japicx writes Frisian, he will be more likely to produce complex clusters.

3. Complex verb clusters are more frequent in written Dutch than in spoken Frisian.

4. Therefore, Dutch interference is stronger in complex clusters than in simple clusters.

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Clusters introduced by the infinitival marker te ‘to’ (correlation 2)

1. Clusters with te ‘to’ are more complex than clusters without it.2. Hence, by the argument just given (written language is more complex), we expect more interference from Dutch in clusters with te than in clusters without te. 3. This expectation is borne out

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The presence of TE (correlation 2)

TE present No TE

Auxiliary verb final in cluster 17 252

Auxiliary verb initial in cluster 4 15

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Position of TE in clusters

Normal case in Frisian (17x):sonder herre dear-fen drinckje to littenwithout them of it drink to let‘without letting them drink of it’

Deviant order, identical to Dutch (4x):om mei de âderdomme to moggen restjenfor with the old.age to may rest‘to have permission not to work when one is old’

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The choice of main verb: infinitive or perfect participle (correlation 3)

Main verb is past participle

Main verb is infinitive

Tensed verb is cluster-final 150 (135 + 15) 108 (104 + 4)

Tensed verb is cluster-initial 0 14 (10 + 4)

More cluster-initial word orders in case the main verb is an infinitive.

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Causal connection?

Can the higher number of cluster-initial word orders be ascribed to interference from Dutch?

Yes, it can.

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Interference from written Dutch

1. Van der Horst (2008:1327-29) on 17th c. Dutch: infinitival main verbs mostly follow the tensed verb, whereas participles precede it.

2. 17th c. Dutch and Frisian pattern the same with respect to participial main verbs, but differ with respect to the position of infinitival main verbs.

3. The sprinkling of infinitival main verbs following the tensed verb in Frisian (6%) can be ascribed to Dutch influence.

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To sum

Deviant verb orders in Frisian correlate with • the amount of verbs (3 rather than 2)• the presence of TE (again complexity)• the choice of main verb (infinitive / participle)

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Conclusions

Even the celebrated 17th century writer Gysbert Japicx displays a limited amount of interference from written Dutch.

Deviant orders in Early Modern Frisian are identical to the normal case in Dutch.

The correlations point to Dutch interference in Early Modern Frisian

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Four centuries of verb clusters

The big picture, in the verbal cluster, hasn’t changed so much: tensed verb is cluster-final in Frisian.

What changed was Dutch: past participles may be placed at the end of the cluster in 20th c. Dutch, not in 17th c. Dutch.

Thus, interference may be constant over many centuries before the balance is finally tipped and a language change takes place.

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ehoekstra@fryske-

akademy.nl

Thanx for your attention