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Frisian languages

Frisian languages
NameFrisian
NativenameFrysk / Fräisk / Frasch /
Fresk / Freesk / Friisk
ImagecaptionBilingual sign in Frisian in Husum
Imagesize100px
StatesNetherlands
Germany
RegionFriesland
Groningen
Lower Saxony
Schleswig-Holstein
Speakers500,000
Lc1fry
Ld1West Frisian
Ll1West Frisian language
Lc2stq
Ld2Saterland Frisian
Ll2Saterland Frisian language
Lc3frr
Ld3North Frisian
Ll3North Frisian language
Lingua52-ACA
FamilycolorIndo-European
Fam2Germanic
Fam3West Germanic
Fam4Anglo-Frisian
ScriptLatin alphabet
NationNetherlands
Germany
AgencyNL: Fryske Akademy
D: no official regulation
unofficial: the Seelter Buund (for Sater Frisian), the Nordfriisk Instituut (for North Frisian)
MapcaptionOriginal and 21st century distribution of Frisian (without the island of Rømø (Danish language)).

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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 in the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisian languages are the second closest related living European languages to English, after Scots. However, modern English and Frisian are mostly unintelligible to each other. Frisian languages bear similarities to Low German, Dutch (from which many Frisian words have been borrowed) and Danish, and Danish 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.


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