Stadsfries Totally Explained

Everything about Stadsfries totally explained

Stadsfries or Stadfries is a set of dialects spoken in certain cities in the province of Friesland in northern Netherlands, namely Leeuwarden, Sneek, Bolsward, Franeker, Dokkum, Harlingen, Stavoren, and to some extent in Heerenveen. For linguistic reasons, the outlying and insular dialects of Midsland (Terschelling), Ameland, Het Bildt, and Kollum are also sometimes tied to Stadsfries.
The vocabulary of Stadsfries is derived primarily from Dutch. The dialects began in the late 15th century, when Frisia lost its political independence to the Netherlands. For many living in Frisia, learning Dutch became a necessity. The result was a mixture of Hollandic dialect vocabulary and West Frisian grammar and other language principles. Important to note is that since this process began, the West Frisian language itself has evolved, such that Stadsfries is further away from modern Frisian than it's from Old Frisian.
The name of the dialect group, Stadsfries, isn't an endonym but is instead the Dutch term for the language. Stad (German: Stadt) is a Germanic term for "city" or "town", seen in English place names such as "Hempstead". In Stadsfries, the term for the dialect group is Stadsfrys or Stads, or each dialect is known simply by a name derived from the particular city name, such as Liwwarders for the dialect of Leeuwarden. In West Frisian, the dialects are known as Stedsk ("city-ish"), which doesn't indicate the idea that Stadsfries is a form of Frisian. To indicate this difference, one can call (West) Frisian-proper Boerenfries ("farmer-Frisian").

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of Stadsfries is mainly Dutch though the West Frisian language influence is notable. Furthermore a set of word forms are used that are clearly Frisian, not Dutch. Examples:

Stadsfries	West Frisian	Dutch	English
hammer	hammer	hamer	hammer
joeke	jûkje	jeuken	itching

The language also has typical West Frisian words that don't exist in that (sense) in Dutch, usually this concerns domestic words and words from the mainly Frisian language agricultural sector. Examples:

Stadsfries	West Frisian	Dutch	English
mem	mem	moeder	mother
heit	heit	vader	father
jaar	jaar	uier	udder
jarre	jarre	gier	manure

Other differences between Dutch and West Frisian can be traced back to the Dutch dialect of the 16e century. Example:

Stadsfries	West Frisian	Dutch	English
lêge	lizze	liggen	lie down

Finally, several words have survived in the Stadsfries language due to Dutch influence that have since disappeared from the West Frisian language. Examples:

Stadsfries	West Frisian	Dutch	English
kyn	bern	kind	child
farndel	fearn	een vierde (deel)	one fourth (as in division)

Grammar

Stadsfries phonology deviates from Dutch in the absence of the voiced sounds /v/ and /z/ at the beginning of words. Dutch words like this often have an equivalent Stadsfrisian translation that instead starts with the unvoiced sounds /f/ and /s/. The Dutch sounds sequence /sx/ doesn't exist in Stadsfries, but is often replaced with /sk/. Stadsfries has these properties in common with West Frisian, as well as several Dutch dialects.
The plurals match Frisian (skip-skippen), as do the diminutives (popke, autootsje, rinkje), except those in Stavers (poppy, autootsy, rinkje), where Hollands rules are followed.
The verbs are missing two Frisian weak classes, but do use Frisian rules for forming past participles: they never get the affix ge- (ik hew maakt; hest dou dat sien?). Stadsfrisian kept the Frisian pronouns do, jo and jimme (informal you, formal you, plural you), although do and jo are almost always written as dou and jou. These words can in fact be used as criteria for deciding whether a Hollandic-Frisian mixed dialect can still be considered Stadsfries. The Dutch dialect called "West Frisian" spoken in the West Friesland region of North Holland for example doesn't have these words and is therefore considered Hollandic.

Spelling

There is no standardized, officially recognized spelling for Stadsfries. The very few authors that write in it each use their own spelling conventions. The most commonly used spelling is that in the Woordenboek fan ut Liwwarders (Leeuwarden Dictionary). This spelling convention is closely related to, but more phonetic than West Frisian, and doesn't use the letter û.

Speakers

The use of Stadsfries is declining rapidly, especially in Leeuwarden. No more than a quarter of the city's population (approximately 20,000 people) speaks the language, although that percentage is higher in smaller towns. In the first half of the twentieth century the town of Heerenveen had a local variant of Stadsfries known as Haagjes Fries, spoken especially around Oranjewoud, near the country home of the Frisian stadhouder.
Use of most dialects (as well as the West Frisian language) is declining, but because West Frisian is considered prestigious and even recognized as a Dutch national language, Stadsfries has become a sociolect of the lower classes, especially in the cities. The transition from dialect to sociolect happened primarily in the 20th century. Around 1900, the Stadsfries dialects were still considered regional variants of Dutch and given a much higher status than Frisian. With the rise of Standard Dutch in society's upper classes, brought on particularly by education and mass media, Stadsfries stopped being considered a variant of Dutch. Since the lower classes had less exposure to Standard Dutch, they remained as some of the only speakers of Stadsfries.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Stadsfries'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://stadsfries.totallyexplained.com">Stadsfries Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.