Here's a closeup underneath Nemo:

I just watched a Dutch TV program that has me twitching with joy.

Rina has told me that an educational program having to do with Frisian would be airing this morning, and so I tune it in while it's in progress. This bizarre individual wearing a bright green, strangely-styled suit and behaving eccentrically is conducting a sort of quiz show for kids that seems to be focused entirely on spelling and choosing correct words. He pronounces a word and then asks the kids to write down their choice of three alternative sentences using it: A, B, or D. We all know how much I love grammar, so my enjoying a grammar and spelling program should not elicit surprise. So where's the joy, you ask?

Well, I'm sitting there listening closely trying to catch words I know and perhaps learn others from context when it sinks in that the program is not in Dutch but in Frisian. These are kids from Frisian-speaking homes who are being encouraged to acquire some literacy in their home language. And then a great rush hits me:

I seem to understand the Frisian as well as I can understand Dutch!!!!!!

Not, of course, that this is saying a lot, but still, how can it be? I have heard very little spoken Frisian even though I know the spelling of a modest number of Frisian words and their approximate pronunciation. Part of it is that in a program like this, the meaning of many words is clear from context. Still, I seem to be understanding way too much although I'm certainly not complaining. Am I genetically hard-wired for this or something?

Besides, it strikes me what utter perversity it would be to cut cleanly through to Frisian without learning Dutch!!!!!!

Het spijt mij, maar versta ik geen Nederlands. Kun je Fries of Engels spreken?

I'm sorry, but I don't understand Dutch. Canst thou speak Frisian or English?

Yessssss! I was placed on this planet for a reason, and I just now discovered it.

It is not, as I had feared, documenting Oracle software.

And you thought you caught me in a typo, didn't you? Well, by now you've had plenty of practice, I know, but that "A, B, or D" above is not a typo. The first time I heard it, I thought I mis-heard him. But then he said it over and over. It was definitely D. Oh, but of course. Frisian doesn't use the letter "c" except in combination with "h" to indicate a voiceless velar fricative with which Frisian words do not start. Since the letter neither stands alone nor begins words, the third letter of the Frisian alphabet is D.