Wangeroogian was the very special language of the island of
Wangerooge,
the only Northsea-island of the former Grand Duchy of Oldenburg
(Germany).
Although this much studied language has died out in 1950, so
sounds its speech still here at the internet, as it was kept in
grammophone records.
Please listen to a part of the history "Uut
miin Oopel siin leeven" From my grandfathers life [Transcription
and translation in German: Arjen Versloot]:
Miin Oopel weer 'n fariinsmon, dee
wunnet up Wangerooch. Dait weer
My grandpa was a sailor, who lived in Wangerooge. It
wasnuu wail soo uum 't Jeer
achtiinhunnert threttiin, fjirtiin. Wii haiden
now well so around the year eighteenhundred thirteen,
fourteen. We had
Kriich mit de Fransoozen, un de
Engelsen weeren up 'e Oostsee.
war with the French, and the English were at the
Baltic Sea.
Daa lai eenes Diis miin Oopel mit siin
Schip in de Wiizder far Anker.
There lay one day my grandpa with his ship in the
river Weser at anchor.
Dee must hooch Watter auftaiw, un hii
un siin Liuud haiden jam
He must await high tide, and he and his people had
them
dilleliin too slaipen.
laid down to sleep.
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Back  
Original version
(1927)
Repeated by me
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The great describer of Wangeroogian is Heinrich
Georg Ehrentraut (1798-1866). A part of his work, however, seemed
to be missing, especially fairy-tales. About ten years ago I did
take part in retrieving the missing manuscripts (more than 1000
sheets) and in 1996 those Wangeroogian texts were published as
H.G. Ehrentraut, "Mittheilungen aus der Sprache der
Wangeroger" at the Fryske Akademy in Ljouwert/
Leeuwarden. The texts have been edited by Arjen P. Versloot, who
added an alphabetic glossary. It is a bulky volume of 96 + 649
pages. P.K.
Wangerooge in the year 1805 after Le Coq. The village was
disturbed in the years 1854/55 by spring tides and the majority
of its inhabitants fled to the mainland and never came back.
Today's island is further to the east, about at the position of Beckerhell.
Link: Hoekstra