Frisian literature

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Frisian literature is works written in the Frisian languages, including that of West Frisian spoken in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, from which most texts were produced or have survived. The first texts written in Frisian emerge around the 13th century.

Medieval and early modern periods

Texts written in Frisian first appear in manuscripts from the late medieval period. Records of these, however, are fairly scarce and would generally not constitute literature, even if they did show some poetic merit. In 1498, Dutch became the official language in Friesland for all purposes of writing but Frisian would survive as a spoken language among the common people. Through the Renaissance, some authors would consciously attempt to preserve their language in short written works. Middle Frisian would generally be considered to begin around this time in the mid-16th century. The greatest impact came from the seventeenth-century schoolteacher from Bolsward, Gysbert Japiks, whose poetry attempted to prove Frisian's worth as a written language and brought about a revival amongst other Frisian authors in appreciating their native language, an appreciation that had slowed by the eighteenth century, the end of the Middle Frisian period.

Modern period

Friesland

Modern West Frisian, beginning around 1800 with the

Western Frisian people. Their works were collected and published as the famous Rimen en Teltsjes
in 1871.

The Frisian language was firmly established as an academic study in the twentieth century (Rolf Bremmer is the current professor of Old Frisian at Leiden University[1]), and the language is available for study in secondary education as well. After World War II, from around 1945 to 1963, Frisian literature experienced another period of growth with important authors and literary ambassadors like Anne Wadman, Fedde Schurer, Fokke Sierksma, and Lolle Nauta, though Wadman went to his grave disappointed that he had not succeeded in creating a rapprochement between Dutch and Frisian literatures.[2] Still, Frisian literature continues to flourish at least within Friesland: Frisian authors were being promoted to the Dutch readership,[3] and there are dozens of Frisian-language authors[4][5] and literary magazines. At the same time, declining sales of literature in the Netherlands have affected Frisian literature as well, with estimates of the decline in sales of Frisian literature estimated at 30 to 40% since 2000, and library loans of Frisian books in one area declining from 152,000 in 2005 to 135,000 in 2007.[6]

North Frisia

Literature in the various dialects of the

Fering.[8]

The problems of North Frisian literature include the limited number of speakers, the dialectal divisions which are mostly mutually unintelligible, a lack of writing tradition and a rural background without urban cultural centres and a late standardisation of orthography for the main dialects.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Prof.dr. R.H. (Rolf) Bremmer". Leiden University. Archived from the original on 2 August 2010. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  2. ^ "Schrijver Anne Wadman vond zichzelf mislukt". Friesch Dagblad. 25 November 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  3. ^ "Friese literatuur verkoopt zich aan Nederland". Brabants Dagblad. 29 March 2006. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  4. Digital library for Dutch literature
    . Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  5. Digital library for Dutch literature
    . Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  6. ^ Stikkelbroek, Ellen (7 March 2009). "Friese literatuur wordt minder geschreven en gelezen". Friesch Dagblad. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  7. ^ a b Steensen, Thomas (1999). "Zwei Jahrhunderte nordfriesischer Literatur – ein kurzer Rück- und Ausblick". Zeitschrift für Kultur- und Bildungswissenschaften (in German) (8). University of Flensburg: 121–127.
  8. . Weblink in German and Fering.

External links