Saterland Frisian language
Saterland Frisian, also known as Sater Frisian or Saterlandic, is the last living dialect of the East Frisian language. It is closely related to the other Frisian languages: North Frisian, spoken in Germany as well, and West Frisian, spoken in the Dutch province of Friesland.
Speakers
Today, estimates of the number of speakers vary slightly. Saterland Frisian is spoken by about 2,250 people, out of a total population in Saterland of some 10,000; an estimated 2,000 people speak the language well. The great majority of native speakers belong to the older generation; Saterland Frisian is thus a seriously endangered language. It might, however, no longer be moribund, as several reports suggest that the number of speakers is rising among the younger generation, some of whom raise their children in Saterlandic.Dialects
There are three fully mutually intelligible dialects, corresponding to the three main villages of the municipality of Saterland: Ramsloh, Scharrel, and Strücklingen. The Ramsloh dialect now somewhat enjoys a status as a standard language, since a grammar and a word list were based on it.Status
The German government has not committed significant resources to the preservation of Sater Frisian. Most of the work to secure the endurance of this language is therefore done by the Seelter Buund. Along with North Frisian and five other languages, Sater Frisian was included in Part III of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Germany in 1998. Since about 1800, Sater Frisian has attracted the interest of a growing number of linguists. During the last century, a small literature developed in it. Also the New Testament of the Bible has been translated into Sater Frisian.Phonology
The phonology of Saterland Frisian is regarded as very conservative linguistically, as the entire East Frisian language group was conservative with regards to Old Frisian. The following tables are based on studies by Marron C. Fort.Vowels
Monophthongs
The consonant is often realised as a vowel in the syllable coda.Short vowels:
| Grapheme | Phoneme | Example |
| a | fat | |
| ä | Sät | |
| e | ze | |
| i | Lid | |
| o | Dot | |
| ö | bölkje | |
| u | Buk | |
| ü | Djüpte |
Semi-long vowels:
| Grapheme | Phoneme | Example |
| ie | Piene | |
| uu | kuut |
Long vowels:
| Grapheme | Phoneme | Example |
| aa | Paad | |
| ää | tään | |
| ee | Dee | |
| íe | Wíek | |
| oa | doalje | |
| oo | Roop | |
| öö | röögje | |
| öä | Göäte | |
| üü | Düwel | |
| úu | Múus |
Diphthongs
| Grapheme | Phoneme | Example |
| ai | Bail | |
| au | Dau | |
| ääu | sääuwen | |
| äi | wäit | |
| äu | häuw | |
| eeu | skeeuw | |
| ieu | Grieuw | |
| íeu | íeuwen | |
| iu | Kiuwe | |
| oai | toai | |
| oi | floitje | |
| ooi | swooije | |
| ou | Bloud | |
| öi | Böije | |
| uui | truuije | |
| üüi | Sküüi |
Consonants
Plosives
Today, voiced plosives in the syllable coda are usually terminally devoiced. Older speakers and a few others may use voiced codas.| Grapheme | Phoneme | Example | Notes |
| p | Pik | ||
| t | Toom | ||
| k | koold | ||
| b | Babe | Occasionally voiced in syllable coda | |
| d | Dai | May be voiced in syllable coda by older speakers | |
| g | Gäize | A realization especially used by younger speakers instead of. |
Fricatives
Other consonants
Morphology
Personal pronouns
The subject pronouns of Saterland Frisian are as follows:The numbers 1-10 in Saterland Frisian are as follows:
| Saterland Frisian | English |
| aan een | one |
| twäin two | two |
| träi trjo | three |
| fjauer | four |
| fieuw | five |
| säks | six |
| sogen | seven |
| oachte | eight |
| njúgen | nine |
| tjoon | ten |
Numbers one through three in Saterland Frisian vary in form based on the gender of the noun they occur with. In the table, "m." stands for masculine, "f." for feminine, and "n." for neuter.
For the purposes of comparison, here is a table with numbers 1-10 in 4 West Germanic languages:
| Saterland Frisian | Low German | German | English |
| aan een | een | eins | one |
| twäin two | twee | zwei | two |
| träi trjo | dree | drei | three |
| fjauer | veer | vier | four |
| fieuw | fief | fünf | five |
| säks | söss | sechs | six |
| sogen | söben | sieben | seven |
| oachte | acht | acht | eight |
| njúgen | negen | neun | nine |
| tjoon | teihn | zehn | ten |
Sample text
See Frisian languages#Comparative sentence.In the media
Newspaper
Nordwest-Zeitung, a German-language regional daily newspaper based in Oldenburg, Germany, publishes occasional articles in Saterland Frisian. The articles are also made available on the newspaper's Internet page, under the headline Seeltersk.Radio
As of 2004, the regional radio station Ems-Vechte-Welle broadcasts a 2-hour program in Saterland Frisian and Low German entitled Middeeges. The program is aired every other Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The first hour of the program is usually reserved for Saterland Frisian. The program usually consists of interviews about local issues between music. The station can be streamed live though the station's Internet page.Current revitalization efforts
Children's books in Saterlandic are few, compared to those in German. Margaretha Grosser, a retired member of the community of Saterland, has translated many children's books from German into Saterlandic. A full list of the books and the time of their publication can be seen on the German Wikipedia page of :de:Margaretha Grosser|Margaretha Grosser.Recent efforts to revitalize Saterlandic include the creation of an app called "Kleine Saterfriesen" on Google Play. According to the app's description, it aims at making the language fun for children to learn teaches them Saterlandic vocabulary in many different domains. There have been 100-500 downloads of the app since its release in December 2016, according to statistics on Google Play.