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Wurdboek fan de Fryske
taal /Woordenboek der Friese
taal
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Already published volumes:
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A small language, a large
dictionary
Frisian, the language spoken in the Dutch province of Friesland, is of West Germanic origin and in its oldest stage belonged, with Old English and Old Saxon, to the North Sea Germanic group.
Traditionally, three stages are recognized - Old, Middle and Modern Frisian. These three stages do not coincide, however, with the periodization of the other Germanic dialects.
Old Frisian is the language found in a number of manuscripts and charters that date from the 11th to 16th centuries and which derive from an area ranging from the German river Weser in the East to the IJsselmeer in the West. Though the oldest manuscripts are relatively young, they often contain texts that are very much older. Linguistically, these early texts reflect features that justify calling this stage Old Frisian.
Middle Frisian is the term used for the language of the poet Gysbert Japicx (1603-1666), and that of the literature of the 17th and the 18th centuries. Though there are no specific linguistic reasons for considering Middle Frisian (1550-1800) a separate stage in the process of linguistic evolution, it has, for practical reasons, been generally accepted as such.
Frisian is the second official language in the Netherlands and it forms the main object of investigation of the department of Lexicographical Projects of the Fryske Akademy (Frisian Academy). This institute is involved with scientific research into all aspects of the Dutch province of Friesland - its inhabitants, their language or their history.
Ever since 1938 people at the lexicographical department of the Fryske Akademy (FA) have been working on a comprehensive scholarly dictionary of Modern Frisian, i.e. the Wurdboek fan de Fryske Taal/ Woordenboek der Friese Taal (WFT). For a lesser used language like Frisian this is a unique undertaking. When the entire project is finished, over 125,000 words will have been defined, taking up 22 volumes of 400 pages each. That is considerably more than was aimed at when the project started, namely a dictionary about the size of the Dutch Van Dale monolingual desk dictionary.
Preamble
Like most dictionaries, the WFT stands on the shoulders of earlier ones. In fact, the history of the WFT begins with the Mennonite minister and language lover Joast Hiddes Halbertsma (1789-1869). He was the first to make extensive collections of (Modern) Frisian language material and also the first to describe such material in a dictionary format. In 1872, his son Tsjalling posthumously published the Lexicon Frisicum , which contained material his father had finished in manuscript, the part A to Feer . The metalanguage of the Lexicon was Latin, consequently the dictionary was not accessible to the majority of Frisians. That was a pity, because in those days many people took great interest in the study of Frisian. In 1879 the Provincial Executive of Friesland decided there should be a comprehensive dictionary of Modern Frisian, taking as its point of departure the Lexicon Frisicum and the dictionary material Halbertsma had left to the province of Friesland. This new dictionary, the Friesch Woordenboek, was compiled by Waling Dykstra (1821-1914), assisted by others. The first volume appeared in 1900 and the third and last volume in 1911. Fairly soon there were critical comments on the Friesch Woordenboek and there was an increasingly strong demand for a more complete dictionary. Eventually, this was one of the reasons for the founding of the Fryske Akademy in 1938. The main project the FA embarked on was the scholarly Wurdboek fan de Fryske Taal/Woordenboek der Friese Taal. The material from the manuscripts and the dictionary of Halbertsma is incorporated into the WFT, as is that of the entire Friesch Woordenboek. Thus, be it in a roundabout way, and over a hundred years later, Halbertsma's material still became available for everybody.
The beginning
Towards the end of 1938 FA-chairman Sipma launched a plan to establish a large alphabetic card index system, which was to supply the words for the new dictionary. That card index system would have to contain a collection, as complete as possible, of words and phrases in contemporary and earlier Frisian, including the dialects. In practice, material was gathered from 1800 onwards. In any case the material from existing dictionaries, studies, collections etc. had to be included. Furthermore, attention would have to be paid to (technical) jargon, dialect words, proverbs, sayings and set expressions. The plan was so ambitious, that it could only be realized with the help of volunteers. Those volunteers occupied themselves mainly with the making of excerpts from books and other texts, taking note, as they read, of words and expressions that seemed interesting enough for inclusion in the prospective dictionary.
The volunteers did a great job. In 1954 there were already 300,000 cards in the card-index
Frisian, the language spoken in the Dutch province of Friesland, is of West Germanic origin and in its oldest stage belonged, with Old English and Old Saxon, to the North Sea Germanic group.
Traditionally, three stages are recognized - Old, Middle and Modern Frisian. These three stages do not coincide, however, with the periodization of the other Germanic dialects.
Old Frisian is the language found in a number of manuscripts and charters that date from the 11th to 16th centuries and which derive from an area ranging from the German river Weser in the East to the IJsselmeer in the West. Though the oldest manuscripts are relatively young, they often contain texts that are very much older. Linguistically, these early texts reflect features that justify calling this stage Old Frisian.
Middle Frisian is the term used for the language of the poet Gysbert Japicx (1603-1666), and that of the literature of the 17th and the 18th centuries. Though there are no specific linguistic reasons for considering Middle Frisian (1550-1800) a separate stage in the process of linguistic evolution, it has, for practical reasons, been generally accepted as such.
Frisian is the second official language in the Netherlands and it forms the main object of investigation of the department of Lexicographical Projects of the Fryske Akademy (Frisian Academy). This institute is involved with scientific research into all aspects of the Dutch province of Friesland - its inhabitants, their language or their history.
Ever since 1938 people at the lexicographical department of the Fryske Akademy (FA) have been working on a comprehensive scholarly dictionary of Modern Frisian, i.e. the Wurdboek fan de Fryske Taal/ Woordenboek der Friese Taal (WFT). For a lesser used language like Frisian this is a unique undertaking. When the entire project is finished, over 125,000 words will have been defined, taking up 22 volumes of 400 pages each. That is considerably more than was aimed at when the project started, namely a dictionary about the size of the Dutch Van Dale monolingual desk dictionary.
Preamble
Like most dictionaries, the WFT stands on the shoulders of earlier ones. In fact, the history of the WFT begins with the Mennonite minister and language lover Joast Hiddes Halbertsma (1789-1869). He was the first to make extensive collections of (Modern) Frisian language material and also the first to describe such material in a dictionary format. In 1872, his son Tsjalling posthumously published the Lexicon Frisicum , which contained material his father had finished in manuscript, the part A to Feer . The metalanguage of the Lexicon was Latin, consequently the dictionary was not accessible to the majority of Frisians. That was a pity, because in those days many people took great interest in the study of Frisian. In 1879 the Provincial Executive of Friesland decided there should be a comprehensive dictionary of Modern Frisian, taking as its point of departure the Lexicon Frisicum and the dictionary material Halbertsma had left to the province of Friesland. This new dictionary, the Friesch Woordenboek, was compiled by Waling Dykstra (1821-1914), assisted by others. The first volume appeared in 1900 and the third and last volume in 1911. Fairly soon there were critical comments on the Friesch Woordenboek and there was an increasingly strong demand for a more complete dictionary. Eventually, this was one of the reasons for the founding of the Fryske Akademy in 1938. The main project the FA embarked on was the scholarly Wurdboek fan de Fryske Taal/Woordenboek der Friese Taal. The material from the manuscripts and the dictionary of Halbertsma is incorporated into the WFT, as is that of the entire Friesch Woordenboek. Thus, be it in a roundabout way, and over a hundred years later, Halbertsma's material still became available for everybody.
The beginning
Towards the end of 1938 FA-chairman Sipma launched a plan to establish a large alphabetic card index system, which was to supply the words for the new dictionary. That card index system would have to contain a collection, as complete as possible, of words and phrases in contemporary and earlier Frisian, including the dialects. In practice, material was gathered from 1800 onwards. In any case the material from existing dictionaries, studies, collections etc. had to be included. Furthermore, attention would have to be paid to (technical) jargon, dialect words, proverbs, sayings and set expressions. The plan was so ambitious, that it could only be realized with the help of volunteers. Those volunteers occupied themselves mainly with the making of excerpts from books and other texts, taking note, as they read, of words and expressions that seemed interesting enough for inclusion in the prospective dictionary.
The volunteers did a great job. In 1954 there were already 300,000 cards in the card-index
A card
from the card-index system
system. Yet that appeared
to be too small a basis for a scholarly dictionary, partly because
the people making excerpts had gathered many special and rare words
and expressions, but hardly any 'common' ones, like the articles
(de [the], it [it] and in [a(n)]) and the
prepositions (e.g. yn [in] and op [on/at]). Then the
decision was made to establish a second card-index system, which
was to contain integral (parts of) texts. With the help of
volunteers this second card-index system was established during the
years 1956 to 1958. It was called 'trochsneedapparaat'
[cross-section system], and it contained all the words of a
selection of 4875 pages of text from the period of 1800 to 1950.
The new collection yielded for instance 60,000 occurrences of the
word de [the] and 16,000 of yn [in]. All in all,
material from over 1,200 books, articles, newspapers etc. has been
incorporated in both card-index systems. The 'cross-section'
card-index system was a very modern tool for its time.
Writing begins
Towards the end of 1958, the contours of the dictionary became a little clearer. The idea was to compile a Frisian from 1800 onwards, about the size of the Dutch monolingual Van Dale desk dictionary. In 1960, at last the writing could begin. Partly because the FA was understaffed, the editing process of the dictionary quickly lost momentum, but in the seventies, the situation improved considerably. In 1977 there was a lexicographical staff of six. Yet it would take a long time for the first volume to be published. One of the reasons for the delay was that the first card-index system had been substantially expanded through the years. Consequently, many of the earlier dictionary texts had to be adapted. Another hurdle to be dealt with before the first volume could be published was the spelling reform that was announced in 1976 and came into effect in 1980. To the editorial staff this meant that many words (lemmata) that had already been described had to be respelled and moved.
Metalanguage
Around 1960, Sipma raised the question of the dictionary's metalanguage, i.e. the language in which, among others, the semantic and grammatical characteristics of the Frisian words are given. He thought the metalanguage should be Frisian and this stirred up a lot of commotion. The members of the then dictionary committee were unable to agree on the matter. Some members opted, for scholarly and ideological reasons, for Frisian. The lexicographers in the committee were in favour of Dutch as the metalanguage. They argued it would allow them to describe the Frisian words in a more simple and compact way. Moreover, with Dutch as the metalanguage, the dictionary would be more accessible to non-Frisian speakers. The board of governors of the Fryske Akademy put the decision into the hands of managing director Brouwer, who chose Dutch, for practical and financial reasons, as the dictionary's metalanguage. The board of governors went along with that choice. It would turn out, however, that the last word on the metalanguage of the dictionary had not yet been said. In 1982 the matter of the metalanguage was raised again. That caused a lot of commotion in- and outside FA-circles. The larger part of the dictionary staff was, for practical reasons, opposed to changing over to Frisian as the official language of the WFT. The majority of the general board of the FA, however, supported the advocates of Frisian and in January 1983 it was decided to change the metalanguage of the WFT, but the Minister of Education and Science overruled the board's decision. The board of governors had to reconcile itself to the situation.
When the matter of the metalanguage had been settled, there was nothing left to prevent the publication of the WFT. Towards the end of 1984, editor-in-chief Klaas van der Veen could present the first volume of the WFT to the Queen of the Netherlands.
Scholarly
The WFT in its final form may be described as: a scholarly, alphabetically arranged, historical dictionary, which explains in Dutch, and covers the period 1800-1975. The description of the words is based on the material contained in both card-index systems. All the meanings of a word, one might say, are demonstrated by the accompanying citations from which the meaning has to become clear. By means of these citations the user may verify the work of the lexicographer. This possibility to verify, allows us to call the WFT a scholarly dictionary. As a result of the choice of Dutch as the dictionary's metalanguage, the WFT has become something of a hybrid. On the one hand it is an explaining dictionary, because explanatory definitions are used. On the other hand it is a translation dictionary, because often a merely translated equivalent is given, especially where compounds are concerned. In the latest volumes of the WFT, for that matter, we see an increasing tendency to give explanatory definitions instead of short translations.
Language museum
In part, the WFT has the function of a language museum. Through the language, the words, this museum provides the reader with a picture of Frisian society. An ever changing picture, because every era has its own words. We all have this natural urge to be able to give a name to everything happening around us and to everything we see. Whenever the things around us are changing, our language does so too. For new things new words come into being, and words for things that have gone out of fashion disappear. Through the changing vocabulary, the WFT allows us to keep track of minor and major changes in society. As beside every citation the year of appearance is given, we may roughly determine when certain changes have occurred.
One of the things that keeps changing constantly is the fashion in clothes. The WFT records it. We may read that around 1900 people wore durable and strong underwear made of the white-spotted blue fabric divel- or izersterk [devil- or iron-strong]. The dates of the citations of the word himdrok show that in the 19th century men wore that garment between their undershirt and their outer clothes. Once we understand what a himdrok is, we also understand the background and meaning of the proverb 'It himd is my neier as the rok' [near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin].
The WFT also indicates that environmental legislation has not always been as strict as it is now. Today, the farmers are at their wits' end what to do with their cow and pig manure. From the WFT we learn this was not really a problem to their predecessors, who simply dumped it in the jarrefeart of -sleat [slurry ditch] to keep it there.
Interesting too is the indirect picture the WFT paints of the social taboo on blasphemy. To get around this taboo and yet be able to vent one's feelings in a terse way, people invented a whole series of disguised oaths. The WFT faithfully reports them. The yield from volume 10: jakkes, jammele, jandoarje, jandoasje(my), jandomme, jasses(krastes), jemeny(joasje), jemis(kremis), jeukes(kreukes) and jokes, all having the name of Jesus (Christ) as a common basis.
Lovers of popular superstition will find an abundance of examples in the WFT. In volume 10 we read that black cats will bring sorrow and grief and white cats good luck. But be careful with cat's hair, because it will give you consumption. Dreaming of molars falling out of your mouth means that one of your next of kin will die. A screw from a coffin, or a ring made of such a screw, is good for gout and a living frog is an excellent cure for blikgatsmerte, or pain caused by a skinned backside.
Computer
Up to about 1985, every lexicographer wrote his or her dictionary text with a pen. The editorial staff has, however, kept up with the times and now everybody is at the computer-keyboard. Each handwritten text has been entered into the computer too. Thus a computer version of the ultimate paper dictionary is created. To the lexicographer, the linguist and other researchers this offers great possibilities, because the material in the computer version of the dictionary may be searched through and arranged in many ways. The linguist interested in morphology may arrange the words according to certain word endings, (for example all the words in -ens and -heid [-ness]). The lexicographer may systematize his meaning definitions by listing all the words having identical endings. Somebody interested in jargon may retrieve relevant terminology from the computer version of the dictionary through the symbols by which jargon is indicated in the WFT, for example that of architecture and construction, or the ones indicating words or expressions concerned with music or the animal or vegetable kingdoms.
Conclusion
When the WFT is finished, something will have been accomplished of which Friesland may be proud. The lexicographical staff of the Fryske Akademy will not be able to dwell too long on this. They have already started working on a monolingual Frisian and a bilingual Frisian- English dictionary (both partly based on WFT-material) and they have taken the first steps towards a Middle Frisian dictionary, which will describe the period 1550-1800. Furthermore it is the intention to compile an Old Frisian dictionary. When the latter two dictionaries are ready, Halbertsma's ideal of a lexicographical description of Frisian of all times will finally have been realized.
Writing begins
Towards the end of 1958, the contours of the dictionary became a little clearer. The idea was to compile a Frisian from 1800 onwards, about the size of the Dutch monolingual Van Dale desk dictionary. In 1960, at last the writing could begin. Partly because the FA was understaffed, the editing process of the dictionary quickly lost momentum, but in the seventies, the situation improved considerably. In 1977 there was a lexicographical staff of six. Yet it would take a long time for the first volume to be published. One of the reasons for the delay was that the first card-index system had been substantially expanded through the years. Consequently, many of the earlier dictionary texts had to be adapted. Another hurdle to be dealt with before the first volume could be published was the spelling reform that was announced in 1976 and came into effect in 1980. To the editorial staff this meant that many words (lemmata) that had already been described had to be respelled and moved.
Metalanguage
Around 1960, Sipma raised the question of the dictionary's metalanguage, i.e. the language in which, among others, the semantic and grammatical characteristics of the Frisian words are given. He thought the metalanguage should be Frisian and this stirred up a lot of commotion. The members of the then dictionary committee were unable to agree on the matter. Some members opted, for scholarly and ideological reasons, for Frisian. The lexicographers in the committee were in favour of Dutch as the metalanguage. They argued it would allow them to describe the Frisian words in a more simple and compact way. Moreover, with Dutch as the metalanguage, the dictionary would be more accessible to non-Frisian speakers. The board of governors of the Fryske Akademy put the decision into the hands of managing director Brouwer, who chose Dutch, for practical and financial reasons, as the dictionary's metalanguage. The board of governors went along with that choice. It would turn out, however, that the last word on the metalanguage of the dictionary had not yet been said. In 1982 the matter of the metalanguage was raised again. That caused a lot of commotion in- and outside FA-circles. The larger part of the dictionary staff was, for practical reasons, opposed to changing over to Frisian as the official language of the WFT. The majority of the general board of the FA, however, supported the advocates of Frisian and in January 1983 it was decided to change the metalanguage of the WFT, but the Minister of Education and Science overruled the board's decision. The board of governors had to reconcile itself to the situation.
When the matter of the metalanguage had been settled, there was nothing left to prevent the publication of the WFT. Towards the end of 1984, editor-in-chief Klaas van der Veen could present the first volume of the WFT to the Queen of the Netherlands.
Scholarly
The WFT in its final form may be described as: a scholarly, alphabetically arranged, historical dictionary, which explains in Dutch, and covers the period 1800-1975. The description of the words is based on the material contained in both card-index systems. All the meanings of a word, one might say, are demonstrated by the accompanying citations from which the meaning has to become clear. By means of these citations the user may verify the work of the lexicographer. This possibility to verify, allows us to call the WFT a scholarly dictionary. As a result of the choice of Dutch as the dictionary's metalanguage, the WFT has become something of a hybrid. On the one hand it is an explaining dictionary, because explanatory definitions are used. On the other hand it is a translation dictionary, because often a merely translated equivalent is given, especially where compounds are concerned. In the latest volumes of the WFT, for that matter, we see an increasing tendency to give explanatory definitions instead of short translations.
Language museum
In part, the WFT has the function of a language museum. Through the language, the words, this museum provides the reader with a picture of Frisian society. An ever changing picture, because every era has its own words. We all have this natural urge to be able to give a name to everything happening around us and to everything we see. Whenever the things around us are changing, our language does so too. For new things new words come into being, and words for things that have gone out of fashion disappear. Through the changing vocabulary, the WFT allows us to keep track of minor and major changes in society. As beside every citation the year of appearance is given, we may roughly determine when certain changes have occurred.
One of the things that keeps changing constantly is the fashion in clothes. The WFT records it. We may read that around 1900 people wore durable and strong underwear made of the white-spotted blue fabric divel- or izersterk [devil- or iron-strong]. The dates of the citations of the word himdrok show that in the 19th century men wore that garment between their undershirt and their outer clothes. Once we understand what a himdrok is, we also understand the background and meaning of the proverb 'It himd is my neier as the rok' [near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin].
The WFT also indicates that environmental legislation has not always been as strict as it is now. Today, the farmers are at their wits' end what to do with their cow and pig manure. From the WFT we learn this was not really a problem to their predecessors, who simply dumped it in the jarrefeart of -sleat [slurry ditch] to keep it there.
Interesting too is the indirect picture the WFT paints of the social taboo on blasphemy. To get around this taboo and yet be able to vent one's feelings in a terse way, people invented a whole series of disguised oaths. The WFT faithfully reports them. The yield from volume 10: jakkes, jammele, jandoarje, jandoasje(my), jandomme, jasses(krastes), jemeny(joasje), jemis(kremis), jeukes(kreukes) and jokes, all having the name of Jesus (Christ) as a common basis.
Lovers of popular superstition will find an abundance of examples in the WFT. In volume 10 we read that black cats will bring sorrow and grief and white cats good luck. But be careful with cat's hair, because it will give you consumption. Dreaming of molars falling out of your mouth means that one of your next of kin will die. A screw from a coffin, or a ring made of such a screw, is good for gout and a living frog is an excellent cure for blikgatsmerte, or pain caused by a skinned backside.
Computer
Up to about 1985, every lexicographer wrote his or her dictionary text with a pen. The editorial staff has, however, kept up with the times and now everybody is at the computer-keyboard. Each handwritten text has been entered into the computer too. Thus a computer version of the ultimate paper dictionary is created. To the lexicographer, the linguist and other researchers this offers great possibilities, because the material in the computer version of the dictionary may be searched through and arranged in many ways. The linguist interested in morphology may arrange the words according to certain word endings, (for example all the words in -ens and -heid [-ness]). The lexicographer may systematize his meaning definitions by listing all the words having identical endings. Somebody interested in jargon may retrieve relevant terminology from the computer version of the dictionary through the symbols by which jargon is indicated in the WFT, for example that of architecture and construction, or the ones indicating words or expressions concerned with music or the animal or vegetable kingdoms.
Conclusion
When the WFT is finished, something will have been accomplished of which Friesland may be proud. The lexicographical staff of the Fryske Akademy will not be able to dwell too long on this. They have already started working on a monolingual Frisian and a bilingual Frisian- English dictionary (both partly based on WFT-material) and they have taken the first steps towards a Middle Frisian dictionary, which will describe the period 1550-1800. Furthermore it is the intention to compile an Old Frisian dictionary. When the latter two dictionaries are ready, Halbertsma's ideal of a lexicographical description of Frisian of all times will finally have been realized.