Page Text: Sylt Frisian (exo. Sylterfriesisch, endo. Söl’ring)
West Sylt Frisian
Hel(i)golandic Frisian (exo. Helgoländisch, endo. Halunder)
Föhr Frisian (exo. Föhrer Friesisch, endo. Fering)
West Föhr Frisian (endo. Wesdring)
East Föhr Frisian (endo. Aasdring)
Amrum Frisian (exo. Amring, endo. Oomring)
Classification: West Frisian, East Frisian and North Frisian are language families according to the on-going research of our Foundation. North Frisian can be divided into insular and continental subfamilies. Clay Frisian and Wood Frisian, East Terschelling Frisian and West Terschelling Frisian, Hindeloopen Frisian and Molkwerum Frisian, Northern Goesharde Frisian and Central Goesharde Frisian, Föhr Frisian and Amrum Frisia belong to the larger linguistic groupings Shire Frisian (= Clay-Wood Frisian), Terschelliing Frisian, Hindeloopen-Molkwerum Frisian, Goesharde Frisian and Föhr-Amrum Frisian respectively. On a higher level, Hindeloopen-Molkwerum Frisian belongs to South Sea Frisian (Dut. Zuiderzeefries) while Shire Frisian and Terschelling Frisian belong to Shire-Terschelling Frisian. Southwest Corner Frisian ultimatley belongs to Shire-Terschelling Frisian nowadays, yet it is a South Sea Frisian-coloured language as a historical result of language shift in the Southwest Corner which saw the decline of the old South Sea Frisian and the rise of Shire Frisian in the region (a development which is also threatening Hindeloopen Frisian nowadays), thus it may be considered to belong to a separate South Sea Frisian-Shire-Terschelling grouping within the Shire-Terschelling Frisian subfamily of West Frisian. Southwest Corner Frisian is a transitional language (Dutch: overgangstaal) between proper South Sea Frisian and Shire-Terschelling Frisian. Schiermonnikoog Frisian, which has here been classified as West Frisian yet falls outside the Shire-Terschelling Frisian and South Sea Frisian groupings, is hard to classify due to possible East Frisian influences, or possibly having been originally East Frisian; while it is possible that Schiermonnikoog Frisian was originally an East Frisian language with West Frisian influences, nowadays it is practically a West Frisian language with possible East Frisian influences and therefore may as a potential mixed language or contact language be classified as East Frisian-West Frisian, which means, as West Frisian is the last in this compound, it is ultimately West Frisian. While Strand Frisian and Hallig Frisian are closely related and might have a common origin, they may be classified as Hallig-Strand Frisian. If the Schiermonnikoog Frisians are not originally East Frisian yet adopted East Frisian features, this may be explained by the liekly possibility that the Schiermonnikoog Frisians could as a sea-faring people have come into contact with the East Frisians via the Hanseatic League during the Middle Ages. Ranking by level of endangerment: We give more priority to the study, promotion and protection of a language or linguistic grouping based on its endangerment ranking. Sagelterland Frisian was the only remaining East Frisian language until we revived Wangerooge Frisian. Schiermonnikoog Frisian is without a doubt the most endangered Frisian language in the Netherlands. Föhr-Amrum Frisian is the largest Insular North Frisian grouping and Bökingharde Frisian is the largest Continental North Frisian grouping, making them both relatively the least endangered within their respective groupings. Föhr-Amrum Frisian is larger than Bökingharde Frisian, so the latter is the second largest North Frisian grouping. Goesharde Frisian is the most endangered grouping of the Continental North Frisian groupings. Wiedingharde Frisian is the 2nd least endangered Continental North Frisian grouping. Hallig Frisian is the most endangered after that. Karrharde Frisian may also be very endangered, or so I heard. I guess Karrharde Frisian might be on a similar level with Hallig Frisian and Goesharde Frisian, but I do not know its exact ranking relative to the others as of yet.
It is our life mission to learn the most endangered Frisian tongues ere they die out. We wish to keep the knowledge of these languages alive with our own efforts and we wish to transmit the knowledge of these languages to a new group of young people.
We take on language challenges to get attention for the variety of languages spoken in Europe today. The diversity of languages in Europe is a topic that is not yet frequently talked about in daily life and we wish to change that by studying and talking about these fascinating, exotic languages. We wish their voices to (still) be heard around the world!
When we learn any language, we believe that we are saving it. We never stop using a language once we have learned it. Articles written in various languages that we have learned frequently appear on our blog. We keep the knowledge of the languages alive this way.
Although we initially prioritise the living over the dead Frisian languages for practical reasons, our ultimate goal is the study of all Frisian languages, both living and dead. Therefore, after learning the 15 living Frisian languages, we will shift our attention to the deceased Frisian languages which may be well-documented or scarcely documented languages of which there are no recorded modern descendants as well as historical languages which are predecessors of living Frisian tongues that we have already familiarised ourselves with.
We do not overlook historical variants. In our estimation, they are just as much tongues as the living and deceased Frisian tongues are. It takes time to study them. Many years prior, we experienced the same while studying both 19th-century Dutch and Modern Dutch.
We wish to study all of the following 34 deceased or historical Frisian tongues:
Languages of which there is no living descendant
Tongues fragmentarily preserved in texts, vocabularies or grammars
Wangerooge Frisian Seetzenian, Ehrentrautian, Siebsian
Southern Goesharde Frisian