West Frisian (Frysk) is an autochthonous minority language, which is spoken by approximately 450,000 people in the Dutch province of Fryslân/Friesland. The language belongs to the Frisian sub-branch of the West-Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. The closest related languages are North Frisian with circa 10,000 speakers and Sater Frisian as the sole remaining part of East Frisian with circa 2000 speakers. Together the three language form the Frisian language group, that together with English forms the North Sea group of the West-Germanic languages.
The Province of Fryslân has about 647,000 inhabitants, and circa 450,000 of them speak Frisian. According to a survey by the Province of Fryslân (2007: De Fryske Taalatlas), 94% of the inhabitants of Friesland understand Frisian, 74% can speak the language, 75% of the inhabitants can read Frisian and 26% can write it. More than half of the inhabitants indicated that Frisian is their mother tongue. The first written documents – old Frisian legislation – are from the 12th century.
In the 16th century Dutch became the official language and replaced Frisian in many areas. Since the 19th century Frisian gradually regained its position as official language in administration, education and in court.
In the town a special form of Frisian developed, the so-called Town Frisian (Stedsk).
West Frisians in Netherlands (450.000 Speaker)