Frisian language
Frisian (
Frysk) is a
Germanic group of closely related languages, spoken by about half a million members of an
ethnic group living on the southern fringes of the
North Sea in the
Netherlands and
Germany. The ancient Frisians figured prominently in North European history. They were especially noted as traders and raiders during the
Viking Age. Frisian and
Scots are the two living European languages that are most closely related to
English. Although English and Frisian are unintelligible to each other, there are similarities to both
Dutch and
Danish, whose speakers are able to understand some spoken Frisian.
There are three varieties of Frisian:
West Lauwers Frisian,
Saterland Frisian, and
North Frisian. 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, especially the North Frisian language is further segmented into several strongly diverse dialects.
Stadsfries is a
mixed language.
Speakers
Most Frisian speakers live in the
Netherlands, primarily in the province of
Fryslân, since 1997 officially using its Frisian name, 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 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
standard German.
In the
Nordfriesland (Northern Frisia) region of the German province of
Schleswig-Holstein, there are 10,000 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 Frisian dialects are still in use.
Status
Frisian is officially recognised and protected as a
minority language in Germany and is one of the two official languages in the Netherlands, together with
Dutch.
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.
The new
ISO 639 code
frs is used for the
Saterland Frisian language also known as
Eastern Frisian, but not to be confused with
East Frisian.The new
ISO 639 code
frr is used for the
North Frisian language variants spoken in parts of
Schleswig-Holstein.
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.
Originally, Frisian was the language most closely related to
English, but after at least five hundred years of being subjected to the influence of
Dutch, modern Frisian 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
Low Franconian languages (such as Dutch) and
Low German have left on Frisian, and partly due to the vast influence some languages (in particular
French) have had on English throughout the centuries.
Old Frisian, however, did bear a striking similarity to
Old English. This similarity was reinforced in the late
Middle Ages by the
Ingaevonic sound shift, which affected Frisian and English, but only affected the other
West Germanic 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 it is
kaas and
kerk.
One rhyme demonstrates the palpable similarity between Frisian and English: "Butter, bread and green cheese is good English and good Friese," 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)
grammatical cases 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 and his son, the Spanish King
Philip II), 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
cantor from the city of
Bolsward (Boalsert), 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
Súdwesthoeksk. Therefore, the Modern Frisian period is considered to have begun at this point in time, around 1820.
Each of the 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.
*
West Frisian language, spoken in the Netherlands.
**
Clay Frisian (Klaaifrysk)
**
Wood Frisian (Wâldfrysk)
***
Noardhoeks**
South Frisian (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
***Dialect of
Mooring (island in Germany)***Dialect of
Hoorning***Dialect of
Wiedingharde***Dialect of
Tideland Islands** Island dialects
***Dialect of
Sylt***Dialect of
Föhr***Dialect of
Amrum**
de:Heligolandic*
Frisia*
Frisian Islands*
Frisians*
Common phrases in different languages*
Frisian academy for people, language and culture*
The Frisian foundation*
Frisian-English dictionary*
Frisian: Standardization in Progress of a Language in Decay (231K
PDF)
