WINTERTIID - "Fall Back Time"

Here is the United States, we have just set the clocks back... one week after the Netherlands. The Frisian word for this is wintertiid, meaning Winter Time. The word winter is like ours, except said with an initial v- instead of a w-, and the second part, tiid, is said with the long -ee- in "meet." [VIHN-tuh-tEEt]. Notice that it is a cognate with our word "tide."

Last week, Omrop Fryslân ran a nice little article with people expressing their opinions about the time change (link here). It's full of useful vocabulary and expressions. My cartoon characters, Sjoerd, Sytske, and Anke, are here to help with today's lesson, which is based on that article:

We kinne dochs in oere langer sliepe!

We can sleep another hour longer!

[vUH KIHN-nuh DAWkhs UHN OOr-ruh LAWN-guhr SLEE-puh!]

We is the unemphasized form of wy, meaning "we". It is said with a schwa. 

Note the word order: in English we say "can sleep," but in Frisian the verb going with "can" appears at the end of the sentence.

Dat enerzjy-argumint is al lang efterhelle. Gau ophâlde mei dy ûnsin!

That energy argument is already long out-of-date. Enough with the insanity already!

[DAWT ehn-uhr-ZHEE AHR-goo-MIHNt IHs LAWng EHF-tuhr-HEL-luh. GOW awp-HAHL-duh MIGH duh OON-sihn!]

Gau actually means "quickly" or "immediately." The literal translation of "Gau ophâlde mei dy ûnsin!" would be more along the lines of "Immediately halt with the insanity/nonsense!"

Wat in drokte om neat. Hâldt it no ris sa't it is. Ik wurd der deawurch fan...

What a fuss over nothing. Keep it now as it is. I'm tired to death of (hearing about it).

[VAHt uhn DRAWK-tuh AWM NEET. HAHLT uht NOH RIHS SAHt uht IHs. IHk VUHt dEHr DAY-uh-vUHRkh FAWN...]

Drokte literally means "business." It is connected to drok, the word for a "crowd" or "pressure."

Note that the spelled -r- in the Frisian wurd is not said out loud. "Ik wurd" can be more precisely translated as "I should be" or "I will be."