Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/825

F R I F R I 789 German sdi an.l English sh, and of t for the German k; and, still more remarkable, the modification of k and g into ts wheu these letters precede e or i, as in tserko for kerke, i.e., kirk, church. The explanation of this last peculiarity may perhaps be found in the contact of the Frisian with Slavonic languages, in which the modification is sufficiently common. A brief sketch of Frisian grammar was published along with the poems of Gysbert Japiex ; bat the first separate treatment of the older forms of the language was by Kask, whose Frisisk Sproglcvrc (Copenhagen, 1825; German translation by Buss, Freiburg, 1834) brought him into controversy with Grimm, who, in his Deutschcn Gmmmitik, devoted some attention to the same subject. Moritz llevne has also given a good treatment of Frisian in his Kurzc Laut- uivl Flexionslehre der Altgermanischen Sprachstdmmc, 1874. Richthofen s Altfriesisches Worterbuch, Gottingen, 1840, practically supplanted the older work of "Wiarda (Aurich, 1786), and its position has not been affected by the publication of Haan Hattema s Idioticon Frisicum, Leeuwarden, 1874. Outzen a Glossarium dcr Friysiichen Sprachc (unfortunately a posthumous publication from very illegible manuscripts), Copenhagen, 1837, deals mainly with North Frisian. For West Frisian we have the posthumous and incomplete Lexicon Frisicum (A-Feeor), by Justus Halbertsma, The Hague, 1874 ; and for East Frisian lexicography we have materials in Ehrentraut s Friesisehes Archiv, Oldenburg, 1847-54, 2 vols., Postlmmus and Halbertsma s On~e mis naar Xagcltcsland, Franeker, 1836, and J. Cadovius Miiller s Memorials lingtue frisiccc, written in the early part of the 18th century, and published by Dr Kiikel- han, 1875. J. ten Doornkaat Koolman began in 1877 a IVortcr- btwh der Osifriesischen Sprache, which, along with much irrelevant matter, contains valuable contributions to the subject. The Oit/rwsisches JPoricrbuch, by Sturenburg (1857), is a dictionary, not of Frisian, but of the Low German spoken in East Friesland, which has incorporated comparatively few Frisian words. A list of Frisian personal names forms an appendix to Outzen s Glossarium ; and Bornhard Brons, in his Fricsische Namcn und Mittheilungen Diril icr, Enr.len, 1877, furnishes lists of East, West, and North Frisian Christian names, and a collection of Frisian family names, with the dates at which they make their first appearance in church books or other historical documents. For tho older forms of the language the sources are unfortunately scinty: no great literary monument like that of the Heliand or the Nibelunglied has been preserved, and the investigator has mainly to depend on the various legal codes or collections which were formed in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, and have been pub lished by Richthofcn, Fricsische Rechtsqucllcn, Berlin, 1840. The great Lev Frisionum is composed in Latin, and only contains a few Frisian terms, of comparatively small linguistic importance. The date of its recension is also a matter of conjecture, as there is no contemporary evidence either internal or external. By the older investigators it was assigned a high antiquity ; but the more modern are for the most part of opinion that it is not earlier than the reign of Charlemagne. Haan Hettema in his Oitde FricscJic IVetten gives 802-804 as the probable date ; while Richthofen thinks there are three portions, the iirst composed for use in Middle Frisia in the reign of Charles Martel or of Pippin, another for use in all Frisia, com posed after Charlemagne s conquest in 785, and a third or supple mentary and emendatory portion composed in 802. The first edition of the Lex Frisionum was published by B. J. Hcrold in his Oriyinum ac Germanicarum Antiqidtatum libri, Basel, 1557, but he gives no indication of the source of the manuscripts which he employed. Since his day there have been no fewer than than 13 editions Lindenbrog, Codex Icgum Antiquarum, Frankfort, 1613 ; Sibrand Siccama, Lex Frisionum, Franeker, 1617 ; Schotanus, Bcschryvingc van de Hcerlyckheit van Fricslandt, 1664; Gartner, Sivontim leges tres: acccssit Lex Fris., Leipsic, 1730 ; Georgisch, Corpus juris Germanici, Halle, 1738 ; Schwartzenberg, Groot Placaa( en Charterboek van Vricsland, Loeuwarden, 1768; Canciani, Barbarorum leges anliqucc, Venice, 1781; Walter, Corpus juris Ger man., Berlin, 1824; Gaupp, Lex Fris., Breslau, 1832; Richthofen, Fric.ri.*:hi Itichtsqucllen, Berlin, 1840; De Wall, Lex Fris., &c., Amsterdam, 1850; Hettema, Oude Fr. IVctten, Leeuwardcn, 1851; and, finally, Richthofen in Pertz s Mon. Gcrmnnicc hist., vol. xv., Hanover, 1863. Though it has been supposed that Lindenbrog and Siccama may have had access to some manuscript authority in addi tion to Herold s recension, there is no proof that such was the case ; and the text still remains to all intents in the same state as when Herold left it. Some investigators have, owing to this absence ol original evidence, even cast doubts on the authenticity of the code, but a comparison of the laws with undoubtedly genuine Frisian remains authorizes its acceptance. " I am convinced," says Richt hofen, " that no man in the time of Herold, not to say in our own time, could have devised such a forgery as the Horoldian text. Among the minor collections of Frisian laws in Frisian, Low Ger man and Latin are tho " seventeen general acts or Kiircn," dating from the close of the 12th century, according to Richthofcn, but of much earlier origin according to Lcdiug the Upstalsliom laws of 1323, the local laws of Riistring, and of the Brockmanncn or inhabitants of Brockmerland, published by Wiarda; the " Emsiger Domen," or Emsig decisions, published by Hettema, Leeuwarden, 1830; the Fivelgo laws, {published by Hettema, Dokkum, 1841; and the Hunsingo Kiiren in the 2d volume of the Groningen trans actions of the society "pro excolendo jure patrio," 1778. The title chosen by Wiarda for the laws of Riistring the Asegabuch, though it has become perhaps the best known word of the whole Frisian vocabulary, is in reality not a genuine Frisian form, and never occurs in a Frisian document. The correct expression, according to Richthofen (Altfrics. IVorterbuch, s.v. "Asebok"), would have been Asebok or Asekbok, the former equivalent to the book out of which the "a" or law is to be seen, and the latter to the book in which the law is to be sought. In West Frisia the native language holds much the same relation to Dutch as the Scottisli language holds to English in Scotland : it has no legal or educational position, but it preserves among the peasantry a con siderable degree of vitality, and is even cultivated in a literary way by a small patriotic school. The chief place among West-Frisian authors is due to Gysbert or Gilbert Japiex, rector at Bolsward, whose Fricschc Rijmleryc was first published at Bolsward in 1668, and has since been frequently reprinted at Lccuwarden in 1681; at Franeker, 1684 ; with a glossary by Epkema, 2 vols., Leemvarden, 1824; and under the editorship of Dykstra, 1853. The volume contains secular, and especially humorous, poems, fifty of the Psalms of David and other religious pieces, a number of letters, one or two prose essays, and fragments of the " Customs " of Leemvarden. A popular comedy called Waatze Gribbert s Brilloft, or Gribberfs Bridal, dates from the beginning of the 18th century. The first edition appeared in 1812, at Leeuwarden, and the second in 1820, and there have been several since. Among the writers who have published in West Frisian during the 19th century, it is sufficient to mention Salverda Posthumus, J. H. Halbertsma, Deketh, Windsma, Van der Veen, and Dykstra. A society for the study of Frisian was founded in 1829 at Franeker "Friesch gcnootschap voor geschied- oudheid-en taalkunde," and since 1852 it has published a journal called DC rrije Fries. Other Frisian periodicals are Forjit iy net, "Forget me not;" the Sivannc-blummcn, a Leeuwarden annual; and DC Byckocr. In North Frisian the most valuable literary monument is De gidtshals, i.e., the Gcizhals, or Curmudgeon, a comedy, composed by J. P. Hunsen, in the Silt dialect. The minor remains have been collected by De Vries, in his Nordfricsische Sprachc nach dcr Moringer Mundart, Leyden, 1860; and by Johansen in Die Nordfricsische Sprachc nach dcr Fohringcr mil Amrumcr Mundart, Kiel, 1862. There is one book which, more than any other, has attracted the attention of other than Frisian scholars. If the Ocra Linda look, as it is called, could be .accepted as genuine, it would be, after Homer and Hesiod, the oldest document of European origin; but unfortunately it must be recognized as nothing more than a brilliant forgery. The first part of the manuscript, the book of the followers of Adela, professes to have been copied in 1256 from an ancient original, and gives an account of Neptune, Minerva, Minos, and other personages of classical antiquity, which would make them out to be of Frisian origin. According to J. Beckering Vinckers who published De Oncchthcid van het Ocra Linda b6k aangctoond irit de waartaal waarin hct is gcschrcvcn, in 1875, and Wie hcrft Jut Ocra Linda Bock gcschreven in 1877 the real author is Cornells Over de Linden, a ship-carpenter in the Royal docks at Den Holder, who was born in 1811, and died in 1873, and who appears to have forged the document for the purpose of giving importance to his invectives against the church, and of shedding dignity on his family, which is traced by the book back for about two thousand years. Besides the works indicated above the following may be men tioned : Ubbo Emmius, Rerum Frisicarum historia, Leyden, 1616; Pirius Winsemius, Chronique .... ran Vricsland, Franeker, 1622 ; Wiarda, Ostfries. Gcschichlc, vols. 1-9, Aurich, 1791-1813, vol. 10, Bremen, 1817 ; Clement, Lebcns- u. Lcidcnsgcschichtt Fricslands der Fricscn, Kiel, 1845 ; Suur, Gcschi<-htc dcr HSvptlinge Ostfricslands, Emden, 1846 ; Klopp, Gcsch. Oslfrieslands, Weener, 1868-69 ; Friedliinder, Ostfries. Urkundcnbuch, Emden, 1874 FRITH or FRYTH, JOHN (dr. 1503-1533), an eminent pioneer of the Reformation in England, was born about the beginning of the 16th century at Westerham, Kent, where his father kept an inn. He was educated at Eton, and afterwards at King s College, Cambridge, where Gardiner, who subsequently became bishop of Winchester, was his tutor. Immediately after taking his B.A. degree, he trans ferred his residence (December 1525) to the newly founded college of St Frideswide or Cardinal College (now Christ Church), Oxford, whither, along with other young men of distinguished talent, he had been invited by Wolsey. At Oxford the sympathetic interest which he showed in the