K.H. Heeroma: strider en tsjûger foar it ABN. Oer de gearhing tusken taalkunde, taalpolityk en nasjonale identiteit

Abstract

The linguist Klaas Hanzen Heeroma (1909-1972) wrote several articles in the
thirties and fourties in which he attempted to disprove the existence of a Frisian
substrate outside the province of Fryslân itself, by means of clever manipulation of
the terms East-Ingvaeonic and West-Ingvaeonic. In this article, I relate the
tenacity with which he held on to those views to his political-linguistic
background: as a staunch supporter of the `Groot-Nederlandse' (literally `Great
Dutch') movement, he viewed any attempt to establish a regional linguistic
standard as a threat to the unity imposed by the Dutch standard language.
Heeroma's attitude towards Frisian in his later life was much less hostile, which
can be ascribed to the healing influence of his friendship with the Frisian linguist
Klaas Fokkema. Finally, I suggest that the concept of Ingvaeonic has been used by
Dutch scholars to underpin the existence of Dutch as an independent language,
rather than as a dialect of German. This need to prove what should be beyond
doubt justifies the hypothesis that identity problems are involved.