Grammar
Old Frisian (c. 1150 – c. 1550) retained grammatical cases. Some of the texts that are preserved from this period are from the 12th or 13th century, but most are from the 14th and 15th centuries. Generally, all these texts are restricted to legal writings. Although the earliest written examples of Frisian—stray words in a Latin context—are from approximately the 9th century, there are a few examples of runic inscriptions from the region which are older and in a very early form of the Frisian language. These runic writings however usually consist of no more than inscriptions of a single or few words.
Old Frisian had three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), two numbers (singular and plural), and four cases (Nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, although traces of an instrumental and locative case exist)
Pronouns
First and second person pronouns
|
First person |
Second person |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Nominative |
ik | wī | thū | jī, ī, gī |
Accusative |
mī | ūs | þī | iu, io |
Genitive |
mīn | ūser | þīn | iuwer |
Dative/instrumental |
mī | ūs | þī | iu, io |
Dual forms are unattested in Old Frisian but their presence is confirmed by their continued existence in later Frisian dialects until the mid-20th century.
Nouns
A significant portion of Old Frisian nouns fall into the a-stem declension pattern. Most a-stem nouns are masculine or neuter.
a-stem declension
Case |
Masculine bām « beam» |
Neuter |
Light skip « boat » |
Heavy word « word» |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Nominative−Accusative |
bām | bāmar, -er, -an, -a | skip | skipu | word | word |
Genitive |
bāmes | bāma | skipes | skipa | wordes | worda |
Dative |
bāme | bāmum, -em, -im | skipe | skipum | worde | wordum |
Certain words like dei "day" have "g" in the plural endings.
All nouns in the ō-stem declension were feminine. The nominative Singular -e comes from the accusative case.
Text sample
The Creation of Adam
English | Old Frisian |
God created the first man, that was Adam, from eight things: | God scop thene eresta meneska - thet was Adam - fon achta wendem: |
the bones from the rock, | thet benete fon tha stene, |
the flesh from the earth, | thet flask fon tha erthe, |
the blood from the water, | thet blod fon tha wetere, |
the heart from the wind, | tha herta fon tha winde, |
the thoughts from the clouds, | thene thogta fon tha wolkem, |
the sweat from the dew, | thet swet fon tha dawe, |
the (hair)locks from the grass, | tha lokkar fon tha gerse, |
the eyes from the sun, | tha agene fon there sunna, |
and then He breathed holy breath on it. | and tha ble'r'em on thene helga om. |
And then He created Eve from his rib, Adam's beloved. | And tha scop'er Eva fon sine ribbe, Adames liava. |
Corpus
There are some early Frisian names preserved in Latin texts, and some runic (Futhorc) inscriptions, but the oldest surviving texts in Old Frisian date from the 13th century, in particular official and legal documents. They show a considerable degree of linguistic uniformity.
References
- Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009). An Introduction to Old Frisian. History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-3255-7.
- Hartmann, Frederik, Old Frisian breaking and labial mutation revisited. Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 2021.
|