Clay Frisian

Clay Frisian (West Frisian: Klaaifrysk) is a dialect of the West Frisian language spoken in the northwestern part of the Dutch province of Friesland. It has been the primary dialect of written West Frisian since the nineteenth century as a result of its high status. Historically, this region has been the centre of commerce and politics, further contributing to Clay Frisian's primacy. Compared to other West Frisian dialects, there are few if any differences in morphology or syntax but there are slight variances in lexicon.^[1]

Comparison with Wood Frisian

Phonological differences

The largest difference between Clay Frisian and the eastern Wood Frisian dialect are the words my ("me"), dy ("you"), hy ("he"), sy ("she" or "they"), wy ("we"), and by ("by"), which are pronounced in the Wood Frisian as a mi, di, hi, si, wi, and bi and in Clay Frisian as mij, dij, hij, sij, wij, and bij. Other differences are in the pronouncement of the diphthongs ei, ai, and aai which are pronounced ij, ai, and aai in Wood Frisian, but ôi, òi, and ôi in Clay Frisian. Thus, in Wood Frisian, there is no difference between ei and ij, whereas in Clay Frisian, there is no difference between ei and aai.

Other phonological differences include:

English	Dutch	Wood Frisian	Clay Frisian
thou	jij	dû	do
plum	pruim	prûm	prom
thumb	duim	tûme	tomme
naked	naakt	nêken	neaken
crack	kraken	krêkje	kreakje
weak (soft)	week	wêk	weak
grass	gras	gjers	gers
cherry	kers	kjers	kers
calf	kalf	kjel	kel

Lexical differences

Some lexical differences between Clay Frisian and Wood Frisian include:

English	Wood Frisian	Clay Frisian
Saturday	saterdei	sneon
ant	mychammel mychhimmel	eamel eamelder
fleece	flij	flues
sow (pig)	mot	sûch

References

1. ^ Ana Deumert, Wim Vandenbussche (2003). Germanic Standardizations: Past to Present. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9027218560.