Old Frisian text from 1345 In the
Early Middle Ages the Frisian lands stretched from 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 Great Frisia or Frisia Magna, and many of the areas within it still treasure their Frisian heritage, even though in most places the Frisian languages have been lost. Frisian is the language most closely related to
English and
Scots, but after at least five hundred years of being subject to the influence of
Dutch, modern Frisian in some aspects bears a greater similarity to Dutch than to English; one must also take into account the centuries-long drift of English away from Frisian. Thus the two languages have become less mutually intelligible over time, partly due to the influence which Dutch and
Low German have had on Frisian, and partly due to the vast influence some languages (in particular
Norman French) have had on English throughout the centuries.
Old Frisian, One rhyme demonstrates the palpable similarity between Frisian and English: "Butter, bread and green cheese is good English and good Frisian," which is pronounced more or less the same in both languages (West Frisian: "Bûter, brea en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk.") One major difference between Old Frisian and modern Frisian is that in the Old Frisian period ()
grammatical cases still existed. 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, all these texts are restricted to legalistic writings. Although the earliest definite written examples of Frisian are from approximately the 9th century, there are a few examples of
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 transition from the Old Frisian to the Middle Frisian period (c.1550-c.1820) in the 16th century is based on the fairly abrupt halt in the use of Frisian as a written language.
Middle West Frisian Up until the 15th century, Frisian was a language 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. Afterwards this practice was continued under the
Habsburg rulers of the Netherlands (the German Emperor
Charles V and his son, the Spanish King
Philip II), and even when the Netherlands became independent, in 1585, West Frisian did not regain its former status. The reason for this was the rise of
Holland as the dominant part of the Netherlands, and its language, Dutch, as the dominant language in judicial, administrative and religious affairs. In this period the great Frisian poet
Gysbert Japiks (1603–66), a schoolteacher and
cantor from the city of
Bolsward, who largely fathered modern West Frisian literature and orthography, was really an exception to the rule. His example was not followed until the 19th century, when entire generations of West Frisian authors and poets appeared. This coincided with the introduction of the so-called newer
breaking system, a prominent grammatical feature in almost all West Frisian dialects, with the notable exception of Southwest Frisian. Therefore, the Modern West Frisian period is considered to have begun at this point in time, around 1820.
Modern West Frisian The revival of the West Frisian Language was led by the poet
Gysbert Japiks, who had begun to write in the language as a way to show that it was possible, and created a collective West Frisian identity and West Frisian standard of writing through his poetry. The compiled literary work of
the Halbertsma brothers (Joost,
Tjalling, and
Eeltje),
Rimen en Teltsjes, is regarded as the standard Frisian literary work. This had begun the effort to continuously preserve the West Frisian language, which continues unto this day. It was however not until the first half of the 20th century that the West Frisian revival movement began to gain strength, not only through its language, but also through its culture and history, supporting singing and acting in West Frisian in order to facilitate West Frisian speaking. It is especially written West Frisian that seems to have trouble surviving, with only 30% of the West Frisian population competent in it; ==Sample texts==