Frisian languages

Lore & Background

Frisian is traditionally divided into three branches—West Frisian, North Frisian, and East Frisian—often labeled distinct languages because dialects within each branch are not necessarily mutually intelligible. West Frisian, the most spoken, is an official language in the Dutch province of Friesland, used on the mainland and on the islands of Terschelling and Schiermonnikoog, as well as in four villages in Groningen. North Frisian is spoken in the German district of Nordfriesland and on the islands of Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, the Halligs, Heligoland, and Düne. East Frisian survives only as Saterland Frisian, spoken in four villages in the municipality of Saterland, Lower Saxony, surrounded by bogs.

Reader's Guide

For many centuries, Frisian has been strongly influenced by Dutch, and the two language areas share a long intertwined history. As a result, Dutch is the Germanic language most similar to Frisian in practice, even though Frisian is genealogically closer to English and Scots. The degree of mutual intelligibility between Frisian and Dutch is debated: a 2005 cloze test showed Dutch respondents scored 31.9% when presented with West Frisian text, while researchers in 2012 concluded the linguistic distance between Dutch and Frisian dialects was slightly smaller than between Scandinavian languages, which are largely mutually intelligible. West Frisian is considered vulnerable to endangerment, while Saterland Frisian and most North Frisian dialects are seriously endangered. Despite official recognition and some use in education, media, and public administration, Frisian lessons do not contribute meaningfully to students' linguistic and cultural development, and the language risks dissolving into Dutch, especially in Friesland.

Did You Know?

• Frisian is the closest living language group to English and Scots, forming the Anglo-Frisian languages.
• West Frisian is spoken by about 400,000 people, roughly 75% of the inhabitants of Friesland.
• Saterland Frisian, the last variant of East Frisian, has only about 2,000 speakers in Lower Saxony, Germany.
• The insular varieties of West Frisian are not intelligible to mainland West Frisian speakers.