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From: EURMXK@MVS.sas.com
Subject: Re: Frisian, was: Flemish and Dutch
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Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 07:35:00 GMT
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In article <3o5p1s$2d5@agate.berkeley.edu>,
coby@euler.Berkeley.EDU (Coby (Jacob) Lubliner) writes:
 
>In article <19950502074108EURMXK@MVS.sas.com>,
>        <EURMXK@MVS.sas.com> wrote:
>
>>There are some more native speakers of North Frisian (roughly about
>>10,000) along the shores of the North Sea in Schleswig-Holstein.
>>North Frisian has been recognized as a language to be used and taught
>>at schools in this area since the 1920's.
>
>According to Kloss (Die Entwicklung germanischer Kultursprachen...)
>there a numerous dialects within North Frisian that are not mutually
>intelligible, and no single standard has been developed.  Each
>little island seems to have its own "language" that is taught at the
>elementary-school level.
>
>Where there is such a thing as _a_ Frisian language is one of those
>futile questions for which there is no scientific answer.  (Kloss,
>the great language counter, admits that there is no single criterion
>to define a language by.)  For Frisian, one can say at best that
>it is a group of interrelated dialects, more closely related to
>one another than to other Germanic languages, that WOULD have been
>called a "language" IF the geopolitical situation had been such as
>to promote a single standard.
>
>Coby
>
I did not intend to convey the impression that "North Frisian" was
a homogeneous 'language' but obviously did so. Thank you for
correcting this misunderstanding. There are several 'dialects'
which makes it so difficult to devise an orthography. Moreover,
there are divergent opinions between different groups as far as
the use of capitals (a more 'German-like' spelling) or not is
concerned. (See Crystal, Encyclopedia of Language, p. 365:
"Capitals in Frisian?").
 
With best regards from,
Manfred Kiefer
