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Function words with and without final consonant

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Some consonant-final function words have a variant without this final consonant. There is no general deletion process underlying the variants without final consonant, so they have become stems in their own right, for which several arguments are adduced.

Some consonant-final function words, an overview of which is provided in (1), have a variant without final consonant. The forms in the right-hand rows are not recognized in the official spelling.

Function words with and without final consonant

With and without final /{x/ɣ}/

doch

/dɔx/

nevertheless, yet

dò

/dɔ/

noch

/nɔx/

still

nò

/nɔ/

genôch

/gənɔ:x/

enough

genô

/gənɔ:/

graach

/ɡra:x/

with pleasure

graa

/ɡra:/

troch

/trox/

through

tro

/tro/

With and without final /r/

dêr

/dɛ:r/

there

dê

/dɛ:/

foar

/fwar/

for; in front of

foa

/fwa/

hjir

/jɪr/

here

hji

/jɪ/

mar

/mar/

but; only, just

/ma/

wer

/vɛr/

again

wè

/vɛ/

allegear

/ɔlə(ɡ)jɛr/

all

allegea

/ɔlə(ɡ)jɛ/

With or without /l/

wol

/vol/

well

/vo/

There is no productive, general deletion process underlying the variants without final consonant; they have become stems in their own right, which is shown by the fact that they can occur in sentence-final position, as exemplified in (2) (as in (1), ò and è denote the short vowels /ɔ/ and /ɛ/):

Examples of the function words without final consonant in sentence-final position

Hy die it dò!

[dɔ]

He did it all the same!

Ik rûk it nò

[nɔ]

I smell it still

I can still smell it

Sa hawwe wy wol genô

[ɡənɔ:]

like this have we all right enough

That's enough for us

Dy opmerking is der fier by tro

[tro]

that remark is there far by trough

That remark is totally unacceptable

Wa ha wy dê?

[dɛ:]

who have we there

Look who's there!

Dêr binne it bern foa

[fwa]

there are it children for

Children will be children

Avensearje no ma!

[ma]

hurry up now just

Hurry up, will you?

Dy tiid komt noait wè

[vɛ]

that time comes never again

Those days are gone forever

Der is te min foar ús allegear

[ɔlə(ɡ)jɛ]

there is too little for us all

There is not enough to go around

Dat mei wo

[vo]

that may all right

That's all right, that's allowed

Also, vowel- and /h/-initial words, which normally make for a context in which consonant deletion does not occur, can be preceded by the variant without final consonant, see the examples in (3):

Hy docht dò altyd	[dɔ ɔltit]	syn eigen sin	he does all the same always his own liking	All the same, he has his own way
Ik wie dò hast	[dɔ hast]	klear	I was nevertheless almost ready	I have nevertheless almost finished
Bern kinne foar heal	[fwa hɪəl]	jild	children can for half money	Children are allowed at half price

The shortened stems end in either a (non-close) short vowel − as do dò /dɔ/, nò /nɔ/, tro /tro/, foa /fwa/, hji /jɪ/, ma /ma/, wè /vɛ/, allegea /ɔlə(ɡ)jɛ/, and wo /vo/ − or the (half open) long monophthongs /a:/, /ɛ:/ and /ɔ:/ − as do graa /gra:/, genô /gənɔ:/ and dê /dɛ:/. Word-final short vowels are not that common and word-final /ɔ:/ and /ɛ:/ are not allowed in Frisian (see Word-final short vowels and Word-final vowels, respectively). This provides us with a strong indication of the, historically speaking, derived character of the great majority of these stems.