02 June 2019

Old Frisian specialists' opinion?

Jacob Grimm
Old Frisian is an Old Germanic language, most closely related to Old English. Whereas Old English is taught and studied widely, Old Frisian seems to be a well-hidden secret, studied and taught by a just a handful of experts. (course intro Universities Oxford-Groningen)

Old Frisian has been a field of study particularly since the linguistic publications by Jacob Grimm (1785–1863). It would have been interesting to hear the opinion of an Old Frisian specialist about the language of the Oera Linda-book, but the silence has been deafening. This would not make much sense, unless the topic is taboo amongst them. For if they consider the manuscript to be obviously fake, it should be easy to explain why that is so, and it would still be a worthy topic, as there is no comparable work of creative art which has Old Frisian language varieties as one of its main sources of inspiration. Not only is it not discussed, it is not even referred to (unless I have missed it).

This post will be an inventory of the most prominent specialists Old Frisian. It can be used to search for possible publications or mentions that I have missed and perhaps some of them can at some point be motivated to share their thoughts on the OLB.

(random provisional order) 

Nijdam, dr. J.A. (Han), Fryske Akademy, project leader Old Frisian

Rolf H. Bremmer jr. (1950), professor of Old and Middle English, and extraordinary professor of Old Frisian, at Leiden University. Author of 'An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary' (2009).

Oebele Vries (1947), professor Old Frisian, at Groningen University (1978-2012). Editor of several publications with Old Frisian texts, notably, 'Asega, is het dingtijd?' (2007).

Henk D. Meijering (), emeritus professor Old Frisian and Old Saxon, at Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit.

Pieter Gerbenzon (1920-2009), professor (Old) Frisian language and O-F laws, at Universities Utrecht and Groningen.

this blog post is under construction

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