GLocal languages are not only magical for children. If the Saterlanders don’t want to be understood, they simply speak Sater Frisian. According to a study by the University of Göttingen, hardly more than 2000 of the 13,600 inhabitants speak this language.
And the Saterlanders simply create new words for themselves: “Sküüldouk” for example. Which translates to mouth and nose protection. Because Sater Frisian has not yet had its own name for it, a competition was held in Saterland for a new word, and a jury voted on 69 translation suggestions. “Language only stays alive if it is suitable for everyday use,” says Henk Wolf.
The linguist is Saterland’s first representative for Sater Frisian and has been in office since the end of 2020. In the local language, his job has the almost unpronounceable name: Seelterfräiskbeapdraagde. His task: language research and language promotion on the smallest language island in Europe.
Wet bulwark: The moor once almost completely isolated the Saterland
Quelle: Magrit Kohl/ p+o
Only: How did the language phenomenon come about? Loneliness and isolation, which, especially in times of pandemics, mean more agony than balm for the soul for many people, were part of everyday life in Saterland for a long time. Until the middle of the 19th century, the Saterlanders had almost no contact with the outside world, because their settlements were almost impassable in the moor like an island and could only be reached by small boats across the Sagter Ems.
This body of water still flows through the small community in the district of Cloppenburg – an ideal opportunity for vacationers to explore the flat area from the water with pleasure boats and canoes.
The Saterland landed in the “Guinness Book of Records”
In the past, Sater Frisian was spoken in the entire coastal area before Low German superseded it. Thanks to the impassable moors, in the middle of which the Saterland lies on a 15 kilometer long and up to four kilometer wide sandy island, Sater Frisian has only survived in this area to this day.
A fact that brought the Saterlander countries into the “Guinness Book of Records” in 1990 as the smallest linguistic island in Europe. There is no area in the whole of Europe where so few people speak their own common language.
The place-name signs in Saterland are bilingual: Ramsloh is called Roomelse in the Sater Frisian translation
Those: pa / dpa / Ingo Wagner
Today the Saterland is a municipality with four districts. The residents proudly present their bilingualism on the town signs: Strücklingen (Strukelje), Ramsloh (Roomelse), Scharrel (Schäddel) and Sedelsberg (Seedelsbierich). After all, Seeltersk, as Sater Frisian is called here, has been one of the minority and regional languages worthy of protection according to the guidelines of the European Charter since 1999.
But that’s not all. Sater Frisian is also spoken in a different dialect form in each district. As a recognized official language, the dialect difference is even documented on some official doors: “Hier wät uk Seeltersk boald” (“Sater Frisian is spoken here”) is written on a sign in the Ramsloh town hall. “Here wät uk Seeltersk baald”, it says in contrast in Scharrel.
Children are learning Sater Frisian again in school
Numerous historic brick houses and windmills in the villages, such as Scharrels Galerie-Holländer-Mühle, whose wooden structure built in 1870 is still unchanged, testify that one is also out and about in a cultural landscape that has grown over centuries.
The Galerie-Holländer-Mühle in Scharrel was built in 1870, its wooden structure has been preserved in its original form
Source: pa / blickwinkel / M / McPHOTO / W. Rolfes
Thomas Otto, the mayor of the municipality of Saterland, no longer speaks Sater Frisian because he comes from a neighboring municipality in East Frisia. But so that the precious vocabulary does not literally sink into the moor, Mayor Otto can also imagine a bilingual labeling of goods in supermarkets in the future.
“The children are learning Sater Frisian again in school. The grandparents still speak it too. Only the parents’ generation is weak, ”says Otto. Because in the 1970s, Sater Frisian was considered a crude peasant language and it was said: “First learn decent High German.”
In order to save Sater Frisian from extinction, the language is also taught at school
Those: pa / dpa / Ingo Wagner
For some strangers or for linguists, it may initially be a bitter disappointment when easier-to-understand Low or High German is the first thing the locals respond to. It was, of all people, a linguist who had come here, the African American Marron Curtis Fort, who came here especially from the USA to explain to the baffled Sater countries in Sater Frisian, of all things, that they should finally learn to appreciate the value of their own language.
The Saterlanders owe it to him that Seeltersk lives on as a written language. Because in 1980 Fort brought out the first Sater Frisian dictionary. Today, linguist Henk Wolf, as the representative for Sater Frisian, is supposed to transfer it into the digital age.
Like the language, the moor is an endangered cultural asset
In Saterland it has long been recognized that both their own language and the moor are endangered cultural assets that are worth protecting. Above all, the raised bogs, which used to be able to reach heights of up to nine meters, have been largely peeled off, which is why the municipality only has an island character that can only be seen from a bird’s eye view.
But in the course of climate change we now know about the important role of the moor landscape in reducing greenhouse gases and have therefore begun renaturation.
In Ramsloh, tourists chug with the small “Seelter Foonkieker” moor railway into the Westermoor
Source: pa / dpa / dpa-tmn / Bernd F. Meier
With almost 50 square kilometers, the Westermoor near Ramsloh is now the largest contiguous and protected raised bog area in Central Europe. The landscape here is so flat that the view extends far into the distance and areas of water and cotton grass are a magical experience, especially at sunset. On a ride on the small “Seelter Foonkieker” moor railway, visitors learn interesting facts about the history of the formation of these raised bogs, the peat extraction and today’s renaturation.
For those whose thirst for knowledge has not yet been quenched, be sure to visit the Moor and fen museum recommended in Elisabethfehn. In changing exhibitions it shows how man shaped the moor in the area.
The hidden treasure cannot be found to this day
After all, Saterland has always had a deep connection with the moor. For fear of being robbed, the Scharrelers are said to have hidden their valuables in the church tower bell during the Thirty Years’ War and sunk it in the moor. Over the years, the bell sank so deep into the soft ground that the treasure cannot be found to this day.
To the chagrin of a specially deployed bell rescue team, a metal detector reacted almost everywhere – until it turned out that the floors generally contain a lot of iron. However, in Saterland no one in Saterland wants to accept the comparison with the citizens of the shield, who also sunk their bells in the lake for safety and notched a cross in the edge of the boat as a marker.
Source: WORLD infographic
Tips and information
Getting there: With the Bahn it is about two and a half hours to Leer from Hanover. On site, the S90 bus connects the four districts of Saterland (bus-clp.de)
Accomodation: “Saterländer Hof” in Ramsloh, double room with breakfast from 115 euros (saterlaender-hof.de). “Hotel Meyerhoff” in Ostrhauderfehn, double room with breakfast from 81 euros (hotel-meyerhoff.de).
Information desk: saterland.de; moorfahrten.de; fehnmuseum.de
Germany packs the travel bags
The seven-day incidence value continues to decrease. Everywhere is being relaxed and the hopes for Pentecost are high. Saxony’s Prime Minister Kretschmer would like to give back more rights to those who have been vaccinated for the first time.
This article was first published in May 2021.
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