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Frisian languages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Of the three, the North Frisian language especially is further segmented into ... At that time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North ...
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West Frisian language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
West Frisian (Frysk) is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland ... West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside of the ...
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Frisian language: Information from Answers.com
Frisian language West Germanic language most closely related to English. ... Of the three, the North Frisian language especially is further segmented into ...
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frisian
Frisian, which is thus the living language most similar to English, is spoken ... This grammar will describe West Frisian, the language of three to four ...
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BIGpedia - Frisian language - Encyclopedia and Dictionary Online
Frisian (varyingly Frysk, Frasch, Fresk, or Friisk) is a language spoken by ... The Frisian Language - a page with some good links. ...
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FRISIAN LANGUAGE,
They are mostly descended from Franks, Frisians (see Frisian Language) ... ENCYCLOPEDIA: FRISIAN LANGUAGE. ENCYCLOPEDIA: FRISIAN LITERATURE ...
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Ethnologue report for language code:fri
Ethnologue and bibliography information on Frisian, Western. ... Over 70% of those in Friesland still speak Western Frisian. Positive language attitude. ...
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Frisian language
Language classification Indo-European languages Germanic languages West Germanic languages Anglo-Frisian languages Frisian languages Frisian is a Germanic group of ...
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{{Infobox Language|name=Frisian|nativename=Frysk / Fräisk / Frasch /
Fresk / Freesk / Friisk|caption=Sign in Frisian in Nordstrand, Germany: You're now driving through New Koog.|image=|states=Netherlands, Germany, [Schleswig-Holstein, Friesland, Groningen (province) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gronings|speakers=500,000|iso1=fy|iso2= fry|lc1=fry|ld1=West Frisian|ll1=West Frisian language|lc2=frs|ld2=Saterland Frisian|ll2=Saterland Frisian language|lc3=frr|ld3=North Frisian|ll3=North Frisian language|familycolor=Indo-European|fam2=Germanic languages|fam3=West Germanic languages|fam4=Anglo-Frisian languages|script=Latin alphabet|agency=[Fryske Akademy (extinct) and [Rømø (Danish language))], spoken by about half a million members of Frisians ethnic groups, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. Frisian languages are the most closely related living European languages to Old English, but modern English and Frisian are mostly unintelligible to each other. It has been asserted that fishermen from Great Yarmouth could understand fishers from Harlingen, Netherlands in Friesland. There are similarities to both Dutch language, as many Frisian words are borrowed from Dutch, and Danish, as Danish language speakers are able to understand some spoken Frisian. Additional shared linguistic characteristics between the Great Yarmouth area, Friesland, and Denmark are likely to have resulted from the close trading relationship these areas maintained during the centuries-long Hanseatic League of the Late Middle Ages.

Division There are three varieties of Frisian: West Frisian language, Saterland Frisian language, and North Frisian language. Some linguists consider these three varieties, despite their mutual unintelligibility, to be dialects of one single Frisian language, while others consider them to be three separate languages, as do their speakers. Of the three, the North Frisian language especially is further segmented into several strongly diverse dialects. Stadsfries is a mixed language (West Frisian mixed with Dutch language). Frisian is called Frysk in West Frisian, Fräisch in Saterland Frisian, and Frasch, Fresk, Freesk, and Friisk in the dialects of North Frisian.

The situation in the Dutch province of Groningen is more complex: The local Low Saxon dialect of Gronings is a mixture of Frisian and Low Saxon dialects, though it is believed that Frisian was spoken here at one time and has been gradually replaced by the town language of Groningen City, which in turn is now being replaced by standard Dutch. Speakers Most Frisian speakers live in the Netherlands, primarily in the province of Friesland, since 1997 officially using its West Frisian name of Fryslân, where the number of native speakers is about 350,000. An increasing number of Dutch native speakers in the province of Friesland are able to speak the language. In Germany, there are about 2,000 speakers of Saterland Frisian in the Saterland region of Lower Saxony; the Saterland's marshy fringe areas have long protected Frisian speech there from pressure by the surrounding Low German and German language.

In the Nordfriesland (North Frisia) region of the German province of Schleswig-Holstein, there are 10,000 North Frisian speakers. While many of these Frisians live on the mainland, most are found on the islands, notably Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, and Helgoland. The local corresponding North Frisian dialects are still in use.

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, together with Dutch language.ISO 639-1 code fy and ISO 639-2 code fry were assigned to the collective Frisian languages,but are as of 2006 used only for West Frisian language.

The new ISO 639 code frs is used for the Saterland Frisian language also known as Eastern Frisian, but is not to be confused with East Frisian Low Saxon, a West Low German dialect.The new List of ISO 639 codes#F code frr is used for the North Frisian language variants spoken in parts of Schleswig-Holstein.

Saterland Frisian and most dialects of North Frisian are seriously endangered.

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 language apart from Scots language, but after at least five hundred years of being subjected to the influence of Dutch language, 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 modern languages are unintelligible to each other today, partly due to the marks which Dutch and Low German have left on Frisian, and partly due to the vast influence some languages (in particular French language) have had on English throughout the centuries. Monolingual English-speakers newly exposed to the language would not only not understand it at all, except for some simple sentences, but would likely mistake it for Dutch, or possibly Norwegian.

Old Frisian, however, did bear a striking similarity to Old English language. This similarity was reinforced in the late Middle Ages by the Ingaevones sound shift, which affected Frisian and English, but only affected the other West Germanic language varieties slightly, if at all. Historically, both English and Frisian are marked by the suppression of the Germanic nasal in a word like us (ús), soft (sêft) or goose (goes): see Anglo-Frisian nasal spirant law. 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 language it is kaas and kerk, whereas in German the respective words are Käse and Kirche. Contrarily, this did not happen for chin and (to)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 Fries," which is pronounced more or less the same in both languages (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) Declension still existed. Some of the texts that are preserved from this period are from the twelfth or thirteenth, but most are from the fourteenth and fifteenth 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 sixteenth century is based on the fairly abrupt halt in the use of Frisian as a written language.

Middle Frisian Up until the fifteenth 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 Duke Albert of Saxony, who replaced Frisian as the language of government with Dutch.

Afterwards this practice was continued under the Habsburg rulers of the Netherlands (the German Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his son, the Spanish King Philip II of Spain), and even when the Netherlands became independent, in 1585, 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 Cantus from the city of Bolsward, who largely fathered modern Frisian literature and orthography, was really an exception to the rule.

His example was not followed until the nineteenth century, when entire generations of 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 Frisian period is considered to have begun at this point in time, around 1820.

Family tree Each of the Frisian languages has several dialects. Between some, the differences are such that they rarely hamper understanding; only the number of speakers justifies the denominator of 'dialect'. In other cases, even neighbouring dialects may hardly be mutually intelligible.

It is interesting to identify a migration from German to English via Dutch and Frisian:zurück (German) -> terug (Dutch) -> tebek (Frisian) -> back (English);Schafe (German) -> schapen (Dutch) -> skiep (Frisian) -> sheep (English).It is interesting that the plural of sheep in Frisian and English (and also several German dialects) is identical to the singular form.

• West Frisian language, spoken in the Netherlands.
• Clay Frisian (Klaaifrysk)
• Wood Frisian (Wâldfrysk)
• Noardhoeks
• Súdhoeks (Súdhoeks)
• Southwest Frisian (Súdwesthoeksk)
• Schiermonnikoogs
• Hindeloopers
• Aasters
• Westers
• East Frisian language, spoken in Lower Saxony, Germany.
• Saterland Frisian language
• Several extinct dialects
• North Frisian language, spoken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
• Mainland dialects
• Mooring (North Frisian dialect)
• Goesharde Frisian
• Wiedingharde Frisian
• Halligen Frisian
• Karrharde Frisian
• Island dialects
• Söl'ring
• Fering
• Öömrang
• Heligolandic

Text sample The Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer in Standard Western Frisian or Frysk:

Us Heit, dy't yn de himelen is jins namme wurde hillige. Jins keninkryk komme. Jins wollen barre, allyk yn 'e himel sa ek op ierde. Jou ús hjoed ús deistich brea. En ferjou ús ús skulden, allyk ek wy ferjouwe ús skuldners. En lied ús net yn fersiking, mar ferlos ús fan 'e kweade. [Want Jowes is it keninkryk en de krêft en de hearlikheid oant yn ivichheid.] Amen.

The English translation in the 1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer:

Our Father, which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil. [For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, For ever and ever.] Amen.

(NB: Which was changed to "who", in earth to "on earth," and them to "those" 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)

See also

• Frisia
• Frisian Islands
• Frisians
• Froisk

External links

• Frisian academy for people, language and culture
• The Frisian foundation
• Frisian-English dictionary
• Description of language including audio files
• Omniglot links to various Frisian resources
• Frisian radio
• Tresoar - Frisian Historical and Literary Centre

Frisian language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frisian language can refer to: The Frisian languages, a closely related group of three Germanic languages: West Frisian language (fy), spoken in the Netherlands and often known ...

Eurolang - Language Data - Frisian (Netherlands, Germany)
Learn about this language and the varieties spoken in Germany and in the Netherlands.

Frisian languages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Frisian languages are a closely related group of Germanic languages, spoken by about 500,000 members of Frisian ethnic groups, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea ...

Frisian language definition of Frisian language in the Free Online ...
Frisian language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European Indo-European, family of languages having more speakers than any other language ...

Frisian language - encyclopedia article - Citizendium
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Frisian Language - MSN Encarta
Frisian Language, language of the historical Frisian people, now officially recognized in the Dutch province of Friesland, with two other varieties...

Frisian (language) definition of Frisian (language) in the Free Online ...
Frisian language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European Indo-European, family of languages having more speakers than any other language ...

Yamada Language Center: Frisian WWW Guide
Links. Lowlands-L: Frisian - a long list of links about Frisian (Frysk, Seeltersk, Frasch, Freesch, Fräisch, Freesk, Friisk, Halunder, Öömrang ...

Frisian Language - Intute: Arts and Humanities
Browse Frisian Language ... The ALCS aims to promote the scholarly study of the language, culture, history and society of the Low Countries, to encourage research in Low Countries ...

Language Contact - Manchester
German-Frisian © Yaron Matras. Frisian is a West Germanic language, closely related historically to English, which has been under the influence of Danish and Low German for many ...