Wie entstand das Handbuch des Friesischen?

The initiator of the “Handbook” reviews its history, starting at the beginning (1) during the second symposium on Frisian Philology in Alkersum/Föhr (1994), explaining the special conception (2) of the work, addressing three groups: colleagues in Frisian Studies, in neighbouring disciplines and the Frisians themselves. Basic decisions were the language of the handbook, the content and length of the articles, and the selection of the publishers. The planning (3) followed, enlisting the authors, compiling short descriptions of all articles, and a list of technical abbreviations. Then the concrete work began: from the contract to the finished article (4), especially the editors’ intensive work, being coordinated by the Chair for German in Erlangen, acting as intermediary between authors, editors and publishers. The final phase, from the articles to the book (5), concerned the form of the book and the complicated indexes. There were three sponsors: the Ferring Foundation, the German Society for the Advancement of Scientific Research and VGWort. An outlook (6) refers to the continuation of the work on the handbook.