”Wie schrieuwe Seeltersk” – a study of the orthography of Saterland Frisian literary texts

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether literary texts in Saterland Frisian correspond to the written form codified in dictionaries. In order to answer this question, two dictionaries have been investigated: one by Pyt Kramer, and one by Marron C. Fort. Both Kramer and Fort have proposed their own orthographic systems, and made efforts to establish them not only in their respective dictionaries, but in other written works as well. Two literary texts, written by speakers of Saterland Frisian, have been compared to the dictionaries in terms of orthography: one by Gesina Lechte-Siemer, and one by Gretchen Grosser. The results of the investigation show that Lechte-Siemer’s orthography mostly corresponds to that of Kramer. However, Grosser’s text – which is the more recent of the two – does not adhere strictly to either orthographic system, instead combining aspects of both. This indicates that neither Kramer’s nor Fort’s orthography has established itself as standard, and that a degree of flexibility remains when using Saterland Frisian in writing.