North Frisian language

North Frisian
Frasch / Fresk / Freesk / Friisk
Bilingual sign in German and North Frisian, respectively, in Husum, Germany
Native to	Germany
Region	Schleswig-Holstein
Native speakers	(10,000 cited 1976)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglo-Frisian Frisian North Frisian
Official status
Official language in	Nordfriesland Heligoland
Language codes
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3
Glottolog	nort2626
Linguasphere	52-ACA-e (varieties: 52-ACA-eaa to -eak & extinct -eba & -ebb)
North Frisian dialects
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North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 30,000 people in North Frisia. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages.

The closest relatives of North Frisian are the two other Frisian languages, the Saterland Frisian of north-western Lower Saxony, Germany, and the West Frisian language spoken in the northern Netherlands. Together these three sub-groups form the group of Frisian languages.

The English language is also closely related to Frisian. The two languages are classified in a common Anglo-Frisian group. Anglo-Frisian is grouped among the Ingvaeonic languages together with Low German. The related Low German has developed differently since Old Saxon times and has lost many Ingvaeonic characteristics.

The North Frisian dialects can be grouped into two main dialectal divisions: those of the mainland and the insular dialects. All in all these two groups comprise 10 dialects. The dialect spoken on the Halligen is one of the mainland dialects though. Typically one distinguishes between the following ten dialects that have been spoken since the beginning of Frisian linguistic studies in the 19th century.

The mainland and insular dialects clearly differ from each other because they were shaped by Frisian immigrants during several different centuries. The islands of Sylt, Föhr and Amrum were colonised around 800 while the mainland was settled by Frisians in AD 1100.

Add to this the various influences of neighbouring languages on the dialects. On Sylt, Föhr and Amrum as well as in parts of the northern mainland there is a strong Danish (South Jutlandic) influence, whereas on Heligoland and the rest of mainland North Frisia the Low German influence is predominant. Moreover, there has historically only been a limited exchange between the dialects so that hardly any lingua franca could develop and there was no cultural centre in North Frisia whose dialect would have been able to take a leading role.