Old Frisian Summer School

We are proud to present the Old Frisian Summer School that the chair group Frisian Language and Literature is organizing together this summer with the renowned University of Oxford! The course will take place in Oxford, UK from 8th to 13th July 2019.

Frisian is a West Germanic language which is still spoken in parts of the Northern Dutch and northwest German coastal region. For historical reasons, it is often described as ‘the first cousin of English’. Whereas Old English is taught and studied widely, Old Frisian is a well-hidden secret, studied by a mere handful of experts. Some of these experts will share their knowledge in the Old Frisian Summer School.

The summer school is aimed at students who would like to study Old Frisian in addition to their further (Old) Germanic language skills or interests. The course will be targeted at post-graduate students and be open to students and early career researchers.

Two lectures will be presented in the mornings by experts in the field. The afternoons will be dedicated to translation workshops and a library visit. The workshops will introduce various Old Frisian texts to be translated in small groups with the help of modern handbooks and led by experts. At the end of the week, students should be able to translate a medium level Old Frisian text by themselves with the help of appropriate handbooks.

The programme includes a tour of the Bodleian Library, a viewing of the Old Frisian manuscripts Codex Aysma and Codex Unia in the Weston Library and a tour of the Taylor Institution Library which holds the Alistair Campbell collection of Frisian books.

For more information, visit https://www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/oldfrisian/ or send an e-mail to oldfrisian@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk