West Frisian grammar

The grammar of the West Frisian language, a West Germanic language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland (Fryslân) in the north of the Netherlands, features "common" and "neutral" genders and singular and plural numbers. Only the genitive case is marked on nouns. There are two conjugations of weak verbs, in addition to strong and irregular verbs.

Nouns

Gender

In West Frisian, nouns have two genders - the common gender (in which the former masculine and feminine gender merged) and the neuter gender. In the modern language, nouns have no morphological modifiers of their gender and it is only exposed when a noun is preceded by an article or another modifier: de taal (the language) ~ it lân (the land).

Number

West Frisian nouns have two numbers - singular and plural. There are two major suffixes used to form the plural: "-(e)n" and "-s". The suffix "-s" is appended to plural nouns that end (in the singular) with "-el", "-em", "-en", "-er", "-ert", "-ier", "-mer", "-ter", "-ster", "-sje". It can also appear after the diminutive suffixes "-je" and "-ke" or at the end of a borrowed word.

wurd - wurden, boarne - boarnen, doar - doarren, see - seeën

hoekje - hoekjes, skrapke - skrapkes, provinsje - provinsjes

A few nouns have irregular plural forms:

bern (child) - bern, skiep (sheep) - skiep, ko (cow) - kij, skoech (shoe) - skuon, beest (beast) - bisten, dei (day) - dagen, wei (way) - wegen, lid (member) - leden, reed (skate) - redens, lears (boot) - learzen, âlder (parent, elder) - âlden, man (man) - mânlju, frou (woman) - froulju.

Case

The initial system of four grammatical cases (nominative, genitive, dative and accusative) has not survived in modern Frisian. The only remainder of the old declension system is the genitive case, which may still be used in written Frisian. A possessive form (rather than the true genitive) is generally used instead nowadays.

The genitive form may have one of the following two endings: "-(e)" or "-(e)s".

The ending "-(e)" ("-e" or zero) is used with monosyllabic nouns ending with a consonant or the vowel "-e". Also, it may be used with kinship terms and some plural nouns (mostly in idiomatic, fixed expressions): Ruerde mêm (Ruerd's mom), memme mûs (mom's mouse), fammene pronkjen (the girls' talk).

In most other cases, the "-(e)s" ending is used: har mans bern (her man's child(ren)), Fryslâns wâlden (Frisland's forests).

In the spoken language, genitive forms are rare and normally replaced by analytical constructions with the preposition "fan (of)" or a possessive pronoun: de heit fan Anneke (Anneke's father), Anneke har heit (-//-, lit. Anneke her father).

Verbs

In West Frisian, there are 3 groups of verbs: weak, strong and irregular verbs. There are two types of weak verbs and each is conjugated in a different way. These are -e and -je verbs.

Weak -e verbs

	-e infinitive: pakk1e				-n infinitive: pakken
	Present tense				Past tense
person	singular		plural		singular		plural
1st	ik	pak	wy	pakk1e	ik	pakt2e	wy	pakt2en
2nd	do/dû	pakst	jimme		do/dû	pakt2est	jimme
3rd	hy/sy/it	pakt	hja		hy/sy/it	pakt2e	hja
	Present participle		Imperative		Auxiliary		Past participle
	pakk1ende		pak		hawwe		pakt2

¹ If necessary a consonant at the end of the stem is doubled to avoid a change of the pronunciation of the preceding syllable.
² An unvoiced consonant at the end of the stem takes an unvoiced dental suffix; a voiced consonant takes a voiced dental.

Weak -je verbs

	-e infinitive: wurkje				-n infinitive: wurkjen
	Present tense				Past tense
person	singular		plural		singular		plural
1st	ik	wurkje	wy	wurkje	ik	wurke	wy	wurken
2nd	do/dû	wurkest	jimme		do/dû	wurkest	jimme
3rd	hy/sy/it	wurket	hja		hy/sy/it	wurke	hja
	Present participle		Imperative		Auxiliary		Past participle
	wurkjende		wurkje		hawwe		wurke

The Auxiliaries

	-e infinitive: hawwe				-n infinitive: hawwen
	Present tense				Past tense
person	singular		plural		singular		plural
1st	ik	ha	wy	hawwe	ik	hie	wy	hiene(n)
2nd	do/dû	hast	jimme		do/dû	hiest	jimme
3rd	hy/sy/it	hat	hja		hy/sy/it	hie	hja

References

• Popkema, J. 2006. Grammatica Fries. De regels van het Fries. Utrecht: Het Spectrum.
• Munske, Horst Haider. 2001. Handbuch des Friesischen (Handbook of Frisian studies). Tübingen: Niemeyer. xiv+845pp.
• Tiersma, Pieter Meijes. 1999. Frisian Reference Grammar. Fryske Akademy. 162pp.
• Hoekstra, Jarich Freark. 1997. The syntax of infinitives in Frisian. Leeuwarden: Fryske Akademy. v+169pp. (zugl.: Groningen, Univ., Diss., 1997).
• Tiersma, P.M. 1985. Frisian Reference Grammar. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. xii+157pp.
• de Boer, B. 1950. Studie over het Dialect van Hindeloopen. Assen: Van Gorcum. 196pp.
• Sipma, Pieter. 1913. Phonology & grammar of modern West Frisian; with phonetic texts and glossary. Oxford University Press. 194pp.