May 29, 2013

GRINS - "border"

Grins is the West Frisian word for "border" or "frontier" and is said with an "ay" like in "day." It sounds a lot like the English word "grains." GRAYns.

In grins tusken twa gebieten.
A border between two areas.

We've looks at in before, meaning "a" or "an." Say it with a schwa. UHn.

Tusken means "between." The first vowel is pronounced with that purse-lipped "o" with an umlaut over it that we saw back in the lesson on dandelions. The second syllable takes a schwa. TÖSKuhn.

Remember, twa means "two" and was discussed a few lessons ago. TWAAH.

Finally, gebiet is the word for "region," "area," or "country." The first syllable is said with a schwa. The second syllable is said with a long "ee" as in "beet" with a schwa after it. GUH-BEE-uht. The plural ending -en is also pronounced with a schwa. GUH-BEE-uht-uhn.

May 22, 2013

GRAACH - "willingly, readily, heartily"

Let's look at a few basic polite phrases today.

As some readers may know, tanke wol is "thank you" in West Frisian. Say tanke with an "ah" as in "father and a schwa. TAHNkuh. The word wol was discussed in more depth previously and means "well" or "willingly" (it can also mean "wool"). Say it with a full "oh" as in "road" and a v- at the beginning. VOHL, like the English word "vole."

The English phrase "you're welcome" is graach dien in FrisianGraach  (listed under graech in P. Sipma's glossary) is pronounced with a particularly long "ah" as in "father" and a final consonant that is similar to a -g in English. GRAAHg. This word has many meanings, including "willingly," "please," "eagerly," "gladly," "preferably," "openly," and "rather."

Dien means "completed," "done," "over," or "ready." Say it with a long "ee" as in "dean" and with a slight schwa after. DEE-uhn.

And on this note: many thanks to Mama Lisa for linking to this blog from her website! If you do know more about the song De Maitiid, please be sure to contact her.

May 10, 2013

KEAL - "calf" / "When Pigs Fly"

Keal is pronounced with an "ih" as in "bit" followed by a schwa.  KIH-uhl. This word shows up in the Frisian equivalent of "when pigs fly"... instead of pigs flying, we have calves dancing on ice!

As de keallen op it iis dûnsje
When calves dance on ice... i.e., never 

Remember from the previous lesson, as is pronounced a lot like the English "Oz" and means "if," "as," or "when."

De means "the" and is said with the schwa sound.

Keallen (KIH-uhl-uhn) is the plural of calf. You can see it used here on Youtube as the title of the music recording we were looking at in previous lessons. Keallepoaten means "calves' legs." Poat is the singular form of "leg" and is said with a full "oh" as in "boat" and a schwa. POH-uht-tuhn.

Op is a quintessentially Frisian word and shows up all over both by itself and as a prefix. It means "on," "upon," "up", etc. You can see a list of its many meanings here. Say it with a full "oh" as in "boat" or, better yet, "slope." If you think of being on or upon or going up a slope, it is easy to remember this word. OHp

It is said with a schwa and means “the” or “it.” UHt.

Iis means "ice" and is said with a long "ee" as in "creek" (a frozen one) and a very soft -z on the end. EEz.

Dûnsje is said with a full "oo" as in "moon" and a -y- followed by a schwa on the end. DOONSyuh.