This is really cool. The part where you are reading in English but then accidentally say "world war" in Frisian is a great little example of how similar the languages truly are :) Thanks for posting!

If you wanna see something intresting about the relation between Frisian and English this might be of intrest to you: Check Germanic languages on wiki and then the Diachronic. There you will see that the Frisian Language is in fact directly related to English. I'm proud to say that I'm Frisian, sadly enough due to the not common use of Frisian, I forgot how to write in Frisian. Will study it again when I have the time, cause the language must not die! Fryslân Boppe! As we say in Frisia.

Jo Frysk is baasommen! It docht my sear goed dit soart fideo's oan te treffen. Moai sa troch gean! Tige tank!

As a proud member of the tribe, my sincerest thanks for and complements on this introduction. Though you're clearly not a native speaker, you pronounced the vowels quite well, particularly the longer and presumably unfamiliar 'ien', 'oan', and 'ân'. The historical climax of the Frisians may lie 1300 years back, but the cultural and linguistic ties around the North Sea remain clearly visible: imho Frisian speakers are better equipped than most to reach fluency in any of the surrounding languages.

I can not believe your MIDWESTERN accent is that good. Yours is a true linguistic gift. So jealous!

Sorry, i'm frysian. I've been in South-africa, had a excursian where they asked us to speak English or Afrikaner. We asked them to do the Afrikaner. We understood everything! But.... it was like 'old' Dutch. Not frisian. Old Frisian is very related to old English. Also north of Germany (Schleswig holstein) and south of Denmark (so not Danish!)

Excellent job, Alexander! - Some people in this thread criticise your pronounciation of (West) Frisian. I guess that is pretty unfair and unjustified. Your pronounciation is great indeed. I learned a lot about your pronounciation abilities from watching your Danish language video. Absolutely amazing! - Alexander, do yourself a favour and DON'T switch from the source language to English word by word, but rather read a complete sentence in the source language and THEN translate it into English. - Kind regards from Berlin, D (GER native, ENG, DUT, AFR, DAN, NOR, SWE translator) Ei-got-Mehl-zwei

I bought a Frisian Book on Amazon. With my German knowledge as a English speaker I understood almost the entire book. But sometimes it would take a while to move past a sentence lol. But I'm confident without the German knowledge a English speaker should be able to understand a lot of Frisian

I'm from East-Frisia in Germany and this Frisian dialect sounds like somthing between swedish and low german dialect. I speak East-Frisian Low German, High Standard German, English and French. My second name is "de Vries". And my family settled over centuries in East-Frisia, Ammerland near the Saterland, where people speak Sater-Frisian. I don't speak Dutch or Frisian, but I understand every word in Frisian and Dutch, because I have experience in speaking Low German, High German and English. But I believe the Sater-Frisian dialect of my area is more close with English, than Frisian in the Netherlands. But it's only a feeling. Old English is close to Frisian, not the Modern English! Dutch is also more close to some East-Frisian Low German/ Saxon dialects. The dutch province Gronningen were first more Low German. Low German were influenced by the in High German translated Bible of Martin Luther. The Lutherian protestants in the Netherlands spoken Low German and many East-Frisian people, called "Hollandgänger"/ "Frieslandgänger"were working immigrants after the 30 years war. The dutch language were first established as the official language in the 80 years war in the Netherlands . The 80 years war in the Netherlands and the 30 years war in Germany ended together in 1648 with the aggreements of the "Westfälischer Frieden". The dutch people spoken Low German/ Saxon, West-Frisian and Dutch before and in the war times in the Netherlands. The Sater-Frisian is the closest language with the Old English, because the Anglo-Saxons and Frisians, who went to England, spoken a familar language. The West-Frisian language or better Frisian is only a dialect, that was influenced by the vikings and evolved in the time when the Frisians settled in England. When the Frisians went back on the continent to Friesland/ Netherlands (West-Frisia) Frisian was the more dominant dialect than Old Frisian or Sater-Frisian.

Very nice video. For everyone who still has questions about Frisian being Dutch dialect or something like that, here is the one and only explanation: Frisian has nothing to do with Dutch. The only reason why there are people who think it's a part of the Dutch language, is because the Dutch claimed the Frisian land and called us all together 'The Netherlands'. But it used to be two seperate countries, in which Frisia was much much bigger.

What is amazing, is that without focussing on the words, the moment he opened to the page I was easily taking in the whole and recognizing English - hard to describe, but I can easily see English words in there and can understand much of what is on that page. DNA studies have also shown Frisian DNA and Southern English DNA to be almost indiscernable. Frisians are certainly our genetic and cultural cousins.

too bad more Anglophones have no clue what Frisian is.

I don't know if this is answering your question, but I read somewhere online today that Frisian is the closest minor language related to English and Dutch is the closest major language related to English. So Frisian is more like English than Dutch, but it's not as widely used as Dutch. Dutch is a lot like English too since it is Germanic. I'm probably just pointing out the obvious, but I hope I answered your question somewhat.

I'm Frisian and i'm proud of it

I heard that frisian was the most closely related language to english, I wanted to see how close. I also thought dutch sounded alot like english too, dutch or frisian both sound like good beachhead languages to learn then move on to other languages like german, or the romance languages.

cool i had a frisian ancestor and was trying to find out what the heck a frisian is lol

I concur. Frislan is an amazing country. I went sailing to Oosterzee with some Dutch friends, and it was a breath-taking experience.

Very well translated :) Just a small thing: "leden" (3rd line) is not "leaders", but "members", just like in Dutch. "ien fan de nybeneamde leden": one of the newly named members

I study Dutch, German and English, which are all quite similar. At the same time Swedish is similar to English and Frisian and of course Dutch and German have both a very close relationship each other too.

His English accent is goofy too! I'm interested in studying Frisian. Any suggestions?

whoa never heard a English/American man spoke Frisian, you do it quite well :p

My main language is frisian i always speak it.

I can hear modern English in the Frisian language definitely.

@thepeterlong It's more accurate to call it a 1st cousin of modern English. Both are directly descended from the Angles and Saxons. It's not completely inaccurate to think of Frisian as English without most of the French influences from the Norman invasion.

Ik woon in Friesland en ik ben al heel wat mensen tegengekomen die niet eens Nederlands kunnen, of heel gebrekkig, dat is echt zielig.

My parents actualy live on the Ype Poortinga street in the town of Rinsumageest, where he was born. Its realy fun to watch this.

Proud to be from Fryslan,......Fryslan Boppe, Well done Alexander

Hi I'm not sure, because I do not speak Frisian but Dutch, but I think that your translation of 'wittenskiplike ynstelling' as 'scholarly conference' is wrong. I think that those are loanwords from Dutch 'wetenschappelijke instelling', meaning 'scientific institution'. What do you think?

It looked like ad a bit of trouble with translating that word "ferneamdste"? This is the first page of Frisian I have ever seen but looking at context clues I was able to determine it meant something like foremost.

Just found this channel what a great way of showing a language. I would time stamp all the whole sentence through reads if I had the time - just to hear it more as a seamless whole.

I find this so interesting. How the language is written looks something like old english, but with different vocabulary.

Sounds closer to English than Old English; apparently this is the closest existing language to modern English there is?

Fascinating stuff! Thanks so much for the introduction! :-)

When you translate the text the similarity between English and Frisian becomes more clear, judging by the composition of sentences and some of the vocabulary.

im frisian. his pronouncation is cataclismic lol. but not bad for someone who isnt frisian

I remember playing a KZfaq video of Frisian group Twarres singing ' Wer Bisto ' , my kids were on another computer and eventually came over and remarked that the song sounded nice but could I put the English version back on . They took a bit of convincing that there was no English version. My point is that Frisian can sound very like English , in particular the 'y' sounds.

Alle Germaanske talen hawwe hun oarsprong yn súd Skandinavië en binne úteinlik yndie dialekten fan it saneamde proto-Germaansk. Se binne úteinlik sa folle feroare dat se aparte talen wurde binnen. De groep minsken út Skandinavië dy't de noardwestkust befolkten wien de Ingvaeoonen, út it Ingvaeoonsk is letter ûnder oaren it Frysk ûntstien.

When you read the first words it sounded like Icelandic XD

Also, there are hundreds of types of Frisian. In every little village they speak something else. Not that it makes such a big difference, but it's there. And in the "Eastern" part of Fryslan they mix it up with Gronings. (Note, I do not mean Oost Friesland, which is in Germany) Like where I go to school to, it has lots of Gronings in it. And it's relatively easy to understand if you're from the North of Holland. But it remains kind of hard, you ask me.

Very comprehensive from this short demonstration, I was even able to translate the cover tittle from the book, having never studied it prior to your introductory reading! I should like to know more.

Interesting video. Does the textbook have an ISBN # on it that can be looked up?

Good job! I noticed I cannot place links here, but search for cornelis van der wal. On my weblog you can find an audiobook where I read my latest poetry, in Frisian of course.

this language interests the hell out of me for some reason. anyone know where i could learn this? being online or whatever. thanks Awesome11991

Actually the closest language to English is Scots though it has gone under increased anglisation. It can also go by the names of “braid Scots”, “Lallans” and includes many dialects such as Doric and Teri. Here is an extract: “His mither Mary wis trystit til Joseph, but afore they war mairriet she wis fund tae be wi bairn bi the Halie Spírit”

yes we know, but in some parts or people (like the elders) still speak Frisian. On school we must speak standard Dutch. In Friesland they've also got Frisian as an extra language, beside Dutch, English or any other world language.

@ChrissyboyH44, Frisian already exist before Dutch and German became two seperate languages. In Hanseatic times, traders from Amsterdam could use their language anywhere in Northern Germany (Low German). Frisian was already mentioned as a language during the very first crusade.

I can't find Bûter, brea en griene tsiis : tekstboek by de grammofoanplatekursus Frysk online, where did you get yours?

Reading and writing Frisian is quite hard. I'm a Frisian myself and even I have issues with it. ;) But then again, there are many kind of variations of this language.

6:45 "the close relationSHEEP" lol

@ChrissyboyH44 if i remember correctly, it is an isolation from 7th century English

Omg it sounds like a Scottish person trying to talk with a burned tongue 😂😂😂.

Thank you for posting this. It's the language of my grampa and gramma.

This was a really neat video sir.

@Hitononasubi Yeah, all of the Nordic languages do. Norwegian, Swedish and Danish all use the en and et, then there is also the feminine a/i. Faroese and Icelandic use inn and ið, I believe.

Frisian is the closest language to English.

Are you sure the "y" is pronounced like "i?" I'm frisian and we pronounce it as "e". Though there are different dialect.

This is incredible. Thank you for all of your videos, they are very interesting. You are quite intelligent!

Very interesting! He said that 'leden' means leaders but it actually means members, but he later corrected it to participants which is okay :) And at the end he names the capital of Fryslân, Ljouwert, which is a city full of dutch people who dislike the Frisian language and who would rather build a fence around the city.

I love the way you say "red carpet treatment"

Frisian is still spoken by a lot of people. Frisian (west frisian) is the language whose spoken in Friesland (Fryslân) but a lot of dutch people come to Friesland and dont learn the language, a lot of Frisian people are leaving Friesland and adapt to another language.

@cunobelinusX31 Scots also speak Scots, which is a Germanic language most similar to middle English and derived from its Northumbrian dialect along with Norwegian and Dutch. I know I guy who speaks it and knowing Norwegian and a bit of Middle English it took me at least 4 months to fully comprehend him. Other than that your history is spot on according to texts.

I live in an area where quite a few older people STILL speak Frisian! Maybe a good reason to learn it?

@46746 : Yes, that sounds plausible to me; how well have you researched It ? Were dialects of it spoken by Celts, Vikings, Saksen ( = Saxons ?).

@nanagedons how did it happen that people lost contact between tribes in Britain and Frisia? its no so far.

I hear that language more close to Old English is Frisian is this true?

I don't know where you are from, but Frisian phonology is definitely much closer to English. I don't believe that you're able to speak any Frisian, but Frisian has 32 vowels and can approximate all English vowels, contrary to Dutch, which has only 16 vowels. Frisian has also one or two consonants more.

isn't it pronounced like Frees-ee-an?

It sounds better than when Dutch people try to do Frisian. Probably because Frisian is closely related to English and more distantly related from Dutch :P

Well, local dialect of an island of Schiermonnikoog is a mix consisting one of the "dutch" Frisian dialects (Westerlauwers Fries), one of the "dutch" Low Saxon dialects (Gronnings) and some fractions of... Old English and Danish! And they easily get each other!

Anyone know how I could get my hands on a copy of Bûter, Brea en Griene Tsiis? Search results are sparse...

you forgot to say this is Westfrisian, there are also Frisian languages in Germany - Saterfrisian(which is the last eastfrisian language spoke only in a village) and Northfrisian which is spoke in the German part of west-Jutland

@SuperScout123 No. Look at the video ''Old English''of ProfASAr .

Interesting video, I'm currently studying Dutch and I plan to move onto German in a couple months' time. I have a newfound interest in both Afrikaans and Frisian and I think it only makes sense to learn them if I already know English, Dutch, and German. Does anyone roughly know the time required to learn either after already knowing Dutch, English, and German. Thanks

I am Frisian hihi Frysk is een taal, gjin dialect... It is wol echt hilarisch om oan te hjerren haha :) Eigenlik binne der hiele folle ''soorten'' Frysk. Te folle om te leren!! doeidoeii

Frisian kinda looks like Afrikaans but sounds like Gaelic.

They're closely related, Frisian is for the most part from around the far north coastline and the Netherlands if I'm not mistaken.

@RedmerJ Don't mind the Dutch people, we Flemmings believe Frisian is a different language, cause it is!! How do you mean it's older?

Frisian is believed to be one of the first or maybe the first languages of the world, and definitely all the germanic languages started with Frisian. That's why it's closely related to English and can you hear similar things to Dutch, Danish, German and Norwegian and those. :P

@xXDominoXx Actually it is the closest, my linguistics prof said it has closer grammar than german. It is the closest language to English

I've read that Old Frisian was very similar to Old English, and that Frisian is "cladistically" speaking more closely related to English than is Dutch. That is, the ancestral language of English and Frisian broke away from the ancestor of Dutch before then breaking apart into Old Frisian and Old English. Later Frisian has been so influenced by Dutch that it appears similar to Dutch at first glance.

Road signs arent necessarily in Frisian, because those words are simmilar to the dutch ones, but village names have both a Frisian version as well as a dutch version, for example: Dutch: Menaldum Frisian: Menaam. Or: Dutch: heerenveen Frisian: It jearrenfean.

My oldest ancestors from the 1200's came from Ostfriesland, so this is one language I really want to learn =)

Ime a Frisian. AND I LAUGHED AMAZINGLY HEARD!! Its just very funny the way he speaks the words. Maby you could try to say this with a frisian accent, bet you cant!!! Ik ha fanemôrn noch net mýn ýten hân, dêrom ýt ik s'middys wat ekstra, om toch wat binne te kinne kryen. Fryske hynders ha lange, swate sokken, dyt gauw yne knoop sitte. Mar allinich een echte dwerskop sit 'se mei een boarstel út te kammen!!! Please tell me about how do you think about this, is it comepletely strankge or is it kinda familiar?

I think you're also forgetting that Dutch has had a large Frisian influence. In the early middle ages Frisian was spoken as far south as Brugge. Currently Frisian is spoken in one province and some outlying areas, and there are several dialects of it spoken as well: f.e. West Fries, Tessels, etc. And then we haven't even touched on the other dialects spoken in East and North Friesland and in Sonderjylland

Ide like to learn it because it sounds awsome!

Did you do a video on Plattdeutsch? (Low German). And what do you know about Cajun French and Cajun English (Bougalie)?

it happened longer than over the past hundred years;during the Old Frisian era it was never used as a written language;only Dutch was thus the Dutch influence on Frisian dates back quite a far time.

Anyone got a link to the book? I can't find it for the life of me.

It sounds more like swedisch than frisian I think. But It's pretty impressive that you know so many languages!

@Duuggie Frisian doenst come from English, its actually the opposite

@stiffex Well, I've done some comparisons (not real in depth, but okay), when I was designing a conlang based on Old English and Old Frisian. They are almost identical. Middle English-??Middle Frisian??(No clue which form of Frisian was spoken at that time) would have evolved to be a little more separate, but still would be similar. Then we have Modern English and Modern Frisian. While a Modern English speak can't really understand Modern Frisian, they still sound VERY similar.

@ChrissyboyH44 : I had a father with Frisian ancestry and a wife of Danish ancestry, and I've regularly come across Dutch and German, and yes, I have to agree with you. There is a similarity with the sound of Gaelic as well, I think.

Well, local dialect of an island of Schiermonnikoog is a mix consisting one of the "dutch" Frisian dialects (Westerlauwers Fries), one of the "dutch" Low Saxon dialects (Gronnings) and some fractions of... Old English and Danish!

Guys,where to find Frisian study books in english?Do they exist at all?

Does anyone know a book where I could learn Frisian ?

Hey :) just wondering, do people in Friesland actively speak Frysk to one another or is it spoken mainly by older generations or indoors amongst Frisian families? Are road signs in Frisian or Dutch? Just curious

Hi! Could you post Portuguese and Czech languages?

Those accents in front of the e's and t's arent really accents, but replacements for letters we left away.

One group I'd say is English and Frisian and the other one Dutch and German.

Verra gweed videos yer maaken ma Freen! Lang Meiy Yer Lum Reek!! Gordon