Joost Halbertsma’s 1872 Lexicon Frisicum and the Relationship between Men and Women in Nineteenth-Century Friesland

Abstract

This article deals with the relationship between men and women as expressed in the Frisian–Latin Lexicon Frisicum (1872), compiled by Joost Hiddes Halbertsma (1789–1869). The article begins with a brief outline of the Frisian language, then introduces Halbertsma and his dictionary. The main part of the article tries to draw a picture of the relationship between men and women in nineteenth-century Friesland from sample sentences in the dictionary. As expected, we clearly recognize a male-dominated society, reflecting the social division of roles. Taking a broader view, the image that emerges from the various examples is often not as specifically Frisian as one might think at first glance. Although a dictionary can provide a time- and place-bound picture of gender relationships, we must be careful about drawing firm conclusions about the ideological and moral biases of the Lexicon Frisicum and its author. What makes such conclusions even more difficult is that the dictionary was not aimed at ordinary Frisians.