The research I carried out for my PhD thesis on the use of the Frisian language in the Netherlands started in 1999. It was performed in the framework of NWO, the Dutch state organization that coordinates scientific research (in the Stimuleringsactie Rechtswetenschappelijk Onderzoek). My subject was a part of a bigger project, which focused on social cohesion in the multi-cultural society, and I worked at the University of Amsterdam.

The aim of my research was to carry out historical research regarding the way Dutch government officials dealt with people who tried to speak the Frisian language in court, in the city council, in the county council, but also in correspondence with tax authorities, in legal acts made up by notaries and how the Office of Cadastre and Land Records handled Frisian documents.

The Frisians were known in Roman times, and in the Early Middle-ages the Frisians lived along the shores of the North Sea from Rotterdam up to the south of Denmark. Their language disappeared in the 16th century as a legal and official language in the Netherlands. Frisian remained the spoken language for daily communication. Today around 500.000 people speak Frisian, and socio-linguistic research shows that half of them uses the language every day in their family. The Frisian language is a part of the western Germanic language tree. Nowadays it is spoken in the province of Friesland in The Netherlands (West-Lauwers-Frisian) and in two regions in Germany (Sater-Frisian and North Frisian). Frisian is above all a spoken language; only a small part (17 %) of the people in Friesland is able to write in Frisian. Today I will mainly focus on the situation of Frisian in court in the Netherlands from 1800 till today.

Use of Frisian in court

In the beginning of the 19th century a small group of writers and students started to use the Frisian language as a written language again. This period around 1830, the period of romanticism in literature and arts, could be seen as the start of the emancipation of Frisian culture. Likewise in other countries minority groups got formed: the Flemish movement (Vlaamse Beweging), the Raeto-Romans in Switzerland and the people living on the Färoër-isles. This group active in the Netherlands for the Frisian language and culture is commonly called the Frisian Movement, Friese Beweging. Around 1900 this Frisian Movement broadened their scope from language preservation towards lobbying to get the Frisian language accepted in all the public fields, from church and school to the use of Frisian in court and in city councils. From 1907/1908 the province of Friesland gave a yearly grant of 500 guilders to the education and schoolbooks fund of one of the associations of the Friese Beweging. During this debate we see for one of the first times that in public a Frisian was asked by the governor of the province not to speak in his own language. A couple of years earlier, started a discussion on the use of Frisian in city councils, an open letter with the suggestion to use Frisian in the city council, was sent to all the counties in Friesland in 1901. The idea behind it was that it was strange to see most of these members of city councils talking Frisian to each other in daily live, but changing to Dutch when they spoke in the city council.

In the year 1902 the Dutch parliament (Tweede Kamer) discussed for the first time the use of Frisian in court. In august that year a part of the Frisian Movement talked about the disdain of some judges towards people speaking Frisian in court in their yearly meeting. The subject was thereafter discussed in a Dutch legal periodical and some newspapers. A member of parliament, the socialist Van der Zwaag, proposed to install translators in the courts in Friesland. The Lord Chancellor (minister van Justitie) first accepted to investigate the actual situation of the Frisian speaking people in court, but he said that he was never told of any problem by the judges in Friesland. In his opinion everybody got schooling in Dutch, so it would be possible to speak Dutch for everyone. In the House of Lords (Eerste Kamer) the investigation was taken off the roll because of a lack of support by the members of this house.

In 1902 the position of the Frisian in court was discussed, but one has to consider that in most of the courts in Friesland, the use of Frisian was a daily practice. It is difficult to investigate as a researcher in 2003 the language spoken in court a hundred or two hundred years ago, because all the official records have been drafted in Dutch, therefore, in these official records all is written in Dutch.

In 1820 in some of the protocols in penal cases one can find words of the witnesses in Frisian, in the end of this century no Frisian can be found anymore. In this period one can even doubt if the formal language of these protocols is a registration of the speech of the witness, it seems that the clerk of the court polished the witness’ words. For example when a witness with only some years of education in school (the only place where he heard some spoken Dutch) talks about a knife that was ‘in judicio’ in the courtroom. It seems that the official record is not a reliable source to research the spoken language in court. I had to look for other sources and try to discover how reliable they were. The daily newspapers (published 2 or 3 times a week) published in Friesland in that period had extensive articles on the lawsuits. In some of the newspapers, what happened in the court was written down as a play with dialogues. Here we hear the witnesses and the accused talk to the judge in their own tongue, most of the time in Frisian. Evens the judges spoke Frisian once in a while. To find out how reliable the journalists were in their account, I compared the newspaper with the official court protocols, and the content of the two sources, newspaper and process verbal were the same, and only the language was different. It is not so surprising to see that the spoken language in court was Frisian. In an account dating forty years later, a judge in Friesland writes the Lord Chancellor that it was not possible to work in Friesland without language skills in Frisian.

In 1900 there were no rules on the language to be used. For foreigners it was possible to get assistance from a translator in penal cases. For Dutch witnesses and accused it was possible to talk in a Dutch dialect. But Frisian was a separate language, and this became a legal problem.

Around 1930

In the 1920ties the first signs of making the Frisian movement of activists ‘official’ can be traced. With the Algemiene Fryske Underrjocht Kommisje (‘Frisian education committee, still known under the name AFUK), the different groups that formed the Frisian movement united their aim to get the Frisians basic language education in their mother tongue, at schools but to grown ups as well, was organized in one board. In 1928 the Provinsiale Underwiisrie fan Fryslân (‘Provincial education board of Friesland’) was installed, to form a bridge between the Frisian movement and the provincial government. The aim was to promote the Frisian language education. Some considered this board as a buffer to avoid further political demands of some extremists in the Frisian movement. The province of Friesland aided this board with 7000.— guilders a year. The Provinsiale Underwiisrie financed the university chairs for the research on the Frisian language (at the Universiteit van Amsterdam since 1934 and the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht since 1935). The board was also involved in the founding of the Fryske Akademy, that united university level research on Frisian history and language.

The use of the Frisian language in court became a problem at the moment when in the early thirties radical Frisian students, who studied in universities all over the Netherlands and were for sure able to speak Dutch, started speaking Frisian in court. As we saw, it was possible for the lower class in Friesland to speak Frisian in court. With the students, some of the judged had another attitude. Students had to speak Dutch because they were ‘well educated’.

In the spring of 1933 two incidents took place. In December 1932 a student from Utrecht Haring Tjittes Piebenga was arrested for leading a demonstration without having permission for it. When he was prosecuted in court (Kantongerecht) he started asking one of the witness’ questions in Frisian. The judge, a not so radical member of the Frisian movement, interrupted and said it was not allowed to talk Frisian in court. With some jokes and a relaxed attitude he was able to bring back quietness in his courtroom.
On the 10th of July 1933 the same student was in court again. The judge disallowed him to use Frisian once again. But this judge was not able to bring back quietness, the student started revolting and shouted at a certain moment ‘Fryslân oerein!’ Friesland wake Up ! Then the student was put in a cell by the police to calm down. The student appealed at the court in Leeuwarden (Gerechtshof). Here he argued that there was no law against the use of Frisian in court. But the judges were of the opinion that it was a completely unnecessary involvement of translators, when the accused was able to speak Dutch but wanted to speak Frisian. According to the judges there was no rule or usage known to them that it was allowed to speak Frisian.

In the same period another judge in Friesland, mr Cuipers, had a different opinion concerning the use of Frisian in court. A short while after the just mentioned accident of Haring Piebenga, Judge Cuipers was asked by some members of the Frisian movement to put on the wall of the courtroom a plaque with the text ‘every body who is used to speak Frisian does not has to harm himself inhere’. According to this judge, it was necessary for a fair trail that people could speak the language they are used to speak every day. Secondly there was no law against the use of Frisian, so for people who were used to speak Frisian and had lesser skills in Dutch, Frisian was allowed in court. In the third place, according to the judge, it was since long times allowed to speak the mother tongue. Frisian was allowed in his court, without the aid of a translator.

The cases against Piebenga launched the discussion of the use of Frisian in court again. In local newspapers many readers letters were published, and also in a national legal journal the topic was hot for some months. Later the matters were discussed in parliament. But after some months the attention faded away and the topic was not raised fore some many years. But from now on the periodicals from the Friese Beweging reported about most of the incidents when judges demanded Frisians to speak Dutch in court. None of these later incidents however could raise disapproval like the Piebenga in 1933 cases did.

For the Frisian language the change of the primary school act in 1937 was of great importance. It was now allowed to give some hours of education in ‘regional languages’ in the Netherlands. The Frisian language was not mentioned but only schools in Friesland introduced Frisian in the education program.

Kneppelfreed (1951)

After the Second World War there was some hope that things would change fast. The Friese Beweging grew in numbers, but concerning the use of Frisian in official places a long list of incidents can be drawn. It started with a discussion about the use of Frisian on war memorials, first it was not allowed by the government, later it was. Later on the discussion about the use of spoken Frisian in city council end provincial council were on the agenda as well as the use of Frisian for street names. In some cases Frisian was allowed, in others the majority of the city council was against, as well as some mayors who were against the use of Frisian.

The state prosecutor for example decided to prosecuted two milk sellers who had written ‘Molke’ and ‘Supe’, milk and buttermilk, in the Frisian language on their big milk containers instead of the Dutch names, as they were legally obliged. The judge Wolthers, questioning the two, did not allow these men to speak Frisian, because, in his opinion ‘modern times’ arrived, and Dutch was necessary in these times as a common language. The two peasants and some journalists in the courtroom were completely surprised by this reaction; the newspapers wrote about it at large.
In his pleading the state prosecutor said that he considered Friesland bilingual and because the content of the milk containers was actually milk and buttermilk, there was no real fraud. The state prosecutor considered them guilty but did not demand a fine or anything else. The judge, surprised by this penalty asked why the case was brought for court anyway. He considered the two men guilty, but did not sentence them.

As a turning point in Dutch government policy towards the use of Frisian in court can be considered something that started with a man who neglected a street sign. On October 17th 1951 veterinary, mr Van der Burg, had to stand for trail in the courtroom of Heerenveen where the judge mentioned before mr Wolthers was the judge. Van der Burg told the judge that he was not willing to speak Dutch in court. The judge then stopped the trail and said he had to reconsider what to do now, maybe he had to find a translator. It was more than an hour later that the judge started again and now he said that according to the law (Art. 306 penal law / Sv.) there was no rule that obliged hem to install a translator when the accused was actually understanding Dutch; it was clear that a vet who had studied at a Dutch speaking university had good skills in Dutch but he was not willing to use these skills in Friesland. The judge then said he refused to listen to the Frisian parts of mr Van der Burg his discourse. The fine was 7 guilders and paid directly afterwards.
In the courtroom there were some journalists, probably invited by mr Van der Burg and told about his plan. It was the journalist and writer Schurer who wrote a very angry article against this policy of mr Wolthers in a regional newspaper. The content was so that the state prosecutor decided to take action. Mr Wolthers was not insulted personally, but he was of the opinion that he was insulted as a state official. The prosecutor started an investigation and a month later, the 16th of November 1951, Schurer was on trial. The judge allowed him to speak Frisian, but in the end Schurer was condemned to a fine for insulting the judge.

Many people decided to have a look that afternoon and it was already busy around the courthouse, because it is located on the local market place, were the weekly market was every Friday. They wanted to go into the courthouse, and the police did not allow this, but at a certain moment, a police officer let the mob go in because in his opinion a trial was public, so people had the right to attend it. The smallest courtroom was chosen by the officials, so a couple of people could enter, then most of the mass was directed out of the courthouse, and they decided to have a look at what happened trough a window. More people went to the courthouse, for example schoolboys who heard that something was happening. The police, completely not used to such masses decided to put an end to all this. When their actions taken did not work, they asked the fire brigade to put their water hoses towards the crowd to get them away and they sent some policemen on motors driving through the crow: in the end the journals wrote about a sort of street war which took place in Leeuwarden. Some people got hurt, Schurer broke an arm and a policeman hit another journalist with a stick.
Now all the national newspapers were full of articles on this riot, later on called Kneppelfreed (Friday of the clubs), even international ones published comments.

This afternoon changed the attitude of many officials towards the demands of the Frisian movement completely. In parliament the debates on yearly budget took place one week later, and members of the Tweede Kamer discussed the use of Frisian in court and the education of Frisian in schools extensively. In the beginning of 1952 three ministers decided to visit Friesland to hear forty people from all kind of different backgrounds, from judges and teachers to members of the Friese Beweging. The Lord chancellor (minister van Justitie) and the minister of inner affairs decided to install a commission to research the possibilities of the use of Frisian in courts and legal practice. The minister of education installed a commission to research the possibilities of education in Frisian.

The report of the commission that discussed the possibilities of the use of Frisian in courts and legal practice was positive about the possibilities for spoken Frisian in court, however, written documents could not be allowed. Now the government drafted a law (Stb. nr. 242) and it was from now on allowed to speak Frisian in court, without asking for the knowledge of Dutch. Only in some circumstances it was possible for the judge to ask the witness or accused to speak Dutch.

The proposals of the government committee, installed after the afternoon of Kneppelfreed, that reviewed the possibilities of use of the Frisian language in school, the primary education act of 1920 was changed in 1955. In article 3 said that children in the age from 6 to 9, Frisian was allowed as the first language:

‘Daar waar naast de Nederlandse taal de Friese taal of een streektaal in levend gebruik is, kan het leerplan bepalen dat ten hoogste tot in het derde leerjaar de Friese taal of die streektaal mede als voertaal bij het onderwijs wordt gebezigd.’

As a result of this legislation two bilingual schools were formed. In 1965 84 bilingual schools existed, but the number felt to 70 in the period 1970-1975.

Developments in the last years

After this legislation on the field of the use of the Frisian language in the courts and schools, a long period of silence can be seen, until 1970 nothing considering language policy happened. In the 1970 the province of Friesland started new initiatives. The goal had changed. The use of the Frisian language was promoted to safeguard the language. The initiatives to use Frisian in local en provincial government level were initiated to give the language a ‘status’. By allowing the language in these official places, was the idea would show the citizen and motivate them to use the language in places and language levels were, until now, the Dutch language was used.

Only a couple of years ago real changes were made in the government policy by signing the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Strasbourg on the 5th of November 1992. Frisian is protected under Part III. In the same time the Dutch government changed the existing legislation regarding the use of Frisian in court in private law, penal law, and public law proceedings. Since then also the use of Frisian in written documents is allowed to the local government and in court proceedings. Now the provisions underwritten by the Dutch government in the Charter are conform the existing Dutch legislation. In the last years also some provisions were created to allow Frisian documents concerning associations and foundations in Frisian to be incorporated in the public registry of the chamber of commerce. Also a new legislation allows having your family name changed into Frisian (where around 1811, when this registry’s were made up, the civil servants changed certain names in a Dutch way of spelling). Nonetheless, only a little use of these possibilities is made. One of the reasons can be that the legislation is conform the Charter, but government low key information like flyers is often not mentioning the provisions: The possibilities of changing the family name, a law from 2002, was only mentioned in the flyer published in 2004. The chamber of commerce information on the Internet is restricting the possibilities of registering a Frisian act much more as laid down in the law. The notaries in their publications even deny the possibilities and tell the public that only Dutch deeds are allowed for founding an association. Here a lot of work is to be done, because without the right information no one will make use of legal provisions.

This lecture was given in Lund on augustus 2003 13th at the IVR World Congres in Lund. The thesis by Bastiaan van der Velden on this subject will be published later this year (october 2004). When you are interested, please contact:

mail to : bastiaanvandervelden@hotmail.com

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