West Frisian
West Frisian
1. Alle minsken hienen ien taal en br^ukten deselde wurden.
All people had one language and used the-same words.
2. Wylst se it easten yn trieken, f^unen se in leechflakte
While they(clitic) the east in "moved", found they(cl) a low-plane
yn it l^an Sjine:ar en d^er setten se har nei wenjen.
in the land Sjinear and there ( they went to live : idiomatic :
literally: put(past plural) they (clit) them to(direction) living)
3. Doe seinen se tsjininoar: Kom! lit 'us tichelstien meitsje
Then(time) said(past plural like all other verbs up to now)
they(cl) to-eachother : come(imper) let(imper) us tile-stone make(inf)
en dy goed trochbakke. De tichelstien wie har boustien en
and this good through-bake. The tile-stone was their building-stone and
it asfalt wie har speesje.
the(neuter) asfalt was their (cement? I mean the stuff you
use to glue bricks together in building a house)
4. En hja seinen: Kom! lit 'us in st^ed bouwe mei in toer d^er't de
And they said: come let us a town build(inf) with a tower there-that the
spits fan yn'e himel rikt en lit 'us 'ussels in namme meitsje.
top of(posses) in-the heavens reaches and let us ourselves a
name make(inf).
Oars koenen wy ris fersille reitsje, de hiele ierde oer.
Otherwise could we once ( be spread (?) very hard to translate
literally) , the whole earth over.
5. Doe kaam de Heare del om de st^ed en de toer dy't de minskebern
Then came the Lord down for(purpose) the town and the tower
that(plural,relative pron) the people-children
makke hienen, te besjen.
made(perf) had(past pl), to look-at/ behold.
6. En de Heare sei: Sjoch, hja binne ien folk en hawwe allegearre
And the Lord said: See(imp),they are one people and have all-together
ien taal. Wat se no dogge, is noch mar in begjin: skielk sil
one language. What they(cl) now do(pl), is (just= noch mar) a
beginning; soon shall(3rd pers)
har neat mear ^unmooglik w^eze fan alles dat se fan doel binne.
to-them(dative) nothing more impossible be(inf) of everything
dat they(cl) of purpose are(pl).
7. Kom, lit 'us delkomme en d^er har taal betiizje, dat de iene
Come(imp) let us down-come and there their language ( mix up,
put in disorder)(inf), that the one (implied is "person)
de oare syn taal net mear ferstean kin.
the other (implied: person) his language not more( together
this is "no more") understand(of a language) can/is able to.
8. Sa ferstruide de Heare har d^erwei de hiele ierde oer en hja
So(=in this way) scattered the Lord them(acc) there-from the
whole earth over and they
h^alden op mei de st^ed te bouwen.
(h^alden op= stopped , past pl) with the town to
build ( a special infinitive, literally "building).
9. D^erom wurdt dy st^ed Babel neamd.
That's-why is( actually a special verb for the passive tense)
that town Babel called.
De Heare hat d^er ommers de taal fan'e hiele ierde betiisd
The Lord has there (particle for emphasising the fact that
you're explaining the preceding) the language of-the whole
earth mixed-up(perf)
en d^erwei hat de Heare har de hiele ierde oer ferstruid.
and there-from has the Lord them the whole earth over scattered(perf).
From: HS Brandsma
I'd like to submit another translation of the Babel text for
your project. It is in Westerlauwers Frisian, also known as West-Frisian,
which is a Germanic language spoken in the province of Friesland
in the Netherlands. It is a so called West Germanic language, which
is historically the closest relative of English, though through
a long period of different influences the languages have become
mutually unintelligable. I think that someone who knows Dutch should
be able to read most of it, although my experience is that the Dutch
don't understand this language when spoken. Frysk (as we call are
our language) is the official language of this province Friesland,
besides Dutch. I will use
the official orthography, where a ^ in front of a vowel will
stand for this symbol on top of that vowel, and : in front of a vowel
represents a "umlaut" sign on top of that vowel.
I will use the official Frisian Bible translation of
the "Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap" , the 1989 edition.
One word of warning: the pronounciation of Frisian is fairly complex
and the spelling is not always a good indication of it !
I hope this makes any sense. O yes, one more extra symbol I needed
was 'u for a "u" with a diagonal bar to the right like the French
use on e's.
If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
Henno Brandsma (hsbrand@cs.vu.nl)
Amsterdam
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