Urkers
Encyclopedia
Urkers is the local language of the municipality and former island of Urk
, located on the west coast of the Dutch
province of Flevoland
. In Dutch
, Urkers is called Urks. Urk was an island until the middle of the 20th century. It was originally located in the Zuiderzee, a bay of the North sea
, which became an inland sea called IJsselmeer
when a dam was built to secure the Dutch coast against floods. Inhabitants of Urk had been mostly fishermen and still predominantly make their living from North Sea fishing.
Urkers is part of the dialect continuum
that links Dutch Low Saxon
dialects in the North and East of Urk to the Lower Franconian dialects, mainly in the South, West, and North-West of Urk. Standard Dutch, and Afrikaans
are also part of the Lower Franconian group. Urkers is considered a part of the Lower Saxon group of languages despite the fact that it is quite extreme in that group and both geographically and linguistically at its edge. Lower Saxon has its main distribution in Northern Germany in the federal states Lower Saxony
, Schleswig-Holstein
, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. For native speakers from those areas, it is unlikely to understand Urkers well.
and belletristic works.
There is at least one band, Leuster, that publishes some of their songs sung in Urkers on CD.
online dictionary of Urkers and Dutch. The Urkers Dialect Circle has a small website collecting data on Urkers including sample texts. See Websites, below.
code assigned to Urkers was deferred due to incomplete treatment of the scope the rest of Low Saxon.
Urk
Urk is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands.Urk is first mentioned in historical records dating to the 10th century, when it was still an island in the Almere, a lake that would become part of the Zuiderzee in the 13th century after a series of incursions...
, located on the west coast of the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
province of Flevoland
Flevoland
Flevoland is a province of the Netherlands. Located in the centre of the country, at the location of the former Zuiderzee, the province was established on January 1, 1986; the twelfth province of the country, with Lelystad as its capital...
. In Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, Urkers is called Urks. Urk was an island until the middle of the 20th century. It was originally located in the Zuiderzee, a bay of the North sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
, which became an inland sea called IJsselmeer
IJsselmeer
IJsselmeer is a shallow artificial lake of 1100 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. The IJsselmeer is the largest lake in Western Europe....
when a dam was built to secure the Dutch coast against floods. Inhabitants of Urk had been mostly fishermen and still predominantly make their living from North Sea fishing.
Urkers is part of the dialect continuum
Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
that links Dutch Low Saxon
Dutch Low Saxon
Dutch Low Saxon is a group of Low Saxon, i.e. West Low German dialects spoken in the northeastern Netherlands. In comparison, the remainder of the Netherlands speak a collection of Low Franconian dialects.The class "Dutch Low Saxon" is not unanimous...
dialects in the North and East of Urk to the Lower Franconian dialects, mainly in the South, West, and North-West of Urk. Standard Dutch, and Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
are also part of the Lower Franconian group. Urkers is considered a part of the Lower Saxon group of languages despite the fact that it is quite extreme in that group and both geographically and linguistically at its edge. Lower Saxon has its main distribution in Northern Germany in the federal states Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
, Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. For native speakers from those areas, it is unlikely to understand Urkers well.
Authors
The author Gerrit Pasterkamp has written books in Urkers including translations of the Jewish and Christian PsalmsPsalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
and belletristic works.
There is at least one band, Leuster, that publishes some of their songs sung in Urkers on CD.
Documentation
There is a crowdsourcedCrowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
online dictionary of Urkers and Dutch. The Urkers Dialect Circle has a small website collecting data on Urkers including sample texts. See Websites, below.
Recognition
Urkers is not recognized as a minority language by the Dutch government. A request to have an ISO 639-3ISO 639-3
ISO 639-3:2007, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages, is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages. It extends the ISO 639-2...
code assigned to Urkers was deferred due to incomplete treatment of the scope the rest of Low Saxon.
Literature
- Section in the Book by : , , Den Haag 2002, ISBN 90-12-09008-3
Websites
- Urkers Dialekt Circle
- Online dictionary Urkers ↔ Dutch, having some 650 entries in June, 2010.