The West Frisian languages are a group of closely related, though not mutually intelligible,

Frisian languages 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 li ...

of the Netherlands. Due to the marginalization of all but mainland West Frisian, they are often portrayed as dialects of a single language. (See that article for the history of the languages.)

Languages

Not all West Frisian varieties spoken in Dutch Friesland are mutually intelligible. The varieties on the islands are rather divergent, and ''Glottolog'' distinguishes four languages: *

Hindeloopen Frisian alt=Graet Hylper Wordebook, Cover of the 2019 Hindelooper Dictionary Hindeloopen Frisian (natively , West Frisian: s), also referred to as ''Hindeloopers'' in English and Dutch, is a West Frisian variety spoken in the port town of Hindeloopen an ...

(, Dutch and ), an archaic dialect of the peninsular harbour town of

Hindeloopen Hindeloopen (; fry, Hylpen; Hindeloopen Frisian: ''Hielpen'' ) is an old city on the North of the Netherlands on the IJsselmeer. It lies within the municipality of Súdwest Fryslân. It is famous because of the Hindeloopen art and hindeloopen ...

() and the village of

Molkwerum Molkwerum ( fry, Molkwar) is a village in Súdwest-Fryslân municipality in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of around 390 in January 2017. Molkwerum used to be called Friese Doolhof (Frisian Maze), because it is buil ...

on the west coast, is spoken by, at the most, some 300 people. * Schiermonnikoog Frisian , the most endangered West Frisian language, is spoken on the island of Schiermonnikoog () by no more than 50–100 people (out of an island population of 900). * Westlauwers–Terschellings ** Terschelling Frisian (). and are the dialects of the western and eastern parts of the island of

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 have about 800 and 400 speakers respectively. ** Western Frisian, spoken by over 99% of the West Frisian-speaking population

References

* Frisian languages Languages of the Netherlands {{germanic-lang-stub