This article is about the Frisian languages, as spoken in the Netherlands and Germany. For other uses, see Frisian language (disambiguation).
Frisian
West Frisian: Frysk Saterland Frisian: Fräisk North Frisian: Friisk, fresk, freesk, frasch, fräisch, freesch
Ethnicity
Frisians
Geographic distribution
Netherlands and Germany. West Frisian: Friesland, Westerkwartier; Saterland Frisian: Saterland; North Frisian: Nordfriesland, Heligoland
Linguistic classification
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
North Sea Germanic
Anglo-Frisian
Frisian
Early forms
Old Frisian
Middle Frisian
Subdivisions
West Frisian
North Frisian
East Frisian (including Saterland Frisian)
Linguasphere
52-ACA
Glottolog
fris1239
Present-day distribution of the Frisian languages in Europe:
West Frisian
North Frisian
Saterland Frisian
The Frisian languages (/ˈfriːʒən/FREE-zhən[1] or /ˈfrɪziən/FRIZ-ee-ən[2]) are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 400,000 Frisian people, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisian languages are the closest living language group to the Anglic languages; the two groups make up the Anglo-Frisian languages group and together with the Low German dialects these form the North Sea Germanic languages. However, modern English and Frisian are not mutually intelligible, nor are Frisian languages intelligible among themselves, owing to independent linguistic innovations and foreign influences.
There are three different Frisian branches, which are usually called the Frisian languages, despite the fact that their so-called dialects are often not mutually intelligible even within these branches.[3] These branches are: West Frisian, which is by far the most spoken of the three and is an official language in the Dutch province of Friesland, where it is spoken on the mainland and on two of the West Frisian Islands: Terschelling and Schiermonnikoog. It is also spoken in four villages in the Westerkwartier of the neighbouring province of Groningen. North Frisian, the second branch, is spoken in the northernmost German district of Nordfriesland in the state of Schleswig-Holstein: on the North Frisian mainland, and on the North Frisian Islands of Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, and the Halligs. It is also spoken on the islands of Heligoland (deät Lun) and Düne (de Halem), in the North Sea. The third Frisian branch, East Frisian, has only one remaining variant, Sater Frisian, spoken in the municipality of Saterland in the Lower Saxon district of Cloppenburg. Surrounded by bogs, the four Saterlandic villages lie just outside the borders of East Frisia, in the Oldenburg Münsterland region. In East Frisia proper, East Frisian Low Saxon is spoken today, which is not a Frisian language, but a variant of Low German/Low Saxon.
Depending upon their location, the six Frisian languages have been heavily influenced by and bear similarities to Dutch and Low German/Low Saxon, and in addition North Frisian has a Danish substrate. However, Frisian is still unintelligible to Dutch; a cloze test in 2005 revealed that Dutch respondents understood 31.9% of a West Frisian newspaper, 66.4% of an Afrikaans newspaper and 97.1% of a Dutch newspaper.[4] Additional shared linguistic characteristics between Friesland and the Great Yarmouth area in England are likely to have resulted from the close trading relationship these areas maintained during the centuries-long Hanseatic League of the Late Middle Ages.[5][better source needed]
^Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
^"Frisian". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^Swarte, Femke; Hilton, Nanna Haug (2013). "Mutual intelligibility between speakers of North and West Frisian". Phonetics in Europe: Perception and Production: 281–302.
^Bezooijen, Renée van; Gooskens, Charlotte (2005). "How easy is it for speakers of Dutch to understand Frisian and Afrikaans, and why?" (PDF). Linguistics in the Netherlands. 22: 18, 21, 22.
^Gooskens, Charlotte (2004). "The Position of Frisian in the Germanic Language Area". In Gilbers, D. G.; Knevel, N. (eds.). On the Boundaries of Phonology and Phonetics. Groningen: Department of Linguistics.
The Frisianlanguages (/ˈfriːʒən/ FREE-zhən or /ˈfrɪziən/ FRIZ-ee-ən) are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 400,000 Frisian...
The West Frisianlanguages are a group of closely related, though not mutually intelligible, Frisianlanguages of the Netherlands. Due to the marginalization...
Netherlands, to distinguish this language from the closely related Frisianlanguages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian spoken in Germany. Within the...
the Roman language Spanish. Another theory is the name derives from frisselje (to braid, thus referring to braided hair). The Frisianlanguages are spoken...
Germanic Frisianlanguages. The language comprises 10 dialects which are themselves divided into an insular and a mainland group. North Frisian is closely...
the East Frisianlanguage. It is closely related to the other Frisianlanguages: North Frisian, spoken in Germany as well, and West Frisian, spoken in...
East Frisian is one of the Frisianlanguages. Its last surviving dialect is Saterland Frisian spoken in Saterland in Germany. There once were two main...
Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into three branches: Ingvaeonic, which includes English and the Frisianlanguages; Istvaeonic...
Anglo-Frisian Old Frisian† Frisian West Frisianlanguages West Frisianlanguage (spoken in the Netherlands) Clay Frisian (Klaaifrysk) Wood Frisian (Wâldfrysk)...
Schiermonnikoog Frisian is the most endangered of the West Frisianlanguages, spoken by no more than 50 to 100 people (out of an island population of 900...
nationalism which views Frisians as a nation with a shared culture. Frisian nationalism seeks to achieve greater levels of autonomy for Frisian people, and also...
Saxon on the continent. The Frisianlanguages, which together with the Anglic languages form the Anglo-Frisianlanguages, are the closest living relatives...
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...
Heligolandic (Halunder) is the dialect of the North Frisianlanguage spoken on the German island of Heligoland in the North Sea. It is spoken today by...
1820. Old Frisian Anglo-Frisianlanguages Middle Dutch West Frisianlanguages North Frisianlanguage East Frisianlanguage Old English Languages of the Netherlands...
Wangerooge Frisian is an extinct dialect of the East Frisianlanguage, formerly spoken on the East Frisian island of Wangerooge. Wangerooge Frisian was a part...
Terschelling Frisian stated that "these 3 languages have a complete language system, it's not just a few words which are different from Frisian, the languages have...
century, ethnic Frisians also started to colonize the coastal areas North of the Eider River under Danish rule. The nascent Frisianlanguages were spoken...
Wursten Frisian was a dialect of the East Frisianlanguage that is thought to have been spoken until the early 18th century in the landscape of Wursten...
Terschelling Frisian, or Skylgersk, is a West Frisianlanguage spoken on the island of Terschelling (Skylge) in the Netherlands. In the central stretch...
border; and the Frisianlanguages with over 500,000 native speakers in the Netherlands and Germany. The largest North Germanic languages are Swedish, Danish...
The Frisian Kingdom (West Frisian: Fryske Keninkryk), also known as Magna Frisia, is a modern name for the post-Roman Frisian realm in Western Europe...
The North Frisian Islands (Öömrang and Fering North Frisian: Nuurdfresk Eilunen, Söl'ring North Frisian: Nuurđfriisk Ailönen, Danish: Nordfrisiske Øer...
Sylt Frisian, or Söl'ring, is the dialect of the North Frisianlanguage spoken on the island of Sylt in the German region of North Frisia. Söl'ring refers...
most closely related to Frisian and English, with which it forms the North Sea Germanic group of the West Germanic languages. Like Dutch, it has historically...
to west) Germany portal Frisia West Frisian Islands North Frisian Islands FrisianlanguagesFrisians East Frisian Low Saxon List of islands of Germany...
Karrharde Frisian is a dialect of the North Frisianlanguage spoken in the municipalities of Stedesand and Enge-Sande in the German Amt of Südtondern (formerly...
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