Gronings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Gronings Grunnegs-Oostfrais |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Netherlands: Groningen, parts in the north and east of Drenthe, the east of the Frisian municipality Kollumerland | |
| Region: | Groningen | |
| Total speakers: | 320,000 (est.) | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Germanic West Germanic West Low German Gronings |
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| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | the Netherlands (as part of Low Saxon) | |
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | ||
| ISO 639-3: | gos | |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Gronings (Grunnegs or Grönnegs) can equally be defined as a Friso-Saxon dialects spoken in the Netherlands province of Groningen and in some adjoining areas: one in Groningen city, four in the Ommelanden ("surrounding lands") and Westerwolds. They are the result of an intermingling of 4 languages: Low Saxon (the result of 9th-century Saxon domination in the city of Groningen), Frisian (the province of Groningen was part of Friesland until the city of Groningen became the dominant factor in the region in the 15th century), Dutch, and (to a lesser extent) English and Danish (Anglo Saxon; as result of trade among the city of Groningen, England, Denmark and Norway in the Middle Ages).
Currently, the Groningan dialects are being gradually replaced by mainstream Dutch but still widely understood and spoken in the less-urban areas. Gronings aka Grunnegs is considered a variety of Low Saxon dialect of West Low Saxon by some observers. Others consider it as part of Northern Low Saxon, to which East Frisian Low Saxon belongs as well. Sometimes Gronings and East Frisian Low Saxon are even seen as another division, North Western Low Saxon.
Since the town of Winschoten had a very high amount of Jewish citizens before WWII, the dialect spoken there still shows a strong influence from Yiddish. An example is the word drekstoupe, meaning landfill. Another example is the word "mazel", a Hebrew word for luck. This influence is not found in the dialects spoken in the surrounding communities.
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[edit] Frisian substrate
Because of the Frisian substrate, Gronings is divergent from the other Low Saxon languages, in possessing some Frisian words and grammar. This Frisian Substrate makes Gronings strongly related to East Frisian Low Saxon. A lot of words and grammar are the same, but some differences are the Dutch and German loanwords and the writing system. For example:
| West Frisian | East Frisian | Gronings | German | Dutch | English |
| Reed | Schöfel | Scheuvel | Schlittschuh | Schaats | Ice skate |
| Lyts | Lüttje | Lutje | Klein | Klein | Little |
| Foarbyld | Bispööl | Veurbeeld | Beispiel | Voorbeeld | Example |
[edit] Linguistic distance from Standard Dutch
After Limbourgish, Gronings is the dialect with the farthest distance from Standard Dutch. Reasons for this are vocabulary and pronunciation. The Groningan vocabulary is quite different from Dutch, for example:
- Gronings: Doe hest n hail ìnde luu dij scheuvellopen kinnen
- Dutch: Jij hebt heel veel werknemers die kunnen schaatsen
- English: You have a lot of employees who can ice skate
The pronunciation differs from the writing system. The combination -en is most of the times pronounced like -'n. The Groningan people speak quite fast compared to the Dutch people, with the result that a lot of words are pronounced together as one word. Thus the example sentence is pronounced in English like "doo'estn hyil'eande lu dy-skowfle-low'm kinn". In the word skowfle, the k can also be pronounced like the Dutch -g and the -ow is pronounced like in Australian English ([øw]). The Dutch pronunciation of that sentence is like "y'I habt hail vail warke'naymers dee cøhna sgahtse", in which the -g- is pronounced as in Dutch itself.
Another reason is the fact that Gronings is a language with a lot of own expressions. One third of the language consists of these expressions. In the example sentence n hail ìnde is an example of those expressions. Many of these are given in the 'Nieuwe Groninger Woordenboek' by K. ter Laan published in 1977, (1280pp).
Because of this far distance from Standard Dutch and the official status of the neighbouring "dialect" Frisian, Gronings is considered as a separate language by its native speakers, while linguist consider it as part of Dutch Low Saxon.
[edit] Dialects
There are 8 dialects within Gronings:
- Stadsgronings (city of Groningen)
- Oldambtsters (North east Groningen)
- Hoogelandsters (North Groningen)
- Westerkwartiers (West Groningen)
- Kollumerpompsters (Village of Kollumerpomp)
- Veenkoloniaals (South east Groningen)
- Westerwolds (East Groningen)
- Noordenvelds/Noord-Drents (North Drenthe)
[edit] Variations between the dialects
Though there are some differences between the dialects, they form a perfect whole. Most words are written the same way, but the pronunciation can differ. The examples show the pronunciation.
- Hoogelands: t Ainege dat wie nait dudden is slik oetdijln
- Veenkoloniaals: t Ainege wat wie nait dudden is slikke uutduiln
- Westerkwartiers: t Eenege dat wie niet doun is slik uutdeeln
- Stadsgronings (city): t Oinege dat wie noit doun is baaltjes oetdailn
- Westerwolds: t Einege dat wie nich dun is slikkerij uutdeiln
- East Frisian Low Saxon: Dat eenzige, dat wi neet doon is Slickeree utdelen.
- Northern Low Saxon of Germany: Dat eenzige, dat wi nich doot, (dat) is Snabbelkraam uutdeeln.
- Standard Dutch: Het enige dat we niet doen is snoep uitdelen.
- Standard German: Das einzige, dass wir nicht machen, ist Süßigkeiten austeilen.
- Scots: The anerly thing we dinnae dae is gie oot snashters.
- English: The only thing we do not do is hand out sweets.
