Languagle #74: Western Frisian
As de kat fan hûs is, tilt de mûs de sturt omheech
"When the cat is out of the house, the mouse lifts its tail."
What it means
People misbehave as soon as the person in charge is away. Once the cat leaves the house, the mouse lifts its tail in the air. The Frisian version of 'when the cat's away, the mice will play'.
How to say it
as duh KAT fan HOOS is, TILT duh MOOS duh STURT om-HAYKH
Û is said oo. The ch at the end of omheech is the ch in Scottish loch.
Word by word
- As as: when
- de kat duh KAT: the cat
- fan hûs fan HOOS: out of the house
- is is: is
- tilt tilt: lifts
- de mûs duh MOOS: the mouse
- de sturt duh STURT: its tail, the tail
- omheech om-HAYKH: up, upwards
Where it was written down
A traditional proverb, in West Frisian a sprekwurd, passed down by word of mouth.
Similar sayings
- Dutch: Als de kat van huis is, dansen de muizen op tafel. When the cat's away, the mice dance on the table. Compare the spelling with the Frisian.
- English: When the cat's away, the mice will play
How to recognise Western Frisian
West Frisian sits between Dutch and English, and it looks it: house is hûs, mouse is mûs. The circumflex letters û, â and ô are the giveaway, along with small words like fan (of), it (the) and en (and). Dutch would write huis and muis, and has no circumflexes.
About the Western Frisian language
West Frisian, or Frysk, is a West Germanic language spoken by around 400,000 people in the province of Friesland in the northern Netherlands, where it is official alongside Dutch. Leaving aside Scots, it is usually called the closest living relative of English, as an old rhyme shows: 'bûter, brea en griene tsiis' sounds much like 'butter, bread and green cheese'. North Frisian and Saterland Frisian, spoken in Germany, are separate languages.