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Re: CHAT: Frisian

From:Wesley Parish <wes.parish@...>
Date:Friday, September 6, 2002, 15:00
On Fri, 06 Sep 2002 01:50, John Cowan wrote:
> 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.
Sorry about that - my interest is mostly in the West Frisian, and I haven't paid _any_ attention to either North or East Frisian. Mea culpa. Wesley Parish
> > > 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.
-- Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?" You ask, "What is the most important thing?" Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata." I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."