This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations.(October 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Old Frisian
Frisesk
Region
Netherlands, Germany, Southern Denmark
Ethnicity
Frisii
Era
8th to 16th centuries
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
North Sea Germanic?
Anglo–Frisian
Frisian
Old Frisian
Early forms
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Germanic
Writing system
Anglo–Frisian runes Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3
ofs
Linguist List
ofs
Glottolog
oldf1241
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
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 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 Frisians 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 the early Middle Ages, Frisia stretched from the area around Bruges, in what is now Belgium, to the Weser River in northern Germany [1]. 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 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.
^Hines, John; IJssennagger, Nelleke, eds. (2021). Frisians of the Early Middle Ages. Studies in historical archaeoethnology. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-78327-561-8. OCLC 1201655870.
OldFrisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine...
The Frisians are an ethnic group indigenous to the coastal regions of the Netherlands, north-western Germany and southern Denmark, and during the Early...
The Frisian languages (/ˈfriːʒən/ FREE-zhən or /ˈfrɪziən/ FRIZ-ee-ən) are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 400,000...
West Frisian, or simply Frisian (West Frisian: Frysk [frisk] or Westerlauwersk Frysk; Dutch: Fries [fris], also Westerlauwers Fries), is a West Germanic...
West Frisian and North Frisian it belongs to the Frisian branch of the Germanic languages. The three Frisian languages evolved from OldFrisian. Among...
An OldFrisian farmhouse (German: Altfriesisches Bauernhaus) is a small unit farmhouse (Wohnstallhaus) that combined the farmer's living area and animals'...
the coast of North Holland, spoke OldFrisian, and some in the east (Achterhoek, Overijssel, and Drenthe) spoke Old Saxon. Within the field of historical...
Middle English in England and Early Scots in Scotland. Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or Ingvaeonic dialects originally spoken by Germanic...
East Frisian is one of the Frisian languages. Its last surviving dialect is Saterland Frisian spoken in Saterland in Germany. There once were two main...
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...
that inhabited the region of Saxony. It partially shares Anglo-Frisian's (OldFrisian, Old English) Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law which sets it apart from...
North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic...
OldFrisian longhouses were, as the name indicates, long-bodied houses which can be found in the Dutch province Friesland. This type of house had more...
subdivided into three branches: Ingvaeonic, which includes English and the Frisian languages; Istvaeonic, which encompasses Dutch and its close relatives;...
English and speak Frisian languages divided by geographical regions. The OldFrisian language was once the closest Germanic language to Old English, though...
The West Frisian languages are a group of closely related, though not mutually intelligible, Frisian languages of the Netherlands. Due to the marginalization...
stands alongside the term world (cf. Old English weorold, Old Saxon werold, Old High German weralt, OldFrisian wrald, Old Norse verǫld), itself from a Common...
example, Proto-Germanic *stainaz became Old English stān (modern stone) (cf. OldFrisian stēn vs. Gothic stáin, Old High German stein). In many cases, the...
Molkwerum on the west coast of Friesland. It has preserved much of the OldFrisian phonology and lexicon, and has been attested to since the 17th Century...
Germanic-speaking cultures (Old English: wer, Old Dutch: wer, Gothic: waír, OldFrisian: wer, Old Saxon: wer, Old High German: wer, Old Norse: verr). In Anglo-Saxon...
early Middle Ages was inhabited by various Germanic tribes, including the Frisians, who played a significant role in the development of the region and its...
Middle Frisian evolved from OldFrisian from the 16th century and was spoken until c. 1820, considered the beginning of the Modern period of the Frisian languages...
of the northern West Germanic languages that consists of OldFrisian, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants. Ingvaeonic is named after the...
Together with Harlingen Frisian and Wangerooge Frisian it belonged to the Weser Frisian group of dialects. The last East Frisian dialect still spoken today...
a combination of OldFrisian sunne, meaning sun and joen, meaning eve. In the Westphalian dialects of Low Saxon, in East Frisian Low Saxon and in the...
Global Information