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43-430: Records from 1231 describe the island as having a size equivalent of 20 km (7.7 square miles). It contained numerous terps . The island was destroyed in a series of storm tides . Its size was described in 1807 and 1873 as 40.7 and 18.4 hectares respectively. In 1895, a storm destroyed the last terp and the island was abandoned and became a bird sanctuary . Attempts to protect it from the recurring floods were made in

86-422: A Dutch newspaper. However, the same test also revealed that native Dutch speakers understood 63.9% of a spoken Frisian text, 59.4% of a spoken Afrikaans text and 89.4% of a spoken Dutch text, read aloud by native speakers of the respective languages. The saying "As milk is to cheese, are English and Fries" describes the observed similarity between Frisian and English. One rhyme that is sometimes used to demonstrate

129-462: A few runic inscriptions from the region which are probably older and possibly in the Frisian language. These runic writings, however, usually do not amount to more than single- or few-word inscriptions, and cannot be said to constitute literature as such. The Middle Frisian language period ( c.  1550 – c.  1820 ) is rooted in geopolitics and the consequent fairly abrupt halt in

172-406: A few farmhouses, to larger villages and old towns. A few of them are listed below. West Frisian language West Frisian , Frisian, or English on Expert (West Frisian: Frysk [frisk] or Westerlauwersk Frysk ; Dutch : Fries [fris] , also Westerlauwers Fries ), is a West Germanic language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland ( Fryslân ) in

215-616: A prominent grammatical feature in almost all West Frisian dialects, with the notable exception of Súdwesthoeksk . Therefore, the New Frisian period is considered to have begun at this time, around 1820. 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 West Frisian, 74% can speak West Frisian, 75% can read West Frisian, and 27% can write it. For over half of

258-556: A striking similarity to Old English . This similarity was reinforced in the late Middle Ages by the Ingvaeonic sound shift, which affected Frisian and English, but the other West Germanic varieties hardly at all. Both English and Frisian are marked by the suppression of the Germanic nasal in a word like us ( ús ), soft ( sêft ) or goose ( goes ): see Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law . Also, when followed by some vowels

301-479: Is cognate with English thorp , Danish torp , German Dorf , modern West Frisian doarp and Dutch dorp . Terpen were built to "curb natural influences" such as floods by being a part of a network of terpen that rerouted large-scale flooding. Historical Frisian settlements were built on artificial terpen up to 15 metres (49 ft) high to be safe from the floods in periods of rising sea levels . The first terp -building period dates to 500 BC,

344-479: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Artificial dwelling hill A terp , also known as a wierde , woerd , warf , warft , werf , werve , wurt or værft , is an artificial dwelling mound found on the North European Plain that has been created to provide safe ground during storm surges , high tides and sea or river flooding . The various terms used reflect

387-589: Is no difference between ei and ij , whereas in Clay Frisian, there is no difference between ei and aai . Other phonological differences include: Some lexical differences between Clay Frisian and Wood Frisian include: West Frisian uses the Latin alphabet. A, E, O and U may be accompanied by circumflex or acute accents. In alphabetical listings both I and Y are usually found between H and J. When two words differ only because one has I and

430-573: Is not a proper Frisian") was used, according to legend, by the 16th century Frisian rebel and pirate Pier Gerlofs Donia as a shibboleth that he forced his captives to repeat to distinguish Frisians from Dutch and Low Germans . Here is a short example of the West Frisian language in comparison with English , Old English , and Dutch . Not all Frisian varieties spoken in Dutch Friesland are mutually intelligible . The varieties on

473-513: Is now a sandbank ( højsande ), Jordsand Flak similar to Koresand near Fanø . Højsande denotes a sandbank that is only flooded during exceptionally high waters. Its name lives on in the name of one of Germany's oldest environmental organizations, Verein Jordsand established in 1907. 55°1′32″N 8°34′14″E  /  55.02556°N 8.57056°E  / 55.02556; 8.57056 This article about an island of Denmark

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516-693: Is only used outside the Netherlands, to distinguish this language from the closely related Frisian languages of East Frisian , including 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

559-468: Is that in the Old Frisian period ( c.  1150 – c.  1550 ) grammatical cases still occurred. Some of the texts that are preserved from this period are from the 12th or 13th, but most are from the 14th and 15th centuries. Generally, these texts are restricted to legal documents. Although the earliest definite written examples of Frisian are from approximately the 9th century, there are

602-559: The Halligen , people still live on terps unprotected by dykes. Terps also occur in the Rhine and Meuse river plains in the central part of the Netherlands. Furthermore, terps can be found more to the south in the province North Holland , like Avendorp near the town of Schagen , and in the towns of Bredene en Leffinge near Oostende in Belgium . Other terps can be found at the mouth of

645-741: The terp villages, though, have names ending in -um , from -heem or -hiem , meaning (farm)yard, grounds. There are a few village names in Friesland ending with -terp (e.g. Ureterp ), referring not to a dwelling mound but merely to the Old Frisian word for village. The first element of the toponyms is quite often a person's name or is simply describing the environmental features of the settlement (e.g. Rasquert (prov. Groningen) Riazuurđ: wierde with reed, where reed grows). Some 1,200 terpen are recorded in Groningen and Friesland alone. They range from abandoned settlements to mounds with only one or

688-489: The 11 towns, use two names (both Dutch and West Frisian) or only a West Frisian name. Within ISO 639 West Frisian falls under the codes fy and fry , which were assigned to the collective Frisian languages. The mutual intelligibility in reading between Dutch and Frisian is poor. A cloze test in 2005 revealed native Dutch speakers understood 31.9% of a West Frisian newspaper, 66.4% of an Afrikaans newspaper and 97.1% of

731-516: The 1970s but with limited success since the island remained unprotected by a dyke . The island's size ultimately shrunk to 2.3 hectares and the uninhabited island was finally destroyed in a flood during the winter of 1998/99. By 1999 all vegetation on the former island had disappeared, and the Danish Nature Agency removed its observational hut from the flooded area. In 1999, the island was officially registered as disappeared. The area

774-460: The 1970s. Frisian is still spoken by some Dutch Canadians , Dutch Americans , Dutch Australians and Dutch New Zealanders . Apart from the use of West Frisian as a first language, it is also spoken as a second language by about 120,000 people in the province of Friesland. West Frisian is considered by UNESCO to be a language in danger of becoming extinct , officially listed as "vulnerable". In 1951, Frisian language activists, protesting at

817-605: The Clay Frisian and Wood Frisian dialects are the words my ("me"), dy ("you"), hy ("he"), sy ("she" or "they"), wy ("we"), and by ("by"), which are pronounced in the Wood Frisian as mi , di , hi , si , wi , and bi and in Clay Frisian as mij , dij , hij , sij , wij , and bij . Other differences are in the pronunciation of the diphthongs ei , ai , and aai which are pronounced ij , ai , and aai in Wood Frisian, but ôi , òi , and ôi in Clay Frisian. Thus, in Wood Frisian, there

860-589: The Frisian landscape. In the western and north-western parts of the province, the region where Clay Frisian is spoken, the soil is made up of thick marine clay, hence the name. While in the Clay Frisian-speaking area ditches are used to separate the pastures, in the eastern part of the province, where the soil is sandy, and water sinks away much faster, rows of trees are used to that purpose. The natural landscape in which Wâldfrysk exists mirrors The Weald and North Weald areas of south-eastern England –

903-455: The Frisian language and Westfries for the Dutch dialect). The unambiguous name used for the West Frisian language by linguists in the Netherlands is Westerlauwers Fries [ˈʋɛstərˌlʌu.ərs ˈfris] (West Lauwers Frisian), the Lauwers being a border river that separates the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen . In the early Middle Ages the Frisian lands stretched from

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946-414: The Frisian poet Gysbert Japiks (1603–1666), a schoolteacher and cantor from the city of Bolsward ( Boalsert ), who largely fathered modern West Frisian literature and orthography, was an exception to the rule. His example was not followed until the 19th century, when entire generations of Frisian authors and poets appeared. This coincided with the introduction of the so-called newer breaking system,

989-501: The Germanic k developed into a ch sound. For example, the West Frisian for cheese and church is tsiis and tsjerke , whereas in Dutch they are kaas and kerk . Modern English and Frisian on the other hand have become very divergent, largely due to wholesale Norse and French imports into English and similarly heavy Dutch and Low German influences on Frisian. One major difference between Old Frisian and modern Frisian

1032-428: The Germanic words wald and weald are cognate. Although Klaaifrysk and Wâldfrysk are mutually very easily intelligible, there are, at least to native West Frisian speakers, a few very conspicuous differences. These include the pronunciation of the words my ("me"), dy ("thee"), hy ("he"), sy ("she" or "they"), wy ("we") and by ("by"), and the diphthongs ei and aai . Of

1075-429: The area around Bruges , in what is now Belgium , to the river Weser , in northern Germany . At that time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. Today this region is sometimes referred to as "Greater Frisia " or Frisia Magna , and many of the areas within it still treasure their Frisian heritage, even though in most places the Frisian language has been lost. Old Frisian bore

1118-469: The decay of the rubbish and personal waste deposited by their inhabitants over centuries. In the Dutch province of Groningen an artificial dwelling mound is called a wierde (plural wierden ). As in Friesland, the first wierde was built around 500 BC or maybe earlier. Place names in the Frisian coastal region ending in -werd , -ward , -uert etc. refer to the fact that the village was built on an artificial dwelling mound ( wierde ). The greater part of

1161-678: The exclusive use of Dutch in the courts, caused a riot in Leeuwarden . The resulting inquiry led to the establishment of a committee of inquiry. This committee recommended that the Frisian language should receive legal status as a minority language. Subsequently, the Use of Frisian in Legal Transactions Act of 11 May 1956 was passed, which provided for the use of Frisian in transactions with the courts. Since 1956, West Frisian has an official status along with and equal to Dutch in

1204-461: The inhabitants of the province of Friesland, 55% ( c.  354,000 people ), West Frisian is the native language. In the central east, West 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 (West Frisian: Mearum ), De Wilp ( De Wylp ), and Opende ( De Grinzer Pein ). Also, many West Frisians have left their province in

1247-466: The islands are rather divergent, and Glottolog distinguishes four languages: The dialects within mainstream mainland West Frisian are all readily intelligible. Three are usually distinguished: The Súdwesthoeksk ("South Western") dialect, which is spoken in an area called de Súdwesthoeke ("the Southwest Corner"), deviates from mainstream West Frisian in that it does not adhere to

1290-520: The last 60 years for more prosperous parts of the Netherlands. Therefore, possibly as many as 150,000 West Frisian speakers live in other Dutch provinces, particularly in the urban agglomeration in the West, and in neighbouring Groningen and newly reclaimed Flevoland . A Frisian diaspora exists abroad; Friesland sent more emigrants than any other Dutch province between the Second World War and

1333-656: The north of the Netherlands , mostly by those of Frisian ancestry . It is the most widely spoken of the Frisian languages . In the study of the evolution of English , West Frisian is notable as being the most closely related foreign tongue to the various dialects of Old English spoken across the Heptarchy , these being part of the Anglo-Frisian branch of the West Germanic family. The name "West Frisian"

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1376-454: The oath in Frisian in courts anywhere in the Netherlands . Primary education in Friesland was made bilingual in 1956, which means West Frisian can be used as a teaching medium. In the same year, West Frisian became an official school subject, having been introduced to primary education as an optional extra in 1937. It was not until 1980, however, that West Frisian had the status of a required subject in primary schools, and not until 1993 that it

1419-423: The other one has Y (such as stikje and stykje ), the word with I precedes the one with Y. In handwriting, IJ (used for Dutch loanwords and personal names) is written as a single letter (see IJ (digraph) ), whereas in print the string IJ is used. In alphabetical listings IJ is most commonly considered to consist of the two letters I and J, although in dictionaries there is an entry IJ between X and Z telling

1462-484: The palpable similarity between Frisian and English is "Bread, butter and green cheese is good English and good Fries", which does not sound very different from " Brea, bûter en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk ". Another rhyme on this theme, " Bûter, brea en griene tsiis; wa't dat net sizze kin is gjin oprjochte Fries " ( example ; in English, "Butter, bread and green cheese, whoever can't say that

1505-450: The province of Friesland . It is used in many domains of Frisian society, among which are education, legislation, and administration. In 2010, some sixty public transportation ticket machines in Friesland and Groningen added a West Frisian-language option. Although in the courts of law the Dutch language is still mainly used, in the province of Friesland , Frisians have the right to give evidence in their own language. Also, they can take

1548-565: The regional dialects of the North European region. These mounds occur in the coastal parts of the Netherlands (in the provinces of Zeeland , Friesland and Groningen ), in southern parts of Denmark and in the north-western parts of Germany where, before dykes were made, floodwater interfered with daily life. These can be found especially in the region Ostfriesland and Kreis Nordfriesland in Germany. In Kreis Nordfriesland on

1591-516: The river IJssel like the one at the hamlet Kampereiland, the province Overijssel and on the former Island of Schokland in the former Zuiderzee , today the reclaimed land Noordoostpolder . Even underneath the town of Den Helder in the north of the province North Holland lies an old terp, named Het Torp. In the Dutch province of Friesland, an artificial dwelling hill is called terp (plural terpen ). Terp means "village" in Old Frisian and

1634-483: The second from 200 BC to 50 BC. In the mid-3rd century, the rise of sea level was so dramatic that the clay district was deserted, and settlers returned only around AD 400. A third terp -building period dates from AD 700 ( Old Frisian times). This ended with the coming of the dike somewhere around 1200. During the 18th and 19th centuries, many terps were destroyed to use the fertile soil they contained to fertilize farm fields. Terpen were usually well fertilized by

1677-401: The so-called newer breaking system, a prominent grammatical feature in the three other main dialects. The Noardhoeksk ("Northern") dialect, spoken in the north eastern corner of the province, does not differ much from Wood Frisian. By far the two most-widely spoken West Frisian dialects are Clay Frisian ( Klaaifrysk ) and Wood Frisian ( Wâldfrysk ). Both these names are derived from

1720-474: The two, Wâldfrysk probably has more speakers, but because the western clay area was originally the more prosperous part of the mostly agricultural province, Klaaifrysk has had the larger influence on the West Frisian standardised language. There are few if any differences in morphology or syntax among the West Frisian dialects, all of which are easily mutually intelligible , but there are slight variances in lexicon . The largest difference between

1763-442: The use of Frisian as a written language. Until the 16th century, West Frisian was widely spoken and written, but from 1500 onwards it became an almost exclusively oral language, mainly used in rural areas. This was in part due to the occupation of its stronghold, the Dutch province of Friesland ( Fryslân ), in 1498, by Albert III, Duke of Saxony , who replaced West Frisian as the language of government with Dutch. This practice

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1806-469: Was continued under the Habsburg rulers of the Netherlands ( Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor , and his son Philip II, King of Spain ). When the Netherlands became independent in 1585 , West Frisian did not regain its former status, because Holland rose as the dominant part of the Netherlands and its language, Dutch, as the dominant language in judicial, administrative and religious affairs. In this period

1849-511: Was given the same position in secondary education. In 1997, the province of Friesland officially changed its name from the Dutch form Friesland to the West Frisian Fryslân . So far 4 out of 18 municipalities ( Dantumadiel , De Fryske Marren , Noardeast-Fryslân , Súdwest-Fryslân ) have changed their official geographical names from Dutch to West Frisian. Some other municipalities, like Heerenveen and

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