Re: CHAT: Frisian

Wesley Parish scripsit:

> East Frisian I don't know much about, only that there's an enclave of it
> somewhere in Saxony inland south of Hamburg,
That's East Frisian.

> and the rest of it is spread
> over the West Coast and related islands of Denmark.
That's North Frisian, which overall is no more like East Frisian than either
is like West Frisian, except that both North and East are overlaid by
German, and East is less broken up into dialects just because there are
so few speakers overall.

> Well, the major sociolinguistic criteria in this case is having some form of
> written language.  I would say that West Frisian is the defined language,
> while the question of East Frisian is still up in the air.
I think you can say something stronger: if a lect were to gain a written
form, would it need a unique one, or can it share with related lects?
By that standard, North, East, and West Frisian are distinct.

--
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        jcowan@reutershealth.com
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There are
no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language that
they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful. --The Hobbit

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