WEBVTT 00:00:42.555 --> 00:00:47.595 In the whole of Europe there almost doesn't exist a more colourful mix of languages, as in Nordfriesland. 00:00:47.857 --> 00:00:52.616 A unity that only since the 1970's exists as a separate district. 00:00:53.232 --> 00:00:58.802 Of the 160.000 inhabitants, only about 10.000 speak one of the nine Nordfrisian dialects, 00:00:58.833 --> 00:01:01.946 of the islands, or of the coastal region. 00:01:26.915 --> 00:01:28.451 Have you silaged already? 00:01:28.451 --> 00:01:31.122 We have just finished, there lies the heap. 00:01:31.153 --> 00:01:34.821 That big one there. We finished yesterday. 00:01:35.944 --> 00:01:38.528 How many tons, or how do you call that? 00:01:40.020 --> 00:01:41.348 How many däämde, you mean? 00:01:41.348 --> 00:01:43.205 Is it called that? 00:01:43.421 --> 00:01:47.006 Up and around 70 däämde. That is 35 hectares. 00:01:47.314 --> 00:01:50.032 Can you feed the cattle like that for the whole winter? 00:01:50.186 --> 00:01:53.673 Yes, we mow two, three times. 00:01:53.827 --> 00:01:55.976 First, second, third cut we call it. 00:01:56.899 --> 00:02:00.178 That is the first, that the second and there comes the third. 00:02:00.286 --> 00:02:03.327 And then we also have corn. 17 hectares. 00:02:24.158 --> 00:02:27.649 Every year it went worse with Frisian. 00:02:28.803 --> 00:02:33.892 Especially the last few years. But now it has stabilised. 00:02:35.754 --> 00:02:39.799 Maybe it even gets better now. 00:02:39.907 --> 00:02:43.983 But they are countable on the fingers of one hand, 00:02:43.983 --> 00:02:45.821 the kids that still speak Frisian. 00:02:45.914 --> 00:02:49.520 But there are coming more the last years. 00:02:49.628 --> 00:02:55.451 Can you still speak Frisian anywhere you want to? 00:02:56.497 --> 00:03:01.468 Here in the village you can. At the bank you can speak Frisian. 00:03:01.468 --> 00:03:05.371 When you go to the store, you can speak Frisian. 00:03:05.371 --> 00:03:09.379 In many places you can. At the bank and such. 00:03:09.810 --> 00:03:13.940 And at the townhall. There they all speak Frisian. 00:03:14.202 --> 00:03:18.927 There you can use it. And i do so very consciously. 00:03:57.712 --> 00:04:02.586 When i first came here, everything was in Frisian. 00:04:02.586 --> 00:04:06.422 You have to call the animals, the dogs, in Frisian. 00:04:06.530 --> 00:04:11.141 When you want to play with the children, you have to speak Frisian. 00:04:12.003 --> 00:04:16.330 Grandfather and grandmother here also speak Frisian of course. 00:04:16.361 --> 00:04:18.700 So you don't hear German for weeks. 00:04:18.777 --> 00:04:22.255 That is something else. 00:04:22.363 --> 00:04:24.060 Have you learned a lot here? 00:04:24.398 --> 00:04:29.677 I don't even know how long i was here, two months? 00:04:30.400 --> 00:04:33.657 Six weeks? The first time six weeks. 00:04:33.764 --> 00:04:38.450 When i went again, i could speak Frisian quite well. 00:04:38.450 --> 00:04:43.431 After a few more times, it becomes very normal to speak. 00:04:44.847 --> 00:04:49.072 There also always were a lot of contacts with the Dutch Fryslân. 00:04:49.196 --> 00:04:55.393 A library with all kinds of literature from the Frisian lands, was founded by Frederik Paulsen. 00:04:55.501 --> 00:04:58.218 The Ferring Stiftung, that runs the library now, 00:04:58.218 --> 00:05:02.798 supports research and Frisians from the three Frisian lands have meetings here. 00:05:06.075 --> 00:05:14.075 I think we are less of a unity here than you in West-Frisia. 00:05:14.122 --> 00:05:26.138 We also don't really have a centre here, that could have made us feel like a unity as Nord Frisians. 00:05:26.353 --> 00:05:33.893 The Nord Frisian movement has to work on that. Then it will come. 00:05:33.908 --> 00:05:37.191 Because of the existance of the Nordfriisk Instituut in Bredstedt... 00:05:37.191 --> 00:05:42.160 ... it is clear we belong together as Nordfrisians. 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:51.875 We as Nordfrisians shouldn't cut ourselves off from our common roots. 00:06:25.044 --> 00:06:29.873 Do you speak Frisian? Not so much. 00:06:30.535 --> 00:06:36.884 We spoke High-German at home. At my grandfathers' they did speak Frisian. 00:06:36.884 --> 00:06:41.871 But we are from another generation, aren't we. 00:06:42.118 --> 00:06:45.227 They still learn it at school. 00:06:45.443 --> 00:06:49.550 I am Frisian. That is just a part of us. 00:06:49.812 --> 00:06:54.307 But i don't really practise it much. 00:06:55.231 --> 00:06:59.368 My wife speaks High- and Low-German. 00:06:59.368 --> 00:07:02.742 My son said something in Frisian, but she didn't understand that. 00:07:02.742 --> 00:07:06.896 With my wife Low-German, with my children Frisian and with my dog High-German. 00:07:22.373 --> 00:07:24.920 What kind of language is this? 00:07:24.966 --> 00:07:29.472 This is the Nordfrisian dialect 'Süder goesharder'. 00:07:29.472 --> 00:07:34.200 It became extinct in the 80's. Nobody still speaks it. 00:07:34.231 --> 00:07:37.922 We try to reconstruct it by use of old recordings. 00:07:38.122 --> 00:07:40.590 This language doesn't exist anymore? 00:07:40.866 --> 00:07:47.619 The last speaker has past away. It was spoken in Schöbull and Hattstedt. 00:07:48.588 --> 00:07:55.449 In Schöbull it died out in the 60's and in Hattstedt in the 80's. 00:07:55.449 --> 00:07:58.859 The last speaker past away in 86'. 00:08:08.582 --> 00:08:17.185 With such recordings from the 50's, you amusingly hear... 00:08:17.185 --> 00:08:18.802 ...that the ordinary people didn't have false teeth yet. 00:08:19.464 --> 00:08:24.648 You already can not understand it very well, because the dialect has gone extinct. 00:08:24.648 --> 00:08:28.951 With the teeth out, you only hear mumble, mumble. 00:08:29.198 --> 00:08:32.389 It is almost impossible to follow what they say. 00:08:32.389 --> 00:08:37.767 When the recordings get digitalized, the quality will be much better. 00:08:37.767 --> 00:08:40.714 It is difficult to understand right now. 00:08:40.714 --> 00:08:47.364 We want to reconstruct the grammar and words from this dialect. 00:08:47.364 --> 00:08:52.808 Because it is a shame that such a language disappears from the face of the earth, just like that. 00:08:59.192 --> 00:09:06.215 When science would say: your language has no chance of survival... 00:09:06.230 --> 00:09:08.911 ... then we could say to the media: 00:09:08.911 --> 00:09:16.816 All Nordfrisians go to Heligoland and jump in the sea. 00:09:16.816 --> 00:09:19.797 That would be a spectacle. Fine to broadcast on television: 00:09:19.797 --> 00:09:24.489 The great end of 'The drama of the Nordfrisian'. 00:09:24.489 --> 00:09:31.410 But we are not like that. We go on with what lives in us. 00:09:31.410 --> 00:09:35.355 Things we don't want to do, we don't do. 00:09:35.786 --> 00:09:42.038 We live our lifes as we are.