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Where (Early) Modern Frisian shades off into Dutch

Where (Early) Modern Frisian shades off into Dutch. Eric Hoekstra. 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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Where (Early) Modern Frisian shades off into Dutch

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  1. Where (Early) Modern Frisian shades off into Dutch Eric Hoekstra

  2. 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)

  3. Part I. The multilingual setting • Early Modern Frisian, spoken bymany, writtenbyvery few • Early Modern Dutch, second language, adequatelyacquiredby the upper class (intellectually or socially) only, notacquired or inadequatelyby the lower class • Latin

  4. Early Modern Frisian • Alsocalled: MiddleFrisian • 1550-1800 • Survivingmaterial: 1 millionwords • 17th century: mainlyGysbertJapicx • 18th century: more, and more diverse material

  5. What was written in Early Modern Frisian? • Many short pieces such as congratulatorypoems • Farce (very free translation) and comedy • Psalm translations • Genre: literature • Not: laws, contracts, scientificarticles

  6. How much was written in EMF? • Veryverylittlecomparedto the totalwrittenproduction. • The bulk was written in Dutch or Latin • Early Modern Frisian was writtenby a few aficionado’s, or forincidentalfunsuch as almanac pieces andverseswritten at the occasion of somebodyobtaining his doctorate at the university of Franeker.

  7. WhowroteFrisian? • Onlythose, whocouldwrite (obviously). • That is, thoseschooled in writing Dutch or Latin. • That is, peoplebelongingtomiddle / high class (whichwerethenfewerthannow). • That is, peoplewithenoughleisure time towriteandpublish.

  8. WheredidtheylearntowriteFrisian? • Theydidn’t. • There was no schooling in Frisian.

  9. Whatdid the Frisian standard language of 17 / 18th century look like? • There was no language standard • Somewritersexpressed respect for the Frisian of GysbertJapicx, whowroteFrisian in a baroquestyle.

  10. GysbertJapicx GJ on the cover of a bookby Kalma

  11. The languages of thosewhowroteFrisian • ThosewhowroteFrisianwereproficientbilinguals, who had never learnedtospellFrisian, who had hardlyreadFrisian. • The only body of writtenlanguagewhichtheycouldfall back on, was written Dutch. • As a result, interferencefrom Dutch shows up in theirwork.

  12. Anecdotes • Whenyourlanguage enters a domain whereit has never been before … • Enthousiasts of the FrisianMovement in the 19th centuryspoketoeachother in Frisian but wrotetoeachother in Dutch.

  13. Causes of Dutch interference • WhenFrisian was written down in literary pieces of the 17th and 18th centuries, itentered a new domain of language. The writerswereequipedforthat domain with Dutch, on whichtheyfell back. • Schooledwriters must have been in intense contact with Dutch andotherlanguages, becauseit was the language of the more formaldomains in theirsocial environment.

  14. Tosum up There must have been interferencefrom Dutch throughout the history of Frisian, at leastfrom 1600 onward, considering the sociolinguisticandpsycholinguisticsituation.

  15. Part II Exampleand analysis of Dutch Interference Word order in the verbal cluster

  16. The verbal cluster = The group of verbs at the end of the ‘Middle Field’ in Continental West Germaniclanguages (Frisian, Dutch, German, Flemish)

  17. Exampleof verbal cluster fromModern Dutch Omdat ik je wel … I would I youDcP zou hebben willen zien blijven staan toekijken.would have want seestaystand watch ‘Because I would have wantedtoseeyou continue stand (there) watching.’

  18. Example of verbal cluster from Modern Frisian Omdat ik dy wol …because I youDcPsteanbliuwensjen wollen ha soe.stand continue see want have would‘Because I would have wantedtoseeyou continue standing (there).’

  19. Word order in the verbal cluster Modern Frisian: tensedverb is cluster-final: Omdat er rinne wol.because he walk wants ‘Because he wants to walk.’ How was this in Early Modern Frisian?

  20. Data source Prose tekst, translatedfrom French Yen suwnerlinge forhânlinge Fen it Libben In fenne Deade ‘An uncommon essay about life and death’ by Philippe du Plessis - Mornay. TranslatedbyGysbertJapicx

  21. Questions • Does the mainverbprecede the tensedverbin Japicx’ Early Modern Frisianwork? • Is Early Modern Frisianlike Modern Frisian in this respect? • Does word order in the verbal cluster correlatewithotherproperties, whichmayexplainchoice of word order?

  22. Investigation of verb clusters A count was made of the word orders found in the verbal cluster. Deviant word orders in Frisianwere found tobeidenticalto Dutch word orders. Deviant word orders correlatedwithotherphenomenacharacteristic of writtenlanguage (that is, written Dutch).

  23. Results

  24. Does the mainverbprecede the tensedverb in JapicxEarly Modern Frisianwork? Yes, in 90 % of all cases. But it has a ‘Dutch’ order in 6 % of all cases

  25. Is Early Modern Frisianlike Modern Frisian in this respect? Yes, with respect to the cluster-final orders (90%). Notwith respect to the cluster-initial orders (6%).

  26. 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‘Bywhichsome are seentofallpreytosuchsenselessness.’ Such orders were the unmarked word order in 17th century Dutch in this type of clause (Van der Horst 2008:1327-1329)

  27. Do the deviant word orders correlatewithotherproperties, whichmayexplainchoice of word order? Yes: there are threecorrelations

  28. The number of verbs in the verb cluster (correlation 1) More cluster-initial word orders in case there are more verbs in the verb cluster (p = 0.019).

  29. Causalconnection? Can the highernumber of cluster-initial word orders beascribedtointerferencefrom Dutch? Yes, itcan.

  30. WrittenDutch versus spokenFrisian Notethat the twocompetinglanguages, insideJapicx’ head (that is, psycholinguisticallyspeaking), are notjustFrisianandDutch, but spokenFrisianandwritten Dutch, becausewrittenFrisianwas virtually non-existent.

  31. Interferencefromwritten Dutch • Writtenlanguage is more complex than spoken language. • IfJapicxwritesFrisian, he willbe more likelytoproduce complex clusters. • Complex verb clusters are more frequent in written Dutch than in spoken Frisian. • Therefore, Dutch interference is stronger in complex clusters than in simple clusters.

  32. Clusters introducedby the infinitival marker te ‘to’ (correlation 2) 1. Clusters withte ‘to’ are more complex than clusters without it. 2. Hence, by the argument justgiven (writtenlanguage is more complex), we expect more interferencefrom Dutch in clusters withte than in clusters without te. 3. Thisexpectation is borne out

  33. The presence of TE (correlation 2)

  34. 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’

  35. The choice of mainverb: infinitive or perfect participle (correlation 3) More cluster-initialword orders in case the mainverb is aninfinitive.

  36. Causalconnection? Can the highernumber of cluster-initial word orders beascribedtointerferencefrom Dutch? Yes, itcan.

  37. Interferencefromwritten Dutch • Van der Horst (2008:1327-29) on 17th c. Dutch: infinitival main verbs mostly follow the tensed verb, whereas participles precede it. • 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. • The sprinkling of infinitival main verbs following the tensed verb in Frisian (6%) can be ascribed to Dutch influence.

  38. Tosum Deviant verb orders in Frisiancorrelatewith • the amount of verbs (3 ratherthan 2) • the presence of TE (againcomplexity) • the choice of mainverb (infinitive / participle)

  39. Conclusions Even the celebrated 17th centurywriterGysbertJapicx displays a limitedamount of interferencefromwritten Dutch. Deviant orders in Early Modern Frisianare identicalto the normal case in Dutch. The correlations point to Dutch interference in Early Modern Frisian

  40. Fourcenturies of verb clusters The big picture, in the verbal cluster, hasn’tchangedsomuch: tensedverb is cluster-final in Frisian. Whatchanged was Dutch: past participlesmaybeplaced at the end of the cluster in 20th c. Dutch, not in 17th c. Dutch. Thus, interferencemaybe constant over manycenturiesbefore the balance is finallytippedand a language change takes place.

  41. ehoekstra@fryske-akademy.nl Thanxforyourattention

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