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Case

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Of the Old Frisian morphological case system only a small part is retained in Modern Frisian. Traces of a former dative can be found only in a few fixed expressions. The former genitive transformed to a possessive construction, in which the choice of the possessor is mainly restricted to names or name-like elements. Frisian has more genitive suffixes than Dutch. Next to the suffix -s, the language also has -e (a remnant of Old Frisian weak -a) and plural -ene (Old Frisian -ena). A special use of the genitive can be seen in gametonymics, as in Ruerde Tryn Tryn. Ruerd's wife, and in patronymic constructions like Piter Jelles Piter, Jelle's son.

Old case endings
The possessive suffix -s
The possessive suffix -e
The possessive suffix -ene
Gametonymics
Patronymics

[+]Old case endings

Unlike Old Frisian, Modern Frisian has no morphological case. Relics of an old dative ending can be found in the following prepositional phrases:

Table 1

Noun	Phrase
rjocht right	terjochte at the right place
lân land	telâne komme to arrive, to land, to end up
fjild field	tefjilde in the field
rie(d) advise, council	terie(de) wurde to decide, to come to the conclusion

In the following two idiomatic expressions the noun bears an old dative ending -e, whereas the article represents the old dative form of the neuter definite article (see also variation between de and it):

Table 2

Neuter noun	Expression
leach caustic, lye	immen út 'e leage waskje someone out the caustic wash to tell someone the plain truth
loch place (Old Frisian)	yn 'e lytse loege sitte in the small place sit to be in a predicament

The old genitive endings -s, -e and -ene have been preserved in Modern Frisian to some extent, but they do not function as case markers anymore. They have been reanalyzed as possessive suffixes. The possessive constructions involving these suffixes will be discussed in the following sections.

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Genitive remnants in other categories

Remnants of the genitive remain in the context of other lexical categories, particularly in pronouns. The interrogative pronoun wa who has a genitive form waans. (Which is also mentioned in interrogative pronouns). Some indefinite pronouns, referring to human beings, have genitives with -s, like elks everybody's, immens someone's or nimmens nobody's. A quite different phenomenon is nominalized adjectives, as in wat moais something beautiful. This is interpreted as in instance of adjectival inflection. Furthermore, the adverbial marker -s has historically been analyzed as a genitival ending. The marker -s can have a noun as base and an adverb as base. Finally, the genitive ending also pops up in so-called genitive compounds.

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A brief comparison with Dutch

Compared with Frisian, remnants of the Dutch genitive are more frequent, as can be seen in the topics about case in general and case genitive Noun Phrases (NP). For example, a Dutch phrase as in de loop der jaren in the course the-GEN.PL year.PL in the course of the years has to be translated in Frisian periphrastically with an Adposition Phrase (PP) as yn 'e rin fan 'e jierren. Moreover, Dutch has a construction with a genitive ending attached to an infinitive, as in tot brakens toe until vomit-INF-GEN to to such an extent that it may lead to vomiting which is lacking in Frisian. Furthermore, Frisian lacks the characterization construction as in dat is niet des vrouws that is not the.GEN.SG.masc woman-GEN.SC.masc that is not characteristic for a woman, described in case characterization in Dutch. On the other hand, Dutch lacks the Frisian endings -e and -ene.

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Genitive in Fering-Öömrang (North Frisian)

The Old Frisian inflectional case system has also collapsed in North Frisian varieties, although the former inflectional morphemes -s (originally strong inflection) and -en (originally weak inflection) have been preserved in a few constructions, for example in patronymics.

Prenominal genitives like Tükes wel Tüke's bike or aatjen stuul father's chair (cf. the West Frisian possessive suffixes -s and -e) and local genitives like at Peters at Peter's or at Oken at Ook's (cf. West Frisian local genitives) only appear in fixed constructions. Usually, present-day prenominal genitives are described periphrastically: Tüke sin wel Tüke his bike – Tüke's bike.

The former genitive endings -s/-en also developed into a marker of partitive use for non-countable nouns, for example triad (piece of) thread – triads thread (as material), kualew calf – kualews veal, lum lamb– lumen lamb meat. This seems to be related to a partitive marking of adjectives, which also can be found in other languages, but appears to be very special in Fering-Öömrang, as both endings -s and -en can be used (in other Germanic languages basically only -s): wat ruads/wat ruaden something red (this construction also occurs in West Frisian).

[This extra is written by Hauke Heyen (Kiel)]

[+]The possessive suffix -s

In the possessive construction with the suffix -s, the suffix marks the possessor noun preceding the possession noun. The number of nouns that may qualify as the possessor in this construction is rather limited. The possessive -s occurs with:

Topographical names:

Fryslâns marren

Fryslâns lakes

Ljouwerts tsjerken

Ljouwert's churches

Personal names (first names, last names, nicknames):

Gearts lûd

Geart's voice

Froukjes auto

Froukje's car

Brandsmas pleats

Brandsma's farm

Trinus Riemersmas boek

Trinus Riemersma's book

Lytse Teakes grappen

Little Teake's jokes

Ruerd Kintsjes brommer

Ruerd Kintsje's moped

With coordinated names the possessive suffix appears after the last conjunct. Examples are Jan en Hinkes bernsbern Jan and Hinke's grandchildren and Bylsma en Hellingas plysjeromans Bylsma and Hellinga's detective stories.

Kinship terms and other nouns that can be used as forms of address:

mems mantel

mother's coat

ús omkes hûn

my uncle's dog

syn frous mem

his wife's mother

jim buormans hok

your neighbour's shed

dokters boat

the doctor's boat

m'nhears paraplu

your umbrella, (Sir)

The associative construction (with -en-dy):

Jan-en-dys hûs

the house of John and his family

ús heit-en-dys troudei

the wedding anniversary of my parents

Some compounds with -man man and -lju people:

Dat is gjin knappe lju's dwaan

that is no decent people-GEN do.INF

That's no way to behave for decent people

Rikelju's pankoeken en earmelju's sykten rûke fier

rich-people-GEN pancakes and poor-people-GEN illnesses smell far

Everybody notices, when poor people have a bit of luck and when rich people have misfortune

[proverb]

oarmans saken

other-man-GEN businesses

other people's business

foar allemans eagen

for all-man-GEN eyes

in front of everyone's eyes

Syn foet stiet ûnder allemans tafel

his foot stands under all-man-GEN table

He has to remain on good terms with everybody (esp. his customers)

[proverb]

Other nouns in a few (poetic) idiomatic expressions with a generic interpretation, and in which the possessor is presented in a personified sense:

âldfaars erf

the legacy of the ancestors

wrâlds berin

the way of the world

tiids tosk

the tooth of time

Lâns wize, lâns eare

When in Rome, do as the Romans do

proverb

If the possessor noun ends in -s, the possessive suffix fuses with this final -s:

Hâns' frou

Hans's wife

notaris' tún

the notary's garden

The possessive construction with the suffix -s is slightly marked. Often a perifrastic possessive construction with the possessive pronoun is preferred (as in Jan syn fyts John his bicycle John's bicycle; see also realisation of complements external to NP) or a PP with the preposition fan of (as in de fyts fan Jan the bicycle of John John's bicycle; see also predicative and complementive PPs). A perifrastic construction is the only possibility if the possessor is not one of the elements listed above. Examples are de hûn syn bonke the dog his bone the dog's bone or de poat fan 'e tafel the leg of the table the leg of the table.

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Genitive versus compound

Some of these formations resemble compounds. The most striking difference is stress: notaris' TÚN versus noTAristún. The former, spelled as two words, is a garden possessed by the person in the village who has the function of notary. The latter is a compound, and is hence spelled as one word. It denotes a kind of garden that are typically owned by notaries. However, there is also a category in between phrasal construction and an ordinary compound, i.e. a so-called genitive compound.

The genitive constructions above always lack a determiner. This is different in the following examples, which have an article that is obligatorily definite and in which a family name always is involved:

it Ypma's folk

the Ypma family

de Dekema's jonges

the Dekema boys

de Piersma's froulju

the Piersma women

de Veenstra's pleats

the Veenstra farm

The choice of the possession noun is severely restricted here, in contrast to the construction without an article. One only finds plural or collective nouns, semantically all pointing at a family context. The ones in (8) are the most frequent, next to laach family; descent, fammen girls and erven heirs. These nouns cannot be modified, in contrast to the construction without an article. Compare:

Douma's tsjeppe fammen

Douma-GEN pretty girls

Douma's pretty daughters

*de Douma's tsjeppe fammen

the Douma-GEN pretty girls

the pretty Douma girls

As can be seen from the translations, there is also a semantic difference. The genitive without article refers to a particular person; with an article, on the other hand, a complete family is referred to. This genitival family noun no longer functions as a possessor, but rather as a modifier: de Douma's girls are the girls that belong to the Douma family. This will also be the reason that relational nouns like soan son or dochter daughter are not found in the construction with an article.

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The possessive suffix -s in elliptical position

The possessor nouns may "stand on their own" if the possession noun is elided. For example, a phrase like ús tún en domenys tún our garden and the vicar's garden is usually formulated elliptically as ús tún en domenys our garden and vicar-GEN. However, after stressed syllables the ending is not -s but rather -es, as in Jan John > Jannes. Therefore, one could assume that such a suffix rather marks nominal ellipsis and not possession in the first place. For this reason the morphology of elliptic genitival constructions is dealt with in a separate topic on ellipsis.

[+]The possessive suffix -e

The possessive construction with the suffix -e developed from the weak Old Frisian ending -a. In this construction, the suffix marks the possessor noun preceding the possession noun. The use of the suffix -e is even more restricted than that of the suffix -s; it is only used if the possessor noun ends (i) in a stressed syllable, or (ii) in a schwa. In the latter case, the schwa of the suffix phonetically merges with the schwa-ending of the base; orthographically, this is marked by an apostrophe, as in pake grandfather > pake' grandfather-GEN. The suffix -e only occurs if the possessor noun is a first name:

Janne skonk

John's leg

Trine brief

Tryn's letter

Wibe' plan

Wibe's plan

Ruerde jonges

Ruerd's sons

or a kinship term:

heite bril

father's spectacles

memme eagen

mother's eyes

beppe' fyts

grandmother's bicycle

pake' pet

grandfather's cap

muoike' broer

aunt's brother

omke' bou

uncle's vegetable garden

har manne ûnderbroek

her husband's underpants

syn wive earm

his wife's arm

As to actual usage, the possessive construction with the suffix -e is even more marked than the construction with -s; it is nearly only used in the written language. In the spoken language, it is preserved in a number of idiomatic expressions:

fan heite/memme kant

on one's father's/mother's side

heite/memme pop

father's/mother's darling

nei beppe' kelder gean

go to the bottom

Bokke' himd

skin (on the milk)

pake' pong

the public purse

nei in minske' each

by human standards

In minske' sin is in minske' libben

One's interests keep one going

proverb

The possessive construction with the suffix -e is also concealed in a number of toponyms. Examples are Jakkeleset Jakkele.GEN ferry and Jeltesleat Jelte.GEN canal. A final difference between the possessive construction with the suffix -s and the one with -e is that the latter can not be used elliptically.

[+]The possessive suffix -ene

The genitive plural suffix -ene developed from the Old Frisian weak plural ending -ena. It appears in an NP without determiner:

Friezene skande

Frisian-GEN.PL shame

shame of the Frisians

minskene soargjende hân

people-GEN.PL caring hand

mankind's caring hand

However, more often we find a determiner, mostly a definite article:

it minskene libben

human life

de Friezene frijdom

the freedom of the Frisians

it Noarmannene jok

the yoke of the Vikings

ús heitene die

ancestral deeds

The choice as to the possessor nouns is fairly restricted: they should denote human beings and are used generically. There is also a formal restriction, as the possessor nouns should take a plural suffix -en. Furthermore, they take over irregular processes of plural formation, like shortening (cf. faam /fa:m/ girl > fammene /famənə/ of the girls or god god > goadene of the gods); see also vowel changes in the stem).

It should be remarked that the use of this kind of genitive is also severely restricted. It only occurs in the written language, particularly in an elevated style. In particular, it was popular among writers of the group of Jong Friezen (i.e. Young Frisians). Probably, they revived this form under the influence of the Renaissance poet Gysbert Japicx (1603-1666). It was primarily used for stylistical reinforcement, for example de Friezene taal the Frisian-GEN.PL language the language of the Frisians as opposed to more common de Fryske taal the Frisian-INFL language the Frisian language.

[+]Gametonymics

The former genitive endings -s and -e also appear in the gametonymic construction. In this construction the suffix is used to mark a man's name or name-like element preceding a woman's name or a name-like element. The construction refers to a woman as being the wife of some man.

The ending -e appears when the man's name ends (i) in a stressed syllable:

Ruerde Tryn

Tryn, Ruerd's wife

Jehanne Geartsje

Geartsje, Jehan's wife

kommize Helena

Helena, the tax-officer's wife

Ruolle Gryt

Gryt, Roel's wife

note the

breaking

in this form

or (ii) in a schwa:

Nikele' Fokje

Fokje, Nikele's wife

Anne' Foke

Foke, Anne's wife

Jelle' Martsje

Martsje, Jelle's wife

Hidde' Bouk

Bouk, Hidde's wife

The ending -s appears elsewhere, as shown below:

Hindriks Anny

Anny, Hindrik's wife

Piters Nynke

Nynke, Piter's wife

Kobus' Sjoukje

Sjoukje, Kobus'wife

kosters Feikje

Feikje, the sexton's wife

The following examples show a name-like designation of the wife:

masters juffrou

the schoolmaster's wife

domenys mefrou

the vicar's wife

(The differences in designations for the women also reflect differences in social class.)

[+]Patronymics

Up to the time of Napoleon, with the official introduction of family names, it was standard practice to add a patronymic to a first name. Informally, this usage persisted for a very long time. The pattern consists of two names. The second name, indicating the father, has an ending -s:

Gysbert Japiks

Tsjerk Hiddes (de Vries)

Piter Jelles (Troelstra)

Nowadays, if the patronymic -s is still used, one mostly finds the family name added, as in Piter Jelles Troelstra.

If the patronymic ends in [s], then a schwa is inserted. Hence, we get Fritses (from Frits) and Hânzes (from Hâns).

The father's name can also be a preposed derivation with the suffix -s, as in:

bakkers Janke	the baker's (daughter) Janke
domenys Watse	the vicar's (son) Watse
Sytsemas Hiltsje	Hiltsje, the daughter of Sytsema

This construction thus resembles the pattern of the possessive suffix -s as described in the section about the suffix -s or the gametonymic construction, however with a specific semantics.

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Patronymics in North Frisian

In the Insular North-Frisian variety spoken on the German islands of Föhr and Amrum, the former inflectional morphemes especially were conserved in the patronymic marker. Although it is not in use anymore since the patronymic system has been forbidden in the early 19th century, it is still present in a range of family names. The patronymic is built from the father's first name plus the genitive ending -s or -en. Examples are Nahmens (from Nahm), Ricklefs (from Ricklef), Volkerts (from Volkert), Arfsten (from Arfst), Bohn (from Boh), Ocken (from Ock; all examples from Faltings (1985), see also Hoekstra (1995). According to Faltings (1985:24-25), after the rise of non-patronymic names the endings of some names have been changed to -sen, like in Mainland North-Frisian and Scandinavian languages. It is important to point out that it developed this way and not the other way around, as linguists of the early 20th century tended to see the patronymic markers as reduced forms of -sen (Faltings (1985:24-25); Hoekstra (1995:72, footnote 6)). Hoekstra (1995) and Hoekstra (2011) describes the distribution of the endings as very similar to the distribution of -s/-en plural morphemes in West Frisian and Dutch and points out that their distribution is according to the old inflectional classes, but only based morphophonologically: names with an unstressed ending without obstruent get -s, in all other cases it is -en, following a trochaic principle plus a principle of decreasing sonority (see also the topic on plural formation).

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Literature

This topic is greatly indebted to an unfinished grammar of Frisian, written in English by Jarich Hoekstra. The most important paper on the subject is Hoekstra (2006). More in particular, it explores the properties of both the -s-genitive with an article (as in de Douma's fammen) and the plural ending -ene, and tries to explain their syntactic and semantic properties from a historical perspective. His main conclusion is that the genitival nouns in these constructions function as modifiers. A somewhat comparable, but more recent, article is Hoekstra (2018). Apart from some North Frisian phenomena it discusses the possessive use of former endings and gametonyms, next to further developments like genitive compounds and the ending -s in temporal adverbs with a noun as base and an adverb as base.

References

Faltings, Volkert F1985Kleine Namenkunde für Föhr und AmrumHelmut Buske Verlag
Faltings, Volkert F1985Kleine Namenkunde für Föhr und AmrumHelmut Buske Verlag
Faltings, Volkert F1985Kleine Namenkunde für Föhr und AmrumHelmut Buske Verlag
Hoekstra, Jarich1995Ta de ûntjouwing fan 'e genityf yn it Fering-ÖömrangUs Wurk44, 3-469-108
Hoekstra, Jarich1995Ta de ûntjouwing fan 'e genityf yn it Fering-ÖömrangUs Wurk44, 3-469-108
Hoekstra, Jarich1995Ta de ûntjouwing fan 'e genityf yn it Fering-ÖömrangUs Wurk44, 3-469-108
Hoekstra, Jarich2006Uzw âde Friez'ne tonge, de Halbertsma's jonges en andere genitiefconstructies in het FriesTaal en Tongval2196-114
Hoekstra, Jarich2011Meervoudsvorming in het Westerlauwers Fries en het Nederlands (en patroniemvorming in het Noord-Fries)Taal en Tongval63281-301
Hoekstra, Jarich2018Frisian genitives. From Old Frisian to the modern dialectsSimon, Horst J. & Zimmer, Christian (eds.)Germanic GenitivesStudies in Language Companion SeriesJohn Benjamins37-61

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About this article

Author(s): Siebren Dyk, Hauke Heyen

Category: Frisian Morphology

Keywords: inflectioncase

Version: 1.0, December 2015

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Siebren Dyk	December 2015

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