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Frisian

Frisian

Summary

Frisian languages, spoken by approximately 480,000 people, are primarily used in the Netherlands and parts of Germany. As part of the Indo-European language family, Frisian is very closely related to English and uses the Latin alphabet. Its free word order and rich vowel system make it phonetically distinctive. Frisian culture celebrates a vibrant tradition of poetry, storytelling, and regional festivals, keeping its linguistic heritage alive amidst pressures from larger languages like Dutch and German. (We used Standard West Frisian as a grammatical reference).

Stats

  • Language Family: Indo-European

  • Writing System: Latin

  • Writing System Type: Alphabet

  • Writing Direction: Left to Right

  • Tones / Pitch Accent: None

  • Morphology: Fusional

  • Cases: 0

  • Grammatical Gender / Noun Class: 2

  • Number of Verb Tenses: 2

  • Word Order: Free

  • Number of Vowels (Monophthongs): 19

  • Number of Consonants: 20

Areas Where Spoken

  • Germany (0.01%) (12 k)

  • Netherlands (2.6%) (470 k)

Resources

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