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Table of Contents
Sater Frisian in Germany
Language designations:
Language vitality according to:
Linguistic aspects:
- Script: Latin
Language standardization
The American linguist Marron Fort created the Sater Frisian Dictionary and by that a coherent orthography. He translated the New Testament into Sater Frisian. 3)
Demographics
Language Area
Saterfrisian or Seeltersk as it is called by its speakers is nowadays only spoken in three small villages near Cloppenburg in Lower Saxony: Struecklingen, Ramsloh and Scharrel and Sedelsberg which was only founded in 1800. This area is called the Saterland. Sater Frisian is the only variety of East Frisian alive today. 4) 5) It was discussed whether Sater Frisian is just a Frisian dialect or an own language because of its little number of speakers nowadays. Furthermore, researchers were unsure if it then belonged to the groups of Frisian or German dialects. 6) However, it is now recognised as a minority language. The three main villages where it is spoken have mutually intelligible dialects. 7) 8)
The map shows the location of the Saterland. On the left it is marked in grey and on the right is shown in more detail within the district of Cloppenburg.9)
Speaker numbers
Stellmacher (1998) conducted a study with his students in 1995, where they only asked a selected number of people to participate in their study to find out about the Sater Frisian language situation. Of the approx. 12.000 citizens of the Saterland, they excluded immigrants, people with a secondary residence in the Saterland region and children under 14. In the end, 10% of the remaining 8.334 citizens were then interviewed. The results showed that 4.058 people claimed that they understand Saterfrisian. The younger the citizen the smaller the knowledge of the language. The numbers of speakers vary from village to village. All in all, the number of active speakers is around 2.250 which is almost as high as 100 years ago (2.500) so people are encouraged to save the language since it stayed with the people for so long. 10)
Education of the language
History of language education:
The Saterland is known as the smallest “language island” in Europe according to the Guinness Book of Records from 1991. 11) The presence of Sater Frisian in the school system is still not very widespread. In 2010 the Saterland introduced the model project “Das Saterland als Modellregion für frühe Mehrsprachigkeit” which translates to “The Saterland as a model region for early multilingualism”. This project aims to educate (pre-)teachers in the Sater Frisian language so that they can pass it on. 12)
Dr Marron Fort is one of the researchers who is helping to maintain Sater Frisian significantly. He came to Germany in 1965 and fell in love with the language. He decided to stay in Germany and has since helped considerably in reviving Sater Frisian. Moreover, he has translated the New Testament into Sater Frisian and created the Sater Frisian Dictionary. This laid the foundation for more Sater Frisian literature. 13) 14)
According to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages the Lower Saxony Media Act. required broadcaster in 2010 to include minority languages such as Sater Frisian. This is an ongoing process but a first step was made by the public-access radio Ems-Vechte-Welle which broadcasts “the two-hour program called Middeeges in Sater Frisian every second Sunday”. 15)
Legislation of language education
The language is protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. It encourages the use of Sater Frisian in pre-school, primary school, secondary and higher education. It is not mentioned if the teachers are allowed to use Sater Frisian as the language of instruction. 16) In the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages from 2014 it says:
- implement Sater Frisian in pre-school education, however, this is to be decided by local authorities
- in comparison to the 4th report, the Land authorities do not see the need to have it taught in kindergarten
- a course in Sater Frisian has been offered in higher education at the University of Oldenburg since 2009
- 2011 a teaching program for Low German and Sater Frisian was added to the university's program
- there is a need for a policy which encourages more schools to teach Sater Frisian
Institutional support for education of the language:
Before the teacher training started to be financially supported in 2010, the Saterland Association called “Seelter Buund” tried to incorporate Sater Frisian in (pre-)primary schools. This was mostly done by voluntary workers. They have been offering courses for adults as well. Since 2010 the focus was shifted to developing teaching materials and training teachers. Furthermore, the whole region is doing their best in supporting the model project. Another aim is to spread awareness of the language and encourage more people to actively speak it. 18)
Education presence
So far there are only two so-called Sater Frisian schools. Until now, the schools can decide themselves which subjects they want to teach in Sater Frisian. The Landesschulbehörde zur Förderung der Sprachbegegnung und des Spracherwerbs provides 265 hours a school year for teaching the minority language. In primary schools, it is part of the mandatory subjects whereas in secondary education it is optional. Sater Frisian is also used in school projects, theatre productions or other kinds of public school events. There is no research done yet on how successful the project is. 19)
Online learning resources
The Sater Frisian - German dictionary
A collection of Sater Frisian text and general information
A "Wimmelspiel" app for iOS and Android was created for 3 to 6 year old children as well as for adults to start learning Sater Frisian
Mercator's Regional Dossier:
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