Amrum Frisian, or ''Öömrang'', is the

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

of the

North Frisian language North Frisian (''nordfriisk'') 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 thems ...

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

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

region of North Frisia. ''Öömrang'' refers to the ''Öömrang'' Frisian name of Amrum, ''Oomram''. Together with the Fering,

Söl'ring Sylt Frisian, or ''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 Ferin ...

, and

Heligolandic Heligolandic (''Halunder'') is the dialect of the North Frisian language spoken on the German island of Heligoland in the North Sea. It is spoken today by some 500 of the island's 1,650 inhabitants and is also taught in schools. Heligolandic is cl ...

dialects, it forms part of the insular group of North Frisian dialects, and it is very similar to Fering. ''Öömrang'' is spoken by about one third of Amrum's 2300 people.

Characteristics

*Differentiation between long and short

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

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, 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 the speech o ...

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)

Personal and family names

Personal names on Amrum are still today greatly influenced by a Frisian element. Notably,

hypocorism A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek: (), from (), 'to call by pet names', 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 I ...

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

Danish language Danish (; , ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are also found in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the northern German region of Southern Schles ...

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 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 introduction of naval ...

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

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 or 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 perceiv ...

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