Fering is the dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 of North Frisian

North Frisian language

North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages.-Classification:...

 spoken on the island of Föhr

Föhr

Föhr is one of the North Frisian Islands on the German coast of the North Sea. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Föhr is the second-largest North Sea island of Germany....

 in the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 region of North Frisia

North Frisia

North Frisia or Northern Friesland is the northernmost portion of Frisia, located primarily in Germany between the rivers Eider and Wiedau/Vidå. It includes a number of islands, e.g., Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, Nordstrand, and Heligoland.-History:...

. Fering refers to the Fering Frisian name of Föhr, Feer. Together with the Öömrang

Öömrang

Öömrang is the dialect of the North Frisian language spoken on the island of Amrum in the German region of North Frisia. Öömrang refers to the Öömrang Frisian name of Amrum, Oomram. Together with the Fering, Söl'ring, and Heligolandic dialects, it forms part of the insular group of North Frisian...

, Söl'ring

Söl'ring

Söl'ring is the dialect of the North Frisian language spoken on the island of Sylt in the German region of North Frisia. Söl'ring refers to the Söl'ring Frisian word for Sylt, Söl. Together with the Fering, Öömrang, and Heligolandic dialects, it forms part of the insular group of North Frisian...

, and Heligolandic

Heligolandic

Heligolandic is the dialect of the North Frisian language spoken on the German island of Heligoland in the North Sea. It is spoken today by only a few hundred of the island's 1,650 inhabitants and is also taught in schools....

 dialects, it forms part of the insular group of North Frisian dialects and it is very similar to Öömrang.

Around 3000 of Föhr's 8700 people speak Fering (1500 of them being native speakers), constituting a third of all North Frisian speakers. An unknown number of emigrants in the United States of America, mainly in New York and Northern California, speaks Fering as well. Fering differs from other North Frisian dialects in that it is also used publicly on Föhr, not only at home. The municipalities of Oldsum

Oldsum

Oldsum is a municipality on the island of Föhr, in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.-Geography:...

 and Süderende

Süderende

Süderende is a municipality on the island of Föhr in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.-History:The place used to belong to Oldsum, being its southern edge...

 (Fering: Olersem, Söleraanj) in the western part of Föhr are strongholds of the dialect.

Personal and family names

Personal names on Föhr are still today greatly influenced by a Frisian element. Notably hypocorisms and names with two elements are common. Early borrowings were made from the Danish language and the Christianisation of the North Frisians around 1000 A.D. brought a modest influence of Christian and biblical names. In the Age of Sail

Age of Sail

The Age of Sail was the period in which international trade and naval warfare were dominated by sailing ships, lasting from the 16th to the mid 19th century...

 Dutch and West Frisian

West Frisian language

West Frisian is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian,...

 forms became popular.

Family names were usually patronymic

Patronymic

A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...

, i. e. they were individually created as genitives from the father's given name. Contrary to the Scandinavian Petersen or Petersson, meaning "Peter's son", a Fering name like Peters means "of Peter". This practice was prohibited by the Danish Crown in 1771 for the Duchy of Schleswig and was therefore abandoned on the eastern part of Föhr. As western Föhr was a direct part of the Danish kingdom until 1864, patronyms were in use there until 1828 when they were forbidden in Denmark proper as well.

Orthography

letter(s)	value(s) in IPA	notes
a	a
aa	ʌː
au	au
ä	ɛ
ää	ɛː
äi	ɛi
b	b
ch	x
d	d
dj	dj
e	ɛ, ə	Becomes schwa when unstressed
ee	eː
f	f
g	ɡ
h	h
i	ɪ
ia	ia
ii	iː
j	j
k	k
l	l
lj	lj
m	m
n	n
ng	ŋ
nj	nj
o	ɔ
oi	ʌːi
oo	oː
ö	œ
öi	øi
öö	øː
p	p
r	r
s	s, z	"s" is always /s/ in initial position, /z/ between vowels
sch	ʃ
t	t
tj	tj
u	ʊ
ua	ua
uai	uai
ui	ui
uu	uː
ü	ʏ
üü	yː
w	v

External links

• Ocke-Schwen Bohn's home page Speech samples and a phonetic description of Fering