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West Frisian language

Frisian
West Frisian
Frysk
Native to Netherlands
Region Friesland, Groningen
Ethnicity Frisians
Native speakers
470,000 (2001 census)
Official status
Official language in
Netherlands (Province of Friesland)
Regulated by Fryske Akademy
Language codes
ISO 639-1 fy
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3
Glottolog west2354
Linguasphere 52-ACA-b
Frisian languages in Europe.svg
Present-day distribution of the Frisian languages in Europe:
  West Frisian
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West Frisian, or simply Frisian (Frysk; Dutch: Fries [ˈfris]) is a West Germanic language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland (Fryslân) in the north of the Netherlands, mostly by those of Frisian ancestry. It is the most widely spoken of the three Frisian languages.

The name "West Frisian" is only used outside the Netherlands, to distinguish this language from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian spoken in Germany. Within the Netherlands, however, "West Frisian" refers to the West Frisian dialect of the Dutch language while the West Frisian language is almost always just called "Frisian" (in Dutch, Fries for the Frisian language and Westfries for the Dutch dialect.) The unambiguous name used for the Frisian language by linguists in the Netherlands is Westerlauwers Fries [ˈʋɛstərˌlʌu̯ərs ˈfris] (West Lauwers Frisian), the Lauwers being a border stream that separates the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen.

Most speakers of West Frisian live in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. Friesland has 643,000 inhabitants (2005), of whom 94% can understand spoken Frisian, 74% can speak Frisian, 75% can read Frisian, and 27% can write it.

For over half of the inhabitants of the province of Friesland, 55% (c. 354,000 people), Frisian is the native language. In the central east, Frisian speakers spill over the province border, with some 4,000–6,000 of them actually living in the province of Groningen, in the triangular area of the villages Marum (Frisian: Mearum), De Wilp (De Wylp), and Opende (De Grinzer Pein).


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