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36-766: The name comes from the Old Frisian and Old Low German word brōk , which meant a moor -like carr landscape that had been very sparsely settled. It stretched from the western edge of the East Frisian geest ridge, from the Ley (Norder Tief) to the Flumm ( Fehntjer Tief ), and was characterised by numerous shallow lakes from the Großes Meer to the Sandwater . The suffix mer is derived from mann (i.e. "man") with

72-910: A process known as "breaking". An unrelated sound change where /i/ became /iu/ if /u/ or /w/ followed in the next syllable occurred later, after I-mutation. Vowels were fronted or raised in before /i/ , /j/ a process called I-mutation : The old Germanic diphthongs * ai and * au become ē / ā and ā , respectively, in Old Frisian, as in ēn / ān ("one") from Proto-Germanic * ainaz , and brād from * braudą ("bread"). In comparison, these diphthongs become ā and ēa ( ān and brēad ) in Old English, and ē and ō ( ēn and brōd ) in Old Saxon. The diphthong * eu generally becomes ia , and Germanic * iu

108-457: A single or few words. Old Frisian had three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), two numbers (singular and plural), and four cases (Nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, although traces of an instrumental and locative case exist) Dual forms are unattested in Old Frisian but their presence is confirmed by their continued existence in later Frisian dialects until the mid-20th century. A significant portion of Old Frisian nouns fall into

144-632: A territory across Frisia on both sides of the River Ems. Ocko II finally inherited such a large domain, that he could be titled the Chieftain of East Frisia. In the period that followed, there were disputes between Focko Ukena and Ocko tom Brok, however, that spilled over into open conflict. After Ukena's initial victory over Ocko II at Detern in 1426 Focko allied himself with the Bischop of Münster and numerous East Frisian chieftains against Ocko who

180-424: Is retained. These diphthongs initially began with a syllabic (stressed) i , but the stress later shifts to the second component, giving to iā and iū . For example, thiād ("people") and liūde from Proto-Germanic * þeudō and * liudīz . Old Frisian ( c.  1150  – c.  1550 ) retained grammatical cases . Some of the texts that are preserved from this period are from

216-545: Is sometimes referred to as the Brookmerbrief , using the modern spelling of " Brookmerland ". The Brokmerbrief is the most complete source on Frisian law. It describes the polity and judicial system of a country whose law was based on the will of the assembled people (the ' Frisian freedom '): political and judicial power was in the hands of functionaries selected annually from the ranks of the farmers, who were known as redjeven (consuls, counsellors); their power in turn

252-539: The Brokmerbrief , its own constitution as well. This document acts as the most detailed source of Frisian law from the territorial and judicial constitution in Brokmerland, whose law was based on the collective will of the people. At the end of the 13th century, Auricherland joined the Brokmerland and formed the fourth region in its territory. After the end of the reign of the tom Brok chieftains in 1450,

288-553: The Archdiocese of Bremen (Norderland and Östringen). Archaeological finds suggest a sparse population in the period up to 800 AD. The population grew from about 1100, firstly because the construction of dykes in the region was completed and, secondly, because the " Julian Flood of 1164 forced many people to flee inland from the coast. In addition, the population increased in the High Middle Ages , which resulted in

324-692: The Freedom League of the Seven East Frisian States . In 1440, the Cirksena, then judges and "guardians", became the chieftains of the Brookmerland and Auricherland and had finally begun there, after Ukena's brief reign, the line of the tom Broks. They had, however, to take into consideration municipal freedom ( Gemeindefreiheit ) and provincial law. The country's municipalities had reconstituted themselves. For example, there

360-572: The Vogtei of Südbrookmer with the parishes of Engerhafe, Victorbur , Wiegboldsbur , Bedekaspel , and Forlitz-Blaukirchen . Subsequently, Brookmerland shared the fate of the county. Old Frisian Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on

396-557: The palatalisation of velar consonants also found in Old English. For example, whereas the closely related Old Saxon and Old Dutch retain the velar in dag , Old Frisian has dei and Old English has dæġ [dæj] . When initial and followed by front vowels the Germanic /k/ , changed to the sounds /ts/ and /j/ . Proto-Germanic /ɣ/ became /j/ after /e/ , and word-initially before front vowels. Proto-Germanic /g/ , where it existed, became /dz/ . The Old Frisian for church

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432-669: The tom Broks and built the castle of Brooke next to the existing episcopal castle in Oldeborg. Later, the tom Broks built a second castle in Aurich. The capital, Marienhafe, developed at this time into an important trading centre. After severe floods in 1374 and 1377 it even became the seaport. Thus the possibility arose of goods from the Brookmerland being transported by water to the Münsterland. The Wadden mudflats of Leybucht and Kuipersand in front of Marienhafe take their name from

468-517: The 12th or 13th century, but most are from the 14th and 15th centuries. Generally, all these texts are restricted to legal writings. Although the earliest written examples of Frisian—stray words in a Latin context—are from approximately the 9th century, there are a few examples of runic inscriptions from the region which are older and in a very early form of the Frisian language. These runic writings however usually consist of no more than inscriptions of

504-499: The 13th century, in particular official and legal documents. They show a considerable degree of linguistic uniformity. Brokmerbrief The Brokmerbrief or Law of Brokmerland is the early 13th-century law code of the brocmanni , the inhabitants of Brokmerland , west of Aurich in East Frisia . The area had been placed under cultivation and settled by the end of the 12th century. It survives in two manuscripts. The work

540-532: The Auricherland separated again from Brokmerland. This consulate constitution lasted until the middle of the 14th century. It then disintegrated and was gradually replaced, as the powerful families took over the chieftainship . In the Bokmerland this was the family of Kenesma, which in the second half of the 14th century was awarded the chieftainship in the Brokmerland. Later, they renamed themselves into

576-657: The Brokmerland, which was initially divided into three intermediate districts, each with two mother churches: Marienhafe and Engerhafe , Wiegsboldsbur and Burhafe (now isolated farms in the Victorbur Marsh), Bedekaspel and Südwolde (Blaukirchen). The church districts belonged to the Diocese of Münster . The main place of assembly of the Brokmann to begin with was probably the Wiegboldsbur Church . In

612-599: The Zuiderzee (now the IJsselmeer ), and the Frisian language survives along the coast only as a substrate. A close relationship exists between Old Frisian and Old English ; this is due to a shared history, language and culture of the people from Northern Germany and Denmark who came to settle in England from around 400 A.D. onwards. Generally, Old Frisian phonologically resembles Old English. In particular, it shares

648-473: The a-stem declension pattern. Most a-stem nouns are masculine or neuter. Certain words like dei "day" have "g" in the plural endings. All nouns in the ō-stem declension were feminine. The nominative Singular -e comes from the accusative case. There are some early Frisian names preserved in Latin texts, and some runic ( Futhorc ) inscriptions, but the oldest surviving texts in Old Frisian date from

684-462: The area, probably as a result of the emergence of the tom Brok dynasty, but certainly by the time of Cirksena hegemony. In the early 16th century, Edzard I then based his East Frisian Law ( German : Ostfriesisches Landrecht ) on the Emsig Law. The Brokmerbrief is unique among the documents of Old Frisian law in consisting of a code of law in the strict sense, rather than a compilation. It

720-521: The coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Friesland ) also spoke Old Frisian, but there are no known medieval texts from this area. The language of the earlier inhabitants of the region between the Zuiderzee and Ems River (the Frisii mentioned by Tacitus ) is attested in only a few personal names and place-names. Old Frisian evolved into Middle Frisian , spoken from the 16th to the 19th century. In

756-422: The course of the 13th century, the Brokmerland experienced its heyday. The construction of great churches was carried out during this time, of which the (formerly three-aisled) Marienhafe Church is the largest. At that time she was even the largest church in northwest Germany and even in 1462 Pope Pius II paid an indulgence for visiting the church, for donations towards furniture, as well as monetary donations for

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792-485: The early Middle Ages, Frisia stretched from the area around Bruges , in what is now Belgium , to the Weser River in northern Germany . At the time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. This region is referred to as Greater Frisia or Magna Frisia , and many of the areas within it still treasure their Frisian heritage. However, by 1300, their territory had been pushed back to

828-521: The gradual spread of the shift from th to d from south to north, beginning in southern Germany in the 9th century, but not reaching Frisian until the 13th or 14th century. Another feature shared between Old Frisian and Old English is the Anglo-Frisian brightening, which fronted a to æ except in certain conditions: Much later, after breaking, /æ/ became /e/ . Before /xx/ , /xs/ , /xt/ , short /e/ , /i/ became /iu/ in

864-468: The modern village. The Frisian territories had a consulate constitution under which the consuls and judges were elected by the people for one year. Political leadership and the judiciary were directly in the hands of the population. Every year, meetings were held by the representative of the seven Frisian maritime territories ( Seelande ). The Upstalsboom from that period is still a popular meeting place today. The Brokmerland had its own jurisdiction and, in

900-770: The new rulers, because, like the tom Broks, they appeared not to honour Frisian freedom . As a result, there was a revolt around 1430 in the Brookmerland (today's spelling), which after an unsuccessful attack by Focko on the town of Bremen by the Lower Weser, spread into a general uprising by the East Frisia people. On 14 November 1430 after the conquest of Oldersum and Aurich, the East Frisian territorial alliances ( Landesverbände ) and lesser chieftains, led by Chieftain Edzard Cirksena from Greetsiel, formed

936-465: The old three-aisle Marienhafe mother church. Its roof was covered on its north side with copper ( Kuiper = Frisian-Dutch for copper) and on the south side with slate ( Ley = old German for slate), so that, from the sea, the changing view of the church with its copper and slate sides acted as a seamark to guide the experienced sailor along the permanently navigable tidal inlet and other stretches of waterway, even at low tide . Without this local knowledge,

972-531: The place and its tide -dependent harbour were virtually unapproachable from the sea. In the late 14th Century pirates under Klaus Störtebeker were sheltered in Marienhafe. As a result he returned the favour in the battle for East Frisia by the chieftains of Brookmerland. Widzel tom Brok had opened the then relatively new port to the Likedeelers or " Victual Brothers " under Klaus Störtebeker. They used

1008-445: The place as a safe haven for stashing their booty and for selling it. This was finally stopped by several punitive expeditions by Hamburg , which took action against the pirates and those chieftains sympathizing with them. Marienhafe was saved from destruction because of its safe harbour. Faldern and Larrelt near Emden and other East Frisian buildings were destroyed, however. The tom Broks initially tried with some success to establish

1044-508: The possessive suffix -er . Until the early Middle Ages, the Brokmerland was largely uninhabited and provided a natural boundary between the Federgau and the Emsgau on one side and the provinces of Norditi (Norderland) and Östringen on the other side. This boundary also played a role in church history because it was the dividing line between the Diocese of Münster (Federgau and Emsgau) and

1080-574: The preservation of the Church "curia beate Marie" . The Bishop of Münster acknowledged the growing importance of the area in the middle of the 13th century by granting the church its own diocese. Previously, it had been assigned to the dean's office of Uttum and Hinte. In addition, the bishop built a castle in Fehnhusen in the parish of Engerhafe, later called the Oldeborg which formed the nucleus of

1116-461: The ribbon villages ( Reihendörfer ) with their right (called Upstrecken ) to claim land into the moor until they reached someone else's land. The Brokmers are mentioned for the first time in the Östringen (Rastede) chronicles of 1148, which may indicate that by this time they had attained a certain importance. From 1251 the Brokmänner then appeared as inhabitants of an independent territory,

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1152-558: The sparsely populated or unsettled areas of East Frisia being opened up by land development, a process known as internal colonization. As a result of this, the Brokmerland was reclaimed for agriculture by settlers from the Krummhörn Marsh as well as the Norder and Aurich Geest. In the 11 and 12th centuries, new settlements and the first churches were built here on the edge and the outliers of the geest. The result of this process were

1188-488: Was tzirke or tzerke , in Old English it was ċiriċe [ˈtʃiritʃe] , while Old Saxon and Old Dutch have the unpalatalised kirika . Palatalization postdated fronting, and predated monophthongization and i-umlaut. Between vowels, h generally disappears ( sian from * sehwaną ), as in Old English and Old Dutch. Word-initial h- on the other hand is retained. Old Frisian retains th in all positions for longer than Old Dutch and Old Saxon do, showing

1224-527: Was now confined to the Brokmerland and finally defeated him on 28 October at the Wild Fields . He was taken to Leer and was imprisoned there for four years. In 1435 he died, powerless, as the last of his line in Norden . The reign of Focko Ukena in the Brokmerland that followed turned out to be only a short-term interlude. Having just escaped from the yoke of tom Brok , many of the people felt betrayed by

1260-505: Was once again a Brookmerland, an Auricherland, and even a separate (Bangsted, Ochtelbur, Riepe, and Simonswolde). in 1464, when the Cirksena were elevated to imperial counts , they turned the areas controlled by their castles into districts ( Ämter ): from then on the Brookmerland, along with the Auricherland, belonged to district ( Amt ) of Aurich and was divided into the Vogtei of Nordbrookmer, with Osteel, Marienhafe and Siegelsum , and

1296-586: Was regulated by the Brokmerbrief. The period of independent rural self-rule came to an end by about the mid-14th century. However, unlike for example Emsigerland , Brokmerland remained a discrete unit, since the Brokmerbrief forbids the erection of fortified stone residences and castles and this had prevented the establishment of such starting points for localised rule. Thus feudalism , otherwise widespread throughout Europe at this time, remained unknown in East Frisia. However, Emsig Law eventually prevailed in

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