Something on the Grammatical Study of the Frisian Language in Its Entirety

Telting, Albartus, 1803-1863Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.4

Word count: 60K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Iets over de grammaticale beoefening der Friesche taal in haar geheelen omvangAuthor: Telting, Albartus, 1803-1863,Language: Dutch, Class: PF: Language and Literatures: West Germanic, Release Date: Oct 8, 2008

Editor's review

Albartus Teltin's short booklet discusses the overall study of Frisian grammar. Belonging to nineteenth-century Dutch-language scholarly writing, it became freely available after Project Gutenberg public-domain release. Its value lies not in offering a complete grammatical system in the modern linguistic sense, but in showing how early scholars understood the grammatical scope, research approaches, and linguistic status of Frisian. The book is short and argumentative in tone, focusing on the methodological question of what aspects grammatical study should cover. It is a useful reference for understanding the scholarly history of Frisian, the tradition of language study in the Low Countries, and nineteenth-century philological writing style. It is best read as a historical document: its terminology, spelling, and prescriptive notions bear the marks of its era, and it should not be used directly as a modern textbook for learning Frisian. It suits readers in language history, Germanic studies, and Dutch scholarly history as supplementary material, and also general readers who can read Dutch and are interested in minority-language preservation issues. Because the subject is specialized and the language barrier clear, readers should confirm their purpose before starting.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Linguists studying Germanic languages and the history of Frisian
Readers interested in Dutch-language scholarly history and nineteenth-century philological methods
Advanced readers who can read Dutch and are interested in minority-language research
Language students who need public-domain primary sources for course papers

Not a good fit for

Beginners who want to systematically learn modern Frisian grammar
General readers who do not read Dutch and need English translation support
Readers expecting contemporary linguistic frameworks and abundant example sentences

Reading tips

First confirm your Dutch reading ability, then decide whether to read the whole book or only the introduction and conclusion.
While reading, note the grammatical terminology the author uses and compare it with modern Frisian textbooks.
Understand it against the background of nineteenth-century European philology, and avoid judging it by contemporary standards.
If using it for a paper, focus on excerpting the author's claims about research scope and method as material for scholarly history.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read this book without knowing Dutch?

Direct reading is not recommended. The book is written in Dutch and deals with Frisian grammar research, so without a translation the barrier to understanding is high. If you only need to trace scholarly history, you can use secondary research to understand its arguments and then decide whether to consult the original.

Can this book be used to learn Frisian?

It is not suitable as a modern learning textbook. It discusses the scope and methods of grammatical research rather than offering a step-by-step grammar course, and its terminology and prescriptive notions belong to the nineteenth century. Contemporary textbooks should be chosen for learning Frisian; this book is better read as background in language history.

Why does this short book deserve attention?

Its significance lies in its place in scholarly history: it shows how early scholars defined the overall scope of Frisian grammatical study and how they discussed linguistic status and research methods at the time. For readers specializing in Germanic languages or Dutch scholarly traditions, such primary documents have irreplaceable reference value.

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About the author

Telting, Albartus, 1803-1863 Author · Dutch · 1803–1863

Albartus Telting (1803–1863) was a Dutch jurist and judicial official who worked on the compilation of legal documents and in the administration of justice. Only one of his works is known in the library: Iets over de grammaticale beoefening der Friesche taal in haar geheelen omvang, a discussion of the grammatical study of the Frisian language, which shows that beyond his legal career he also took an interest in linguistic questions. Written in Dutch, the text deals with Frisian grammar in its full scope and belongs to the field of language studies. Public information about Telting's life is limited: his education, career advancement and scholarly connections cannot be reliably established, and what is known rests mainly on his nationality and dates and on the legal and linguistic work mentioned above. Because his writings are few, his influence remained confined to the small circle of nineteenth-century Dutch legal documentation and Frisian language studies.