April 22, 2014

Tanke Wol, It Nijs!

This is very exciting! The Frisian news site It Nijs ("The News") recently posted an article about this blog! You can read it here: Frysk foar Ingelskpraters ("Frisian for English Speakers").

Of course, I would be remiss if I did not turn this into a lesson as well:

It, as you will remember, means "it" or "the" and is said with a schwa. UHT.

Nijs means "news" and is pronounced with the "igh" vowel in "night." Just think of "the nightly news" to remember this word. NIGHs.

Frysk is West Frisian for "Frisian" and is said with a long "ee" as in the word "freeze." FREEsk.

Foar is a cognate meaning "for," "before," or "in front of." Pronounce it with a long "oh" as in "foe" blending into a "w" sound and with an "ah" as in "father." Fwoh-AHR.

Ingelsk is the Frisian word for the English language. From what I can gather, you pronounce it with the "ih" vowel used in the English preposition "in" and use a schwa in the second syllable, putting stress on the first syllable. IHNG-guhlks.

Prater means "a speaker" and is said with the long "ah" vowel in "father" followed by a schwa in the second syllable. PRAH-tuhr. The verb prate mean "to speak" and is said the same way, only without the final -r-. PRAH-tuh.

April 21, 2014

EAT - "something"

Here is a Frisian word that is very much a false friend to the English eye: eat is pronounced with an "ih" sound like in "it" and a schwa, and it means "something" or "anything." IH-uht. So, this word has nothing to do with eating at all. If you do as the sample sentence suggests, though, you will have to make sure that something is indeed getting enough to eat:
 
Eat hoedzje en noedzje.
Take responsiblty for and nurture something (i.e., take something under one's wing). 

Hoedzje is said with an "oo" vowel in "moon." The j is pronounced like an English -y- and the final syllable takes a schwa. HOO-dzyuh.

En means "and" and is said with the same vowel we use for naming the letter "n." EHN

Noedzje rhymes with hoedzje.