10 Facts About Frisian literature

Frisian literature is works written in the Frisian languages, including that of West Frisian spoken in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, from which most texts were produced or have survived.

Texts written in Frisian literature first appear in manuscripts from the late medieval period.

In 1498, Dutch became the official language in Friesland for all purposes of writing but Frisian literature would survive as a spoken language among the common people.

Frisian literature language was firmly established as an academic study in the twentieth century, and the language is available for study in secondary education as well.

Still, Frisian literature continues to flourish at least within Friesland: Frisian authors were being promoted to the Dutch readership, and there are dozens of Frisian-language authors and literary magazines.

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Early 19th century Frisian literature includes a comedy in Sol'ring, the dialect of Sylt island, and a novel by the same author Jap Peter Hansen, Di lekkelk Stjuurman [The lucky helmsman].

Also the North Frisian literature mainland produced authors in North Frisian literature language such as Johannes Hansen from the Bredstedt area or Moritz Momme Nissen from Enge.

The 20th century brought a new development in North Frisian literature which started again on Sylt and spread across the islands to the mainland.

The first ever held North Frisian literature competition was won in 1991 by Ellin Nickelsen with a novelette in Fering.

Problems of North Frisian literature include the limited number of speakers, the dialectal divisions which are mostly mutually unintelligible, a lack of writing tradition and a rural background without urban cultural centres and a late standardisation of orthography for the main dialects.