“It’s better with Frisian than with the Drents”, according to language scientist Raoul Buurke. His research shows that Frisian parents pass on their language better to their children than Drenten. The Frisian also mixes less with Dutch.
Yet it also happens in Friesland. The word hooker Will not hear every Frisian daily. It has been exchanged by many for his Dutch counterpart: what.
But in the Lower Saxon language area, where Drents, Gronings and Twents, among others, this happens much more. More and more Drenten no longer know the right words in their own regional language.
“Dutch is everywhere,” says Buurke. “In the past, people mainly spoke with people from the neighborhood in the regional language. But now we hear Dutch much more, such as on television. As a result of which we start borrowing certain words.”
We see that, for example, by the word for skating. In Drents that is crack or crack. But ask a random person on the street and there is a good chance that he will come up with Dutch sounding shave.
They also notice that at the house of the taol. Regional officer Arja Olthof: “You also see it speaking rigid. That’s the original dialect word, but more and more people say leit. The sound is still on it, but it is closer to the Dutch boots. “
Buurke interviewed 38,500 Frisians and Lower Saxony by switching questionnaires via Lifelines. That is a population screening that collects health information of 167,000 northern people every five years.
This showed that 70% of the Frisians pass on their language to their children. At Lower Saxon-speaking parents that was half of children born around 1960. At the beginning of the 21st century that dropped to 30%.