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Lasswell (Steven)/Tiersma (Peter) Frisian research archive
Mss 321  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access Restrictions
  • Use Restrictions
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Processing Information
  • Scope and Content
  • Arrangement
  • Related Material

  • Title: Steven Lasswell/Peter Tiersma Frisian research archive
    Identifier/Call Number: Mss 321
    Contributing Institution: UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
    Language of Material: Multiple languages
    Physical Description: 9.5 linear feet (3 cartons, 4 document boxes, 3 flat boxes, 71 audiocassettes)
    Creator: Lasswell, Steven Theophilos, 1952-
    Creator: Tiersma, Peter Meijes
    Date (inclusive): 1926-2016
    Date (bulk): 1980-2016
    Abstract: Materials created and collected by the linguist Steven Lasswell in the course of writing his 1998 dissertation An Ecological Reference Grammar of Sölring North Frisian as well as materials by and from the legacy of the late Peter Tiersma, Frisian linguist and professor of law.
    Physical Location: Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
    Language of Material: The collection is in English, Frisian, various dialects of German, Plautdietsch, Dutch, and Danish.

    Access Restrictions

    The collection is open for research.

    Use Restrictions

    Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of Item], Steven Lasswell/Peter Tiersma Frisian research archive, Mss 321. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Acquisition Information

    Additions acquired by Special Research Collections, as a gift by Steven Lasswell, in 2016, with an additional increment in 2016.

    Processing Information

    File names retain the creator's naming convention.

    Scope and Content

    The Frisian Research Archive comprises materials used by the linguist Steven Lasswell in producing his 1998 dissertation An Ecological Reference Grammar of Sölring North Frisian as well as materials by and from the legacy of the late Peter Tiersma, Frisian linguist and professor of law. The Ecological Reference Grammar is particularly significant as not only the sole English-language treatment of Sölring, but also as the only exhaustive study of the language ever made – a language that is one of the most closely related to English and is thus of special interest historically.
    Given the 'ecological' perspective of the dissertation for which it served as basis and Lasswell's pan-Frisian approach to his subject, the archive has much more than a purely grammatical orientation. With the term ecological here signifying the broadest possible approach to language, including knowledge of society, culture, and history of the speech community, the materials used encompass both academic and non-academic treatments of issues that bear on the functioning of the speech community on Söl (German Sylt), the North Sea island that is the home of the variety of North Frisian that is the focus of the study. Accordingly, there are manuscript and printed writings in Sölring, including an extensive body of correspondence between the author and inhabitants of the island; many of the published materials written by the Sölring islanders themselves; and several of the pedagogical works being used in schools to try to promote the language to a new generation. Of major importance is the collection of the newspaper Fuar Söl'ring Lir published during 1926-1939 and 1953-1970 in Sölring by Hermann Schmidt. Unique is the manuscript translation (in photocopy) of the entire New Testament by Peter Michael Clemens (1804-1870), from which the four Gospels were finally published in Germany and the Netherlands by Hindrik Brouwer in 2008. At the heart of the collection are approximately twenty-one hours of conversation with speakers of Sölring that were recorded by Lasswell on research trips in 1992 and 1993.
    In addition to looking at the grammar and other structural characteristics of Sölring, Lasswell devoted much attention in his dissertation and other writings to the issue of language endangerment, language maintenance, and language revitalization, and the archive contains a number of source documents on these subfields of sociolinguistics which were emerging in the 1990s and which continue to be important in the face of widespread language loss around the world.
    In conducting his research, Lasswell maintained close contacts throughout the historical area of the three Frisias (north, east, and west), and there are language materials in and about not only Sölring, but also Fering-Öömrang, the other insular variety of North Frisian; Freesk, Mooring, Frasch and Halunder (mainland varieties); and Seeltersk (East Frisian). Frysk, centered in the Frysian province of the Netherlands and the most widespread variety of Frisian, is also represented in the archive, and it is in fact to the "West Frisians" that Lasswell and many Frisianists look for inspiration in today's efforts at measures for maintaining and revitalizing the much smaller varieties of North and East Frisian, which are structurally changing and rapidly disappearing under unrelenting pressure from Standard German as the most viable and useful mode of communication in society in Germany. A large number of research materials are in German; further studies in Dutch, and Danish and other Scandinavian tongues round out the selection of foreign languages present in the archive.
    Additional material was acquired in later half of 2016 (Boxes 7-10) and is comprised of correspondence, newspapers, magazines, academic papers and related research materials, books, and notes. The correspondence relates to conferences, article publishing, and general correspondence amongst the academic community. The research materials are in English, German, and Danish. Beyond correspondence, many of the records relate to writing, publishing, and conferences Lasswell participated in from the mid 1990s to early 2000s.

    Arrangement

    The collection has been divided into four series: Series I. Research Files, Series II. Newspapers and Manuscripts, Series III. Additions, and Series IV. Audio.

    Related Material

    Books on the Frisian Language from the libraries of Steven Lasswell and Peter Tiersma have been separated from the collection and cataloged. These may be accessed via the UCSB Library catalog under Steven Lasswell/Peter Tiersma Collection.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Frisian language
    Frisian language -- Dialects
    Linguistics
    Letters (correspondence)
    Manuscripts (document genre)
    Clippings (information artifacts)
    Sound recordings