The first copy of the book 'Der dy namma fan heten is - it komôf fan plaknammen', written by Pieter Duijff, lexicographer at the Fryske Akademy, was presented to the King's Commissioner in Fryslân, Drs A.A.M. Brok. Students of the Talint Akademy Fries of OVO Fryslân-Noord gave him the first copy.

"A lot of place names"

In Friesland,there are a lot of villages, and there are also 11 towns. Behind the name of each of those settlements is a story. Why did people name their place of residence as it is called? With knowledge of Frisian and other languages over the centuries, it is still possible to say quite a bit about the origins of many of these names. This book describes the names of all official Frisian settlements in over four hundred short chapters.

Pieter Duijff, lexicographer at the Fryske Akademy, is the author of the book, and also a teacher of Frisian at the Talint Akademy of OVO Fryslân-Noord. He has taught for many years at, among others, the Frisian and Dutch teacher training courses at NHL Stenden University in Leeuwarden and Groningen, the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam and the Afûk in Leeuwarden. He felt it was important to make this book: "People like to know where the name of their hometown comes from."

The Talint Akademy

The schools of OSG Piter Jelles and RSG Simon Vestdijk (part of OVO Fryslân-Noord) have the Talint Akademy as part of the curriculum. Within the Talint Akademy, they offer subjects together as schools, so that pupils can still choose, even if a subject is not offered at one of the schools. Besides Frisian, subjects offered in the Talint Akademy include Chinese, Maths and Spanish.

'Der dy namma fan heten is - it komôf fan plaknammen'

Pieter Duijff's book is available from Bornmeer publishers.