“Säi hebbent tēgen däi Düütsken spöölt (They played against the Germans)”, said grandma Johanna in past times. She was a real East Frisian woman from Rhauderfehn. And the Germans? Well, she wanted to state, that the opponent team was from the region of Oldenburg. Many East Frisian people referred to themselves not as Germans and also their language was called Ōstfräisk or Ōstfräisk Tóól.
Näjs
East frisian names
In the project we are supporting for a standard East Frisian dictionary, our member Onno Feldmann now also regularly includes East Frisian first and last names. It is not about the pronunciation of the names in German, but the pronunciation in East Frisian. The old East Frisian names like Onno, Ubbo, Fokko are pronounced completely differently in East Frisian:
“That is because of abbreviations we have everywhere in East Frisia. In East Frisian, the name Ubbo is called Ueb and the Name Fokko is called Foek. I know this from my family as well as I am called Oen.” says Feldmann.
A pronounciation like this has never been documented in any way, except for Holger Weigelt, who described some of them. With this branch of our project we want to support the East Frisian language in this area and keep our names.
You can find the dictionary here: oostfraeisk.org
Newsletter Q4 2020
Moin dear fellows,
with this newsletter we want to inform you what is currently going on in our association.
Association
We are working on having our association officially registered. We are already an association because of our foundation and our statute. But being registered officially (“eingetragener Verein”) brings us more safety for our members. For example if one of our members conducts a legal transaction, he/she is liable with his/her private financial assets. This is in §54 BGB. In a registered association, the association itself is liable in such a situation (except on negligence). This is possible because only a registered is allowed to build wealth. Also we try to be officially recognized as nonprofit oriented by the tax authorities. If so, we still will have to do taxes, but the whole process is much simpler then.
Language
In October we published an article on our website that is about the conflict of the language promoted by the Ostfriesische Landschaft (Niederdeutsch) and the Ostfriesische language. Various examples show how both languages differ and where flaws are in the Niederdeutsch when it comes to the core of the Frisian language. The article is important because on one hand it works out the problem of the Niederdeutsch and on the other it is one legitimation for our association. Our goal is to bring the Ostfriesische language back into the heads of the people in Ostfriesland and remember everyone about our cultural heritage.
Here you can find the article: http://www.jungfraeiske-maeinskup.frl/weker-tool-sgrift-dai-ostfraisk-landskup/
But we do not only want to talk about the problem, we also want to present a solution. We are preparing a language course for the Ostfriesische language. Right now we cannot give information about when it will start because of the Corona pandemic. But as soon as it will be possible again to meet in larger groups, we will give more detailed information about the course dates.
Pultstockspringen
Just like the language, social activities with Frisian roots are important to us as well. Because of this we want to host a “Pultstockspringen” event. Originally this “sport” comes from the necessity of the people in older times in Frisian regions to jump over the channels in the landscape. To get dry to the other side, they used a solid stick for the jump. In the province of Friesland this sport is quite popular and always a great event for the spectators. They do have tournaments on this. But with this, again, we have the problem of the Corona pandemic. We do not know yet, when such an event will be possible again. We hope that in the next year, we can host such an event.
JFM Digital
Since October our new website is online http://www.jungfraeiske-maeinskup.frl. Here we report about our current activities.
After the publication of the Interfrisian Keyboards (see: http://www.jungfraeiske-maeinskup.frl/interfrisian-keyboard/) we experimented with artificial intelligence and how this can be use for the Ostfriesische language. We developed an early stage of an autocomplete system for the language, which will be integrated in the keyboard later. Everyone has already seen what this is about, think of a popular search engine on the internet. If you start typing, it tries to autocomplete your search phrase. This is exactly what we are working on.
More on this: http://www.jungfraeiske-maeinskup.frl/kuenstliche-intelligenz-lernt-ostfriesisches-platt/
Another project is about connecting the Ostfriesische language with history. Around birth of christ there were already Frisian people settling at the Ems estuary. Frisian settlements grew here, for example Jemgum, Ditzum and Petkum. Our project is to develop some form of a digital adventure trail, where you can get information about the villages in the Ems estuary via Smartphone and geolocation service. We want to revive the history of the villages on both sides of the Ems in Ostfriesischer language because language and history are closely connected.
And you never know what might follow from this. Did you also like to play scavenger hunt on children’s birthdays? Be prepared.
Thats it for now.
I wish all of you a wonderful autumn.
Stay safe and healthy.
On behalf of the board
Thilo
Which language does the Ostfriesische Landschaft promote?
People that write Ostfriesisches Platt frequently complain about the notation of the Ostfriesische Landschaft. It stands out that the Ostfriesische Landschaft refuses and rejects much ‘real’ east frisian words, although they are noticable in daily use of language.
The Ostfriesische Landschaft also uses a notation, that does not fit phonetically to Ostfriesisches Platt. Where does this notation come from and why is it still used in public although its acceptance shrinks continuously in the east Frisian population?
The Jungfräiske Mäinskup asks: “Which language does the Ostfriesische Landschaft promote?” Here you can find the article.
We wish you a lot of fun.
Interfrisian Keyboard
As first Frisian organization, the Jungfräiske Mäinskup supports the release of an interfrisian App named ‘Interfrisian Keyboard’. The app is developed by the member Onno Feldmann and features a keyboard with integrated dictionary for all Frisian languages.
This app is a novelty for the Saterfrisian language, the east Frisian Platt and the north Frisian language. The Jungfräiske Mäinskup wants to promote Frisian and Frisian – low German languages by supporting this project. The app is already available in Googles Play Store.
Artificial intelligence learns Ostfriesisches Platt
We at the Jungfräiske Mäinskup develop an artificial intelligence, that learns the East Frisian Platt. In the future it is supposed to predict the next word in texts that are written on mobile devices.
Artificial intelligence helps us on a daily basis, most of the time unrecognized, for example when we write a text on our computer or mobile device. We want to enable people to use these features also when they are writing in East Frisian Platt.
More on this on the project side.
