The Frisian (, ) languages are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 500,000 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 : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

dialects these form the

North Sea Germanic languages North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic , is a postulated grouping of the northern West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English language, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants. Ingvaeonic is named after the ...

. However, modern English and Frisian are not

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

, 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. 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 The West Frisian Islands (; fry, Waadeilannen) are a chain of islands in the North Sea off the Dutch coast, along the edge of the Wadden Sea. They continue further east as the German East Frisian Islands and are part of the Frisian Islands. Fr ...

Terschelling Terschelling (; fry, Skylge; Terschelling dialect: ''Schylge'') is a municipality and an island in the northern Netherlands, one of the West Frisian Islands. It is situated between the islands of Vlieland and Ameland. Wadden Islanders are k ...

and

Schiermonnikoog Schiermonnikoog (; fry, ) is an island, a municipality and national park in the Northern Netherlands. Schiermonnikoog is one of the West Frisian Islands, and is part of the province of Friesland. It is situated between the islands of Ameland a ...

. It is also spoken in four villages in the Westerkwartier of the neighbouring province of

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

. North Frisian, the second branch, is spoken in the northernmost German district of

Nordfriesland Nordfriesland (; da, Nordfrisland; frr, Nordfraschlönj ), also known as North Frisia, is the northernmost district of Germany, part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. It includes almost all of traditional North Frisia (with the exception o ...

in the state of Schleswig-Holstein: on the North Frisian mainland, and on the North Frisian Islands of Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, and the

Halligs The ''Halligen'' (German, singular ''Hallig'', ) or the ''halliger'' (Danish, singular ''hallig'') are small islands without protective dikes. They are variously pluralized in English as the Halligen, Halligs, Hallig islands, or Halligen islands. ...

. It is also spoken on the islands of Heligoland, 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 A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main Wetland#Types, types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, ...

, the four Saterlandic villages lie just outside the borders of

East Frisia East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West 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 Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (locomotion), the surface over which an organism lo ...

. However, Frisian is still unintelligible to Dutch, for instance, a cloze test in 2005 revealed the Dutch understood 31.9% of a West Frisian newspaper, 66.4% of an Afrikaans newspaper and 97.1% of a Dutch newspaper. Additional shared linguistic characteristics between Friesland and the

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

area in England are likely to have resulted from the close trading relationship these areas maintained during the centuries-long

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

of the Late Middle Ages.

Division

There are three main groups of Frisian varieties: West Frisian, Saterland Frisian, and North Frisian. Some linguists consider these three varieties, despite their

mutual unintelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

, to be dialects of one single Frisian language, whereas others consider them to be a number of separate languages equal to or greater than the number of main branches discussed here. Indeed, the insular varieties of West Frisian are not intelligible to the mainland, and by that standard are additional languages, and North Frisian is also divided into several strongly diverse dialects, which are not all mutually intelligible among themselves. West Frisian is strongly influenced by Dutch. The other Frisian languages, meanwhile, have been influenced by Low German and German.

Stadsfries Stadsfries () or Town Frisian ( fy, Stedsk, link=no, ) is a set of dialects spoken in certain cities in the province of Friesland in the northern Netherlands, namely Leeuwarden, Sneek, Bolsward, Franeker, Dokkum, Harlingen, Stavoren, and to so ...

and West Frisian Dutch are not Frisian, but Dutch dialects influenced by West Frisian. Frisian is called ''Frysk'' in West Frisian, ''Fräisk'' in Saterland Frisian, and ''Friisk'', ''fresk'', ''freesk'', ''frasch'', ''fräisch'', and ''freesch'' in the varieties of North Frisian. The situation in the Dutch province of Groningen and the German region of

is similar: The local Low German/Low Saxon dialects of Gronings and East Frisian Low Saxon still bear some Frisian elements due to East Frisian

. Frisian was spoken there at one time, only to have been gradually replaced by Low Saxon since the Middle Ages. This local language is now, like Frisian, under threat by standard Dutch and German.

Speakers

Most Frisian speakers live in the Netherlands, primarily in the province of Friesland, which since 1997 officially uses its West Frisian name of Fryslân, where the number of native speakers is about 400,000, which is about 75% of the inhabitants of Friesland. An increasing number of native Dutch speakers in the province are learning Frisian as a second language. In Germany, there are about 2,000 speakers of Saterland Frisian in the marshy Saterland region of Lower Saxony. Saterland Frisian has resisted encroachment from

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

and

Standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (not to be confused with High German dialects, more precisely Upper German dialects) (german: Standardhochdeutsch, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the standardized variety ...

, but Saterland Frisian still remains seriously endangered because of the small size of the speech community and of the lack of institutional support to help preserve and spread the language. In the North Frisia (''Nordfriesland'') region of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, there were 10,000 North Frisian speakers. Although many of these live on the mainland, most are found on the islands, notably Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, and Heligoland. The local corresponding North Frisian dialects are still in use. West Frisian-Dutch bilinguals are split into two categories: Speakers who had Dutch as their first language tended to maintain the Dutch system of homophony between plural and linking suffixes when speaking West Frisian, by using the West Frisian plural as a linking morpheme. Speakers who had West Frisian as their first language often maintained the West Frisian system of no homophony when speaking West Frisian.

Status

Saterland and North Frisian are officially recognised and protected as minority languages in Germany, and West Frisian is one of the two official languages in the Netherlands, the other being Dutch. ISO 639-1 code fy and ISO 639-2 code fry were assigned to "Frisian", but that was changed in November 2005 to " Western Frisian". According to the ISO 639 Registration Authority the "previous usage of hiscode has been for Western Frisian, although helanguage name was 'Frisian'". The new ISO 639 code stq is used for the Saterland Frisian language, a variety of Eastern Frisian (not to be confused with East Frisian Low Saxon, a West Low German dialect). The new ISO 639 code frr is used for the

North Frisian language North Frisian (''nordfriisk'') 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 Frisian languages. The language comprises 10 dialects which are thems ...

variants spoken in parts of Schleswig-Holstein. Th
Ried fan de Fryske Beweging
is an organization which works for the preservation of the West Frisian language and culture in the Dutch province of Friesland. Th
Fryske Academy
also plays a large role, since its foundation in 1938, to conduct research on Frisian language, history, and society, including attempts at forming a larger dictionary. Recent attempts have allowed Frisian be used somewhat more in some of the domains of education, media and public administration. Nevertheless, Saterland Frisian and most dialects of North Frisian are seriously endangered and West Frisian is considered as vulnerable to being endangered. Moreover, for all advances in integrating Frisian in daily life, there is still a lack of education and media awareness of the Frisian language, perhaps reflecting its rural origins and its lack of prestige Therefore, in a sociological sense it is considered more a dialect than a standard language, even though linguistically it is a separate language. For L2 speakers, both the quality and amount of time Frisian is taught in the classroom is low, concluding that Frisian lessons do not contribute meaningfully to the linguistic and cultural development of the students. Moreover, Frisian runs the risk of dissolving into Dutch, especially in Friesland, where both languages are used.

History

Old Frisian

In the Early Middle Ages the Frisian lands stretched from the area around Bruges, in what is now Belgium, to the river Weser, in northern Germany. At that time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. Today this region is sometimes referred to as Great Frisia or Frisia Magna, and many of the areas within it still treasure their Frisian heritage, even though in most places the Frisian languages have been lost. Frisian is the language most closely related to English and

Scots Scots usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: * Scots language, a language of the West Germanic language family native to Scotland * Scots people, a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland * Scoti, a Latin na ...

, but after at least five hundred years of being subject to the influence of Dutch, modern Frisian in some aspects bears a greater similarity to Dutch than to English; one must also take into account the centuries-long drift of English away from Frisian. Thus the two languages have become less mutually intelligible over time, partly due to the marks which Dutch and

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

have left on Frisian, and partly due to the vast influence some languages (in particular

Norman French Norman or Norman French (, french: Normand, Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to descri ...

) have had on English throughout the centuries. Old Frisian, however, was very similar to

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

. Historically, both English and Frisian are marked by the loss of the Germanic nasal in words like ''us'' (''ús''; ''uns'' in German), ''soft'' (''sêft''; ''sanft'') or ''goose'' (''goes''; ''Gans''): see

Anglo-Frisian nasal spirant law In historical linguistics, the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law (also called the Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic nasal spirant law) is a description of a phonological development that occurred in the Ingvaeonic dialects of the West Germanic langu ...

. Also, when followed by some vowels, the Germanic ''k'' softened to a ''ch'' sound; for example, the Frisian for ''cheese'' and ''church'' is ''tsiis'' and ''tsjerke'', whereas in Dutch it is ''kaas'' and ''kerk'', and in High German the respective words are ''Käse'' and ''Kirche''. Contrarily, this did not happen for ''chin'' and ''choose'', which are ''kin'' and ''kieze''. One rhyme demonstrates the palpable similarity between Frisian and English: "Butter, bread and green cheese is good English and good Frisian," which is pronounced more or less the same in both languages (West Frisian: "Bûter, brea en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk.") One major difference between Old Frisian and modern Frisian is that in the Old Frisian period (c.1150-c.1550) grammatical cases still existed. Some of the texts that are preserved from this period are from the 12th or 13th, but most are from the 14th and 15th centuries. Generally, all these texts are restricted to legalistic writings. Although the earliest definite written examples of Frisian are from approximately the 9th century, there are a few examples of runic inscriptions from the region which are probably older and possibly in the Frisian language. These runic writings however usually do not amount to more than single- or few-word inscriptions, and cannot be said to constitute literature as such. The transition from the Old Frisian to the Middle Frisian period (c.1550-c.1820) in the 16th century is based on the fairly abrupt halt in the use of Frisian as a written language.

Middle West Frisian

Up until the 15th century, Frisian was a language widely spoken and written, but from 1500 onwards it became an almost exclusively oral language, mainly used in rural areas. This was in part due to the occupation of its stronghold, the Dutch province of Friesland (Fryslân), in 1498, by Albert III, Duke of Saxony, who replaced West Frisian as the language of government with Dutch. Afterwards this practice was continued under the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

rulers of the Netherlands (the German Emperor Charles V and his son, the Spanish King Philip II), and even when the Netherlands became independent, in 1585, West Frisian did not regain its former status. The reason for this was the rise of Holland as the dominant part of the Netherlands, and its language, Dutch, as the dominant language in judicial, administrative and religious affairs. In this period the great Frisian poet Gysbert Japiks (1603–66), a schoolteacher and cantor from the city of Bolsward, who largely fathered modern West Frisian literature and orthography, was really an exception to the rule. His example was not followed until the 19th century, when entire generations of West Frisian authors and poets appeared. This coincided with the introduction of the so-called newer breaking system, a prominent grammatical feature in almost all West Frisian dialects, with the notable exception of Southwest Frisian. Therefore, the Modern West Frisian period is considered to have begun at this point in time, around 1820.

Modern West Frisian

The revival of the West Frisian Language comes from the poet Gysbert Japiks, who had begun to write in the language as a way to show that it was possible, and created a collective West Frisian identity and West Frisian standard of writing through his poetry. Later on,

Johannes Hilarides Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...

would build off Gysbert Japik's work by building on West Frisian orthography, particularly on its pronunciation; he also, unlike Japiks, set a standard of the West Frisian language that focused more heavily on how the common people used it as an everyday language. Perhaps the most important figure in the spreading of the West Frisian language was J. H. Halbertsma (1789–1869), who translated many works into the West Frisian language, such as the New Testament He had however, like Hilarides, focused mostly on the vernacular of the West Frisian language, where he focused on translating texts, plays and songs for the lower and middle classes in order to teach and expand the West Frisian language. This had begun the effort to continuously preserve the West Frisian language, which continues unto this day. It was however not until the first half of the 20th century that the West Frisian revival movement began to gain strength, not only through its language, but also through its culture and history, supporting singing and acting in West Frisian in order to facilitate West Frisian speaking. It was not until 1960 that Dutch began to dominate West Frisian in Friesland; with many non-Frisian immigrants into Friesland, the language gradually began to diminish, and only survives now due to the constant effort of scholars and organisations. In recent years, it has been the province of Friesland, rather than the language itself, that has become a more important part of the West Frisian identity; as such, the language has become less important for cultural preservation purposes. It is especially written West Frisian that seems to have trouble surviving, with only 30% of the West Frisian population competent in it; it went out of use in the 16th century and continues to be barely taught today.

Family tree

Frisian languages belong to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages, the most widespread language family in Europe and the world. Its closest living genealogical relatives are the Anglic languages, i.e. English and

( Anglo-Frisian languages); together with the also closely related Low Saxon dialects the two groups make up the group of

. * West Frisian language, spoken in the Netherlands. ** Hindeloopen Frisian ** Schiermonnikoogs **Westlauwers–Terschelling Frisian ***

Terschellings Terschelling Frisian, or ''Skylgersk'', is a West Frisian language spoken on the island of Terschelling Terschelling (; fry, Skylge; Terschelling dialect: ''Schylge'') is a municipality and an island in the northern Netherlands, one of th ...

(Oosterend and West-Terschelling dialects) ***Western Frisian proper ****

Clay Frisian West Frisian, or simply Frisian ( fy, link=no, Frysk or ; nl, Fries , also ), is a West Germanic language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland () in the north of the Netherlands, mostly by those of Frisian ancestry. It is the most wid ...

(Klaaifrysk, incl. Westereendersk) **** Wood Frisian (Wâldfrysk) **** South Frisian (Súdhoeks) * East Frisian language, spoken in Lower Saxony, Germany. ** Ems Frisian dialects *** Saterland Frisian *** Several extinct dialects ** Weser Frisian dialects ***

Wangerooge Frisian Wangerooge Frisian is an extinct dialect of the East Frisian language, formerly spoken on the East Frisian island of Wangerooge. Wangerooge Frisian was a part of the Weser group of dialects which included the Wangerooge and the equally extinct ...

(extinct) *** Wursten Frisian (extinct) *** Several extinct dialects *

, spoken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. ** Mainland dialects ***

Bökingharde Frisian Bökingharde ( Mooring North Frisian: ''Böökinghiird''; ) was an ''amt'' (collective municipality) in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It was situated on the North Sea coast, approx. 35 km northwest of Husum. I ...

***

Northern Goesharde Frisian Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

***Middle Goesharde Frisian ***Southern Goesharde Frisian (extinct) ***

Wiedingharde Frisian Wiedingharde Frisian (North Frisian: ''Wiringhiirder freesk'', Danish: ''Vidingherredfrisisk'') is a dialect of the North Frisian language spoken in the German ''amt'' of Wiedingharde south of the border to Denmark in North Frisia (''historic s ...

***

Halligen Frisian Halligen Frisian ( frr, Halifreesk) is the dialect of the North Frisian language North Frisian (''nordfriisk'') is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. The language is part of the larger group of th ...

***

Karrharde Frisian Karrharde Frisian is a dialect of the North Frisian language spoken in the municipalities of Stedesand and Enge-Sande in the German ''Amt'' of Südtondern (formerly Karrharde) in the district of Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Holstein. It is a mainla ...

** Island dialects *** Söl'ring *** Fering-

Öömrang Amrum Frisian, or ''Öömrang'', is the dialect of the North Frisian language spoken on the island of Amrum in the German region of North Frisia. ''Öömrang'' refers to the ''Öömrang'' Frisian name of Amrum, ''Oomram''. Together with the ...

*** Heligolandic (Halunder) ** Extinct dialects ***

Strand Frisian Strand Frisian was a dialect of the North Frisian language which was originally spoken on Strand island, Duchy of Schleswig. Strand was destroyed in the Burchardi flood of 1634 with its remnants forming the islands Pellworm and Nordstrand whic ...

***

Eiderstedt Frisian Eiderstedt Frisian (german: Eiderstedter Friesisch, da, Ejderstedfrisisk) was a dialect of the North Frisian language which was originally spoken on Eiderstedt, formerly part of the Danish Duchy of Schleswig. The Frisian language became extinc ...

Text samples

The Lord's Prayer

NB:
* See also West Frisian language#Sample text.
** ''Which'' was changed to "who", ''in earth'' to "on earth," and ''them that'' to "those who" in the 1928 version of the Church of England prayer book and used in other later Anglican prayer books too. However, the words given here are those of the original 1662 book as stated.

Comparative sentences

* en, The boy stroked the girl about the chin and kissed her on the cheeks. * Saterland Frisian: * North Frisian ( Mooring dialect): * Nordfriesisch (Söl'ring): ''Di Dreeng strekt dit faamen om't Ken en taatjet / kleepet höör üp di Sjaken'' * West Frisian: * Gronings: ''t Jong fleerde t wicht om kinne tou en smokte heur op wange.'' * East Frisian Low Saxon: * german: Der Junge streichelte das Mädchen ums Kinn und küsste es (sie) auf die Wange. * nl, De jongen aaide (streelde, streek) het meisje langs/over haar/de kin en kuste/zoende haar op de wangen. * Afrikaans: * da, Drengen strøg/aede pigen på hagen og kyssede hende på kinden. * Norwegian: NB: These are not always literal translations of each other.

References

Notes

General references

Omniglot links to various Frisian resourcesTresoar - Historical and Literary Centre of Friesland Province of the Netherlands

External links

Ferring Stiftung, a foundation from North Frisia

West-Frisian-English dictionary

[PDF]Hewett, Waterman Thomas, The Frisian language and literature

and compare with equivalents in English and other Germanic languages. *
Radio in West Frisian

Radio news in North Frisian

Online (German-Frisian) Dictionary for multiple North Frisian dialects
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frisian Languages Languages attested from the 8th century Languages of the Netherlands Languages of Germany