DAT BRÛKT WURDT – “is used for”

Today we’ll look at the word brûkt, which shows up in some common phrases in modern West Frisian. Brûkt is pronounced with a long “oo” sound like in “moon.” BROOkt.

P. Sipma gives one example of its use on page 76. Remember that he often spells Frisian words differently, as his text is a hundred years old. I’ll stick to modern spellings here:

…dat brûkt wurdt…

…is used for…

Dat means “that” or “which” and is pronounced like the English word “dot.”

Wurdt sounds a lot like the English “word” with a more rounded vowel and a –t on the end, indicating the singular third-person of the verb wurde (old spelling: wirde)  “to be” or “to become.”

This phrase can be followed by different prepositions, including foar. Foar means “for” and is pronounced with a long “oh” as in “foe” and a full “ah” as in “father. FOH-AHr.

Let’s see it in a sentence lifted from Frisian Wikipedia:

In grut part fan it Nederlânske transportrjocht dat brûkt wurdt foar rederijen en skippen is regele yn Boek 8 fan it Boargerlik Wetboek.

A large part of the Netherlands’ transport law that is used for ferries and ships is codified in Book 8 of the Civil Lawbook.

Remember, in means “a or “an” and is said with a schwa. UHn.

Grut means “big” or “important” and is said with something similar to an “oo” as in “moon,” perhaps with more pursed lips though. GROOt.

Fan is pronounced like the English word “fawn” and means “of” or “from.”

It means “the” or “it” and is said with a schwa. UHt.

I’m making an educated guess here on Nederlânske: an “ey” as in “neighbor,” a schwa, a long “a” as in “father,” and another schwa. NEY-duh-LAHn-skuh.

Rjocht means “law” or “right” (as in both the direction and being right). In older texts such as P. Sipma’s book, you may see it spelled rjucht, but it is always pronounced with a -y- followed by a full “o” as in “road.” It also takes the harsh “ch” (which actually sounds a bit more like a -k than an English -ch) found in the German “Bach” or Hebrew “l’chaim.” RYOHkht.

Another educated guess for rederij: an initial “ih” as in “rid,” a schwa, and a final “ey” as in “hay” or “ray.” RIHd-duh-rey. The plural ending -en takes a schwa; I’m sure of that much at least.

Remember that en means “and” and is said with a schwa. UHn.

We’ve looked at skip before. It is a cognate of “ship,” and it sounds like the English word “skip.” The plural takes a schwa on the second syllable: SKIHp-pun.

Recall that is is the same in Frisian and English.

More educated guesswork: regele would likely take a long “ey” as in “neighbor” followed by schwas in the other syllables.

Yn means “in” and is said with a long “ee” as in “green.” EEn.

Boek is a cognate, the Frisian for “book.” It is said with a long “oo” as in “boo!” or “fluke.” BOOk

The Frisian word for "eight" is acht. Pronounce it with an "ah" as in father and the "kh" sound in "Bach" or "l'chaim." AHkht.

Boargelik shows up in the phrase boargelik rjocht, meaning “civil law.”  Boarger itself means a “citizen” or a “burgher.” Say it with a long “oh” as in “boat,” a full “ah” as in “father,” and with a schwa in the final two syllables. BOH-ahr-guh-luk.

Wet is another word for “law.” It is said just like the English word “vet.”