The Language Index
The Place for Learning about the Languages of the World
Explore
Experience the fascination of the Language Index.
Contribute
Let us build the Language Index together.
Interact
Become a member of the social networks of the Language Index.
What is the Language Index?
Have you ever wondered why foreign languages are so different from your own? Or what sounds their speakers produce? Or how they say "the big book"? Then the Language Index is for you.
The mission of the Language Index is to capture the richness of the world's languages and to make it accessible to anyone interested in science and beyond.
General Information
North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. There are two main dialectal divisions: those 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 no longer learn it. 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 and Standard German). The variety presented here is Öömrang Frisian spoken on the island of Amrum where the main language is German. The Frisian language in the Öömrang dialect is spoken by roughly a third of the population, i.e. by ca. 800 people. However, many Amrumers cannot read North Frisian (Öömrang) making Öömrang a spoken rather than a written North-Frisian dialect. Many Amrumers moreover speak Low German, since it had been the language of the coastal sailors. Only a few people speak the Danish language.
Typological Details
Family Membership
- Indo-European
- Germanic
- West-Germanic
- Germanic
Parameters
| Syntactic: | SOV, SVO, Prepositions, Adjective - Noun |
| Morphological: | Little Affixation, Weakly Suffixing |
| Phonological: | Rounded Front Vowels |
| Miscellaneous: | Decimal System |
| Status: | Endangered |
Speaker
| Name: | Jens Q. |
| Age: | 55 |
| Community: | Wittdün, Amrum |
| Occupation: | Publicist, Manager |
| National Ancestry: | Frisian |
| Year Interviewed: | 2008 |
Play a welcome message spoken by Jens Q.:
Morphology and Syntax
The examples below document the strong fusional character of North Frisian as well as the use of SVO in main and of SOV in subordinate clauses.
A Complex Passage
The speaker tells the story 'The Northwind and the Sun'.
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger,
Iar strääd ham nuurdwinj an san, hoker van biale-n wel stark-er wjar,
Once argued REFL North.wind and sun, which of both-DAT really strong-COMPR was,
when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.
üs en waanersmaan, diar en warm-en auerrock uum-hed, loongs a wai kam.
when a wanderer, who a warm-ACC coat on-had, along the way came.
They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off
So wurd ianag, dat de a stark-er wees skul, wat de waanersmaan twing küd,
They were agreed, that that the strong-er be shall, that the wanderer force could
should be considered stronger than the other. The North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more
san auerrock uf to-tjien. A nuurdwinj blooset mä al sin maacht, man a hard-er
his coat off to-take. The North.wind blew with all his strength, but the hard-COMPR
he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last
he blooset, a fääst-er wolet de waanersmaan ham uun san rok. To leetst
he blew, the tight-COMPR wrapped the wanderer REFL in his coat. At last
the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly,
ded a nuurdwinj de stridj up. Nu waremt a san a loft mä hör frinjelh strual-er,
gave the North.wind the strife up. Now warmed the Sun the air with her friendly beam-PL
and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.
an al after flook uuge-n blak-er toog de waanersmaan san auerrok uf.
and all after few eye-PL blink-PL took the wanderer his coat off.
And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
Diar moos a nuurdwinj tujiw, dat a san faan biale-n a stark-er wjar.
Thus must the North.wind confess, that the Sun of both-DAT the strong-COMPR was.
The Numbers
- Digits and numbers from one to twelve are specific words (see above)
- From thirteen to nineteen, the numbers are formed from the matching digits, adding the word for ten (tiin) at the end, e.g. fiiwtiin [15.
- Tens are formed by adding the suffix -ti at the end of the multiplier digit, e.g., fifti [50], seeksti [60], etc.
- From twenty-one to ninety-nine, tens and units are joined with the word an (and), but in reverse order, as the unit is said before the ten (e.g.: iananfifti [51].
Monophthongs
Diphthongs
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar |
Retro- flex |
Alveolo-Palatal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyn- geal |
Glottal | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tap or Flap | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Affrikate | ʧ | ʨ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | ç | ʝ | x | h | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral Fricative | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Approximant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Pictures
Writing System
- Phonographic 0) { showWritingSystemHierarchy($level - 1, false); } // if ?>
Since Öömrang Frisian is a spoken rather than a written variety of North Frisian, there is disagreement among Öömrang speakers about how to write this variety.
Here is a generalized alphabet of North Frisian (adapted from www.omniglot.com):
Contributors
Contributors to this VLC Language Index entry:
- Linguistic Authoring:
- Jürgen Handke (VLC Project Manager)
- Jens Quedens (Öömrang Ferian)
- Design: Alexander Sperl (VLC Chief Designer) and Sara J. Nere (VLC Student Assistant)
- Database Management and Access: Peter Franke (VLC Database Programmer)
- Multimedia Programming: Jürgen Handke (VLC Project Manager)
- Audio Engineering: Jürgen Handke
- Recorded at Wittdün/Amrum, July 2008, Quedens Bookshop
- Speaker: Jens Quedens (Öömrang Ferian)
- Literature:
- Wurm, 2001: status