How West Frisian became known through a TV program thanks to Wervershover students

“Claudia Koomen”, answers the then 11-year-old Claudia, with a colorful yellow coat on, when asked what her name is. And she is one of them: “Well, Klaas Koomen.” We are now 16 years later. Claudia is 37, mother of three children and a nurse in a hospital. She remembers well when the camera crew came by.

“Everyone had to recite something. And then they looked at who had the most West Frisian accent. But no idea how they came to us,” she says with a laugh. The girl standing next to her is Laura Boon (“from Ben Boon”). 36 years old, mother of a son and employed by the Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier (HHNK). “They were looking for someone to speak it, and then I raised my hand.”

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A bag of goats

In the program Claudia does her shopping, of course in West Frisian. “I’ve got a boskipeloisie (shopping list) here. A bag of spuds (potatoes), a pound of green beans (green beans), a bunch of redois (radishes), a box of erebaaie (strawberries) and a bag of bokkeneuten (peanuts).”

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But the West Frisian from then no longer lives in the region. “I was sent to Afghanistan as a nurse from the navy and met my now ex-husband there. I have been living in IJsselstein (Utrecht) for 12 years now.” We hear the same from Laura. “I went to study in Amsterdam and then started working in The Hague and also in Berlin. I have been living in Alkmaar for 6 years now, just not within the Westfriese Omringdijk.”

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‘They thought at home that I spoke too much with an ‘r’

In the broadcast of Villa Achterwerk it is striking that the children speak West Frisian fluently. But how is that now? Laura no longer speaks it, but still visits Wervershoof regularly. For family, but also once a year for the fair. “We didn’t always speak it at home either. But when we have a family birthday, my husband can’t follow it well. And when I went to study in Amsterdam and later started working in The Hague, they thought I was given an ‘r’ (Gooise r- sound). That was not appreciated,” she says with a laugh.

And Claudia? “I don’t really speak it anymore. But I do come to Wervershoof a few times a month, where a lot of family still lives. I never skip the fair. And then it comes back anyway. Especially when we’re with friends ‘nice anzitte ‘. Then you regularly hear ‘noooooh’.”

‘I thought it was ABN, but apparently not’

But unconsciously, many West Frisian words have still stuck, Laura explains. “Recently a colleague from Limburg came to visit. Then I said: ‘Come in, the door is loose’, so that the door was not locked. But she did not understand that. I thought it was ABN, but apparently not. .”

These are experiences that Claudia also recognizes. “I was doing an internship in a nursing home in Hilversum. When a woman dropped something, I said: ‘She is also on the fence’. People said they had no idea what I was talking about. And also when I asked a neighbor if she wanted to put the wheelie bins outside, I was looked at strangely. Only when I told them it was about the wheelie bins did she understand. People are still making jokes about that.”

Criticism of the national anthem pronunciation

The broadcast of Villa Achtwerk ends chauvinistically with the national anthem of Wervershoof, used by Laura. “Wervershoof is, yes you hear it again and again, the most beautiful village on the edge of the IJsselmeer.” And then the rest of the class joins in. Something that was criticized. “People said it wasn’t really West Frisian.”

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Both women look back on the TV broadcast with pleasure. “I got a lot of reactions to it. Coincidentally a few years ago. Then the broadcast was on Facebook and I was tagged again. That jacket too, it all looked terrible,” says Claudia with a laugh. “Yeah, nice haircut too,” Laura adds. “I had already forgotten about it until it came up again on Facebook.”

Do they find it a pity that West Frisian is less and less spoken? “It does have charm, such a dialect. I like to hear that every place has its own dialect,” says Laura. “But whether I think it is important to keep? The Dutch language is also Anglicised. Language is always subject to change.”

“I think it’s a nice language,” says Claudia. “I don’t hear it myself anymore, but people tell me that I have such an accent. When skater Irene Schouten came on TV, people said to me: ‘As if I hear you talking’. I thought my accent was gone, apparently not.”

Watch the entire broadcast of Villa Achterwerk here: