Amrum Frisian, also known as ''Öömrang'', is the

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

of the

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. The language comprises 10 dialects which are themselves divided in ...

spoken on the island of

Amrum Amrum (; Öömrang, ''Öömrang'' North Frisian: ''Oomram'') is one of the North Frisian Islands on the Germany, German North Sea coast, south of Sylt and west of Föhr. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-H ...

in the

North Frisia North Frisia (; ; ; ; ) is the northernmost portion of Frisia, located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, between the rivers Eider River, Eider and Vidå, Wiedau. It also includes the North Frisian Islands and Heligoland. The region is traditionally ...

region of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. ''Öömrang'' refers to the ''Öömrang'' Frisian name of Amrum, which is ''Oomram''. Alongside the Fering, Söl'ring, and Heligolandic dialects, it is part of the insular group of North Frisian dialects, and it bears a close resemblance to Fering. ''Öömrang'' is spoken by approximately one-third of Amrum's 2,300 inhabitants.

Characteristics

*Differentiation between long and short

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

s by doubling of the vowel letter (e.g., ''lun'' and, countryand ''skuul'' chool *Use of numerous

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

s and one triphthong, "uai" (e.g. ''spuai'' o tell fortunes *Frequent use of umlauts *Final "w" is pronounced like a short "u" (e.g. ''leew'' ear, sweet *The "r" is rolled (as in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

)

Personal and family names

Personal names on Amrum are still greatly influenced by Frisian elements to this day. Notably,

hypocorism A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek ; sometimes also ''hypocoristic''), or pet name, is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as ''Izzy'' for Isabel or ''Bob (given name), Bob'' fo ...

s and names with two elements are common. Early borrowings were made from the

Danish language Danish (, ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are a ...

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 The Age of Sail is a period in European history that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid-15th) to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the int ...

, Dutch and West Frisian forms became popular. Family names were usually

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

, i.e. they were individually created as

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

s from the father's given name. Contrary to the Scandinavian ''Petersen'' or ''Petersson'', meaning "Peter's son", an Öömrang name like ''Peters'' means "of Peter". This practice was eventually prohibited by the Danish Crown in 1828.

Usage

Lars von Karstedt has illustrated the ominous situation of Öömrang today. The usage of Öömrang is now restricted in home domain. It has lost its function in public communication to German and is only spoken in the households with elderly native speakers of Öömrang. One of the biggest driving forces of the

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived ...

is the change of economic structure brought by the tourism industry. The tourists from across Germany crowded into the small island of

and have quickly taken up the limited housing. Consequently, the rent rapidly increased, driving a lot of the local youngsters out to live in major cities in mainland Germany. Both the influx of English-speaking or German-speaking tourists and tourism employees and the loss of young native speakers are causing drastic decline of the dialect.

References

Amrum North Frisian language {{Germanic-lang-stub