The Saterfrisian Vowel System Back to: Language general
Dr. Fort's Spelling

 

Saterfrisian has a four-step system of shorts:
ie           uu     üü
  i       u     ü  
    ä   o     ö    
      a            

 

and of longs:
íe           úu     ü'ü
  ee       oo     öö  
    ää   oa     öä    
      aa            

 

as well as the diphthongs ending in i:
                 
                 
    äi   oi oai   öi  
      ai          

 

and the diphthongs ending in u, uw:
ieuw                  
  eeuw                
    äuw   ou          
      au            

Saterfrisian has thirty vowel phonemes, like West Frisian. But they are quite different.
For a possible explanation of this large difference see
A phonematic catastrophy.

The difference between ie and íe respectively uu and úu as well as üü and ü'ü only applies for e few words.