Bildts

Dutch and Low German
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Languages of the Netherlands Dutch dialects Meuse-Rhenish
"Dutch Low Saxon"
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West Low Franconian
West Flemish (including French Flemish) East Flemish Zeelandic Hollandic dialect Brabantian dialect South Guelderish Surinamese Dutch Jersey Dutch Mohawk Dutch Stadsfries dialects Bildts
East Low Franconian
Limburgish Southeast Limburgish dialect (including Aachen dialect / Eschweiler dialect) Low Dietsch dialects
Low German
East Frisian Low Saxon Westphalian

Bildts is a Dutch-Frisian hybrid language spoken in the largest part of the municipality Het Bildt in the province of Friesland.^[1] The dialect must have evolved from the early sixteenth century onwards, from around 1505, when the area was reclaimed from the sea as ordered by George, Duke of Saxony. In order to achieve this task, workers from Holland, Zealand, and Brabant moved to Friesland, and their Low-Franconian dialects mixed with Frisian. There is much debate on whether the former changed the latter or the other way around, but the dialect has also been called a creole language.

Bildts is spoken in the towns of Sint Annaparochie (Bildts: Sint-Anne), Sint Jacobiparochie (Sint-Jabik), Vrouwenparochie (Froubuurt), Oudebildtzijl (Ouwe-Syl), Westhoek (De Westhoek) and Nij Altoenae. The inhabitants of Minnertsga, a village located outside the polder area of the former Middelzee and included in the municipality in 1984, do not speak Bildts but West Frisian instead.

According to the Dutch Wikipedia,^[2] in 2006 approximately 6,000 people spoke Bildts regularly.

References

↑ Waterman, Thomas Hewett (1879). The Frisian Language and Literature: A Historical Study. Ithica, NY: Finch & Apgar. p. 40.
↑ Article on the Dutch wikipedia

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