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

Jeffrey.Henning.com

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