Get involved!

As part of this study by the Fryske Akademy, Nanna has drawn up a questionnaire on the credibility of various trivia statements and on how written texts are assessed.

In the first part of this questionnaire, we ask you to listen to 24 statements and determine whether they are true or false. In the second part, you will be asked to read two texts and evaluate them on the basis of a number of questions. Finally, the questionnaire contains a few questions about your (linguistic) background.

Participation in this study is entirely voluntary. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time and for any reason. Anyone who comes from Friesland or lives in Friesland is very welcome to take part!

Hielke has developed an online experiment which, using a sorting task, measures unconscious attitudes towards Frisian and Dutch. Participants are shown images and words that are positive or negative, as well as words in Frisian or Dutch. The link between the images and words reveals whether the brain subconsciously associates Frisian or Dutch more with positive (or, conversely, negative) things, thereby bringing unconscious biases to light.

The experiment takes 10–15 minutes, and at the end of the study, each participant is shown their own results. This allows them to gauge their own unconscious preferences. Hielke hopes to attract as many participants as possible, in order to gain a more comprehensive insight into the prejudices surrounding Frisian and Dutch, both amongst Frisians and Frisian speakers themselves, as well as amongst non-Frisians and non-Frisian speakers.

For the study, participants are shown images on a laptop. They are asked to name what they see – sometimes in Frisian when they see a Frisian flag, and sometimes in Dutch when a Dutch flag is shown alongside it. Participants wear a headset with a microphone. They also complete a short questionnaire about their language use, their experiences with Frisian and the role the language plays in their identity. “Switching between languages can be quite challenging,” says Rose. “But the participants who have already taken part found it particularly enjoyable.” The study is open to people aged between 18 and 75 who speak both Frisian and Dutch.

Friesland presents an interesting contemporary case study, as ‘the smells and sounds of the Frisian countryside’ are set to be included in the Province of Fryslân’s heritage agenda in 2025. This initiative raises fundamental questions: what do we actually mean by ‘the smells of Friesland’? Are they the smells of cowsheds and the Wadden Sea? Or of sugar bread, dúmkes, herbal bitters, evening primroses, the stjonkfabryk, or woodcarving? Dong, smoke from drying hay, smoke from sheep pens, or forest smoke? How can these historical scent landscapes and ever-evaporating scents be captured?