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2.2.1.10 Present participle
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The present participle is formed by adding -(e)nd to the verbal stem, e.g. moakjend ‘making’, sjoond ‘seeing’ (with -nd ending, because sjo is a monosyllable verb in -o).

The present participle can be used as a prenominal modifier, e.g.: die wästelk fon de Amze woonjende Fräizen ‘the Frisians who live west of the Ems river’. It can also be used as a VP modifier, e.g.: “O God”, kwaad die litje Bruur huuljend ‘O God, said the little brother weeping’, or: so leerden wie bliede spieljend‘thus we were learning while playing joyfully’. Present participles rarely appear in different functons, e.g.: Uk wude düsse wüülde Joageräi as in n Woain foarbielukend toacht ‘this wild hunt was also conceived as passing along in a carriage’. Nominalised present participles are less frequent than nominalised past participles.

Many present participles have become lexicalised adjectives, e.g. n klinkenden Nome ‘a sounding name’. They often lose their final -d, possibly as a result of phonological changes in Late Old Frisian (e.g. Westerlauwers Frisian gleon ‘glowing’, razen ‘furious’, WFT), e.g.:

1
strieken(d) ful ‘packed’ (literally: ‘touching full’, elative adjective); lichtmölken(d) ‘easy to milk’; compounded adjective); ’n läzenen Huund lopt niks inne Mule ‘a dog that is lying down will not obtain any food’.

The optional loss of the final -d is not completely restricted to attributive or predicative participles, however. There are also adverbial examples, such as: do gieng er luukstäitjen wäch ‘then he went away humbled’ (literally: ‘withdrawing his tail’).

  • WFT: Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal/Woordenboek der Friese taal. Ljouwert/Leeuwarden 1984-2011. [URL]
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