North Frisian

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North Frisian Frasch / Fresk / Freesk / Friisk
Spoken in:	Germany
Region:	Schleswig-Holstein
Total speakers:	10,000
Language family:	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo-Frisian Frisian North Frisian
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`frr`
ISO 639-3:	`frr`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

North Frisian dialects

North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. There are two main dialectal divisions, between those dialects of the mainland, and the insular dialects. There is no standard variety, although some have suggested the mainland Mooring dialect. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages.

North Frisian is an endangered language, as in most places children do no learn it anymore. Exceptions are a few villages on the islands of Föhr and Amrum and the Risum area. All speakers of North Frisian are at least bilingual (North Frisian - Standard German). Many are trilingual (North Frisian, Standard German and Low German) and, especially along the Danish border, quadlingualism used to be widespread (North Frisian, Standard German, Low German and South Jutlandic).

1 Samples
- 1.1 Insular
- 1.2 Mainland
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Samples

The sentence displayed below in many variants reads: '"Shine, old moon, shine!", cried Häwelmann, but neither the moon nor the stars were anywhere to be seen; they had all already gone to bed.' (From: Theodor Storm: Der kleine Häwelmann.)

[edit] Insular

Söl'ring (Dialect of Sylt)

„Ljucht, ual Muun, ljucht!” skriilt Häwelmann, man di Muun wiar narigen tö sen en uk di Stiaren ek; ja wiar al altermaal tö Ber gingen.

Fering (Dialect of Föhr)

„Locht, ual muun, locht!” rep Heewelmaan, man a muun wiar nochhuaren tu sen an a stäären uk ei; jo wiar al altermaal tu baad gingen.

Heligolandic (Dialect of Helgoland)

„Lochte, ool Muun, lochte!” rüp Heäwelman, oawers de Muun wear naarni tu sin’n en uk de Steern ni; dja wear al allemoal tu Baad gingen.

Öömrang (Dialect of Amrum)

„Locht, dü ual muun, locht!” rep Heewelmaan, man a muun wiar nochhuaren tu sen an a stäären uk ei; jo wiar al altumaal tu baad gingen.

[edit] Mainland

Hoorning (Dialect of Goesharde)

„Jocht, uule moune, jocht!” biilked Hääwelmoon, ors e moune waas närngs to schüns än da steere ok ai; ja weern al aal to beede gingen.

Wiedingharde Frisian

„Ljocht, uuile moone, ljocht!” biilked Hääwelmuon, män e moone was näärgen to schüns än uk e steere ai; jä würn al altomoale to beerd gingen.

Halligen Frisian (although it is spoken on the Halligen islands, it is linguistically grouped with the mainland dialects)

„Jaacht, uale mööne, jaacht!” bölked Hääwelmoon, man de mööne woas näärngs to siinen än de steere uk ee; jä weern al altomaole to beed giangen.

Mooring (Dialect of Bökingharde)

„Jucht, üülje moune, jucht!” biiljked Hääwelmoon, ouers e moune wus nargne tu schüns än e stääre uk ai; ja wjarn ål åltumååle tu beed lim.

Note that, despite the differences between the dialects, the Fering and Öömrang are highly similar; in this example nearly identical.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

de:s:Friesisch-Gesetz - German wikisource with a law about Northern Frisian (German)
Ethnologue on North Frisian (English)
Nordfriisk Instituut (North Frisian Institute) homepage (mainly in (German))
Friisk Foriining (Frisian Society) homepage (English)
Friisk Foriining (Mooring North Frisian)

Major Modern Germanic languages
Afrikaans \| Danish \| Dutch \| English \| German \| Norwegian \| Swedish \| Yiddish
Minor Modern Germanic languages
Faroese \| Frisian \| Icelandic \| Luxembourgish
Reg. acknowledged Germanic languages/dialects
Limburgish \| Low German / Low Saxon \| North Frisian \| Saterland Frisian \| Scots \| Ulster Scots