The Anglo-Frisian languages are the Anglic (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

, Scots, and Yola) and Frisian varieties of the West Germanic languages. The Anglo-Frisian languages are distinct from other West Germanic languages due to several sound changes: besides the

Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law In historical linguistics, the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law (also called the Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic nasal spirant law) is a description of a phonological development that occurred in the Ingvaeonic dialects of the West Germanic lan ...

, which is present in Low German as well, Anglo-Frisian brightening and palatalization of are for the most part unique to the modern Anglo-Frisian languages: * English ''cheese'', Scots ' and West Frisian ', but Dutch ', Low German ', and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

' * English ''church'', and West Frisian ', but Dutch ', Low German ', ', and German ', though Scots ' * English ''sheep'', Scots ' and West Frisian ', but Dutch (pl. ), Low German , German (pl. ) The grouping is usually implied as a separate branch in regards to the tree model. According to this reading, English and Frisian would have had a proximal ancestral form in common that no other attested group shares. The early Anglo-Frisian varieties, like

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

and Old Frisian, and the third Ingvaeonic group at the time, the ancestor of Low German

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). I ...

, were spoken by intercommunicating populations. While this has been cited as a reason for a few traits exclusively shared by Old Saxon and either Old English or Old Frisian, a genetic unity of the Anglo-Frisian languages beyond that of an Ingvaeonic subfamily cannot be considered a majority opinion. In fact, the groupings of Ingvaeonic and West Germanic languages are highly debated, even though they rely on much more innovations and evidence. Some scholars consider a Proto-Anglo-Frisian language as disproven, as far as such postulates are falsifiable. Nevertheless, the close ties and strong similarities between the Anglic and the Frisian grouping are part of the scientific consensus. Therefore, the concept of Anglo-Frisian languages can be useful and is today employed without these implications. Geography isolated the settlers of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

from Continental Europe, except from contact with communities capable of open water navigation. This resulted in more

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

and Norman language influences during the development of Modern English, whereas the modern Frisian languages developed under contact with the southern Germanic populations, restricted to the continent.

Classification

The proposed Anglo-Frisian family tree is: *Anglo-Frisian ** Anglic ***

**** Northumbrian and

Cumbrian The Cumberland dialect is a local Northern English dialect in decline, spoken in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands, not to be confused with the area's extinct Celtic language, Cumbric. Some parts of Cumbria have a mo ...

(see the article about the Humber-Lune Line) *** Scots **** Insular Scots **** Northern Scots **** Central Scots **** Southern Scots ****

Doric Scots Doric, the popular name for Mid Northern Scots or Northeast Scots, refers to the Scots language as spoken in the northeast of Scotland. There is an extensive body of literature, mostly poetry, ballads, and songs, written in Doric. In some liter ...

**** Ulster Scots *** Yola *** Fingalian (extinct) ** Frisian *** West Frisian *** East Frisian **** Saterland Frisian (last remaining dialect of East Frisian) *** North Frisian

Anglic languages

Anglic, Insular Germanic, or English languages encompass

and all the linguistic varieties descended from it. These include

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old Englis ...

, Early Modern English, and Modern English; Early Scots, Middle Scots, and Modern Scots; Yola; and the extinct Fingallian in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. English-based creole languages are not generally included, as mainly only their lexicon and not necessarily their grammar, phonology, etc. comes from

Modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

and Early Modern English.

Frisian languages

The Frisian languages are a group of languages spoken by about 500,000 Frisian people on the southern fringes of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. West Frisian, by far the most spoken of the three main branches, constitutes an official language in the Dutch

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

. North Frisian is spoken on some North Frisian Islands and parts of mainland North Frisia in the northernmost

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

of Nordfriesland, and also in

Heligoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possession ...

in the German Bight, both part of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

state (Heligoland is part of its mainland district of Pinneberg). The

East Frisian language East Frisian is one of the Frisian languages. Its last surviving dialect is spoken in Saterland in Germany. There were once two main dialects, ''Ems'' and ''Weser''. Weser, including the Wursten and Wangerooge dialects, held out until the 20t ...

is spoken in

Saterland Saterland (; Saterland Frisian: , ) is a municipality in the district of Cloppenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated between the cities of Leer, Cloppenburg, and Oldenburg. It is home to Saterland Frisians, who speak Frisian in add ...

in Germany.

Anglo-Frisian developments

The following is a summary of the major sound changes affecting vowels in chronological order. For additional detail, see

Phonological history of Old English The phonological system of the Old English language underwent many changes during the period of its existence. These included a number of vowel shifts, and the palatalisation of velar consonants in many positions. For historical developm ...

. That these were simultaneous and in that order for all Anglo-Frisian languages is considered disproved by some scholars. # Backing and nasalization of West Germanic ''a'' and ''ā'' before a nasal consonant # Loss of ''n'' before a spirant, resulting in lengthening and

nasalization In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is . In the Internation ...

of preceding vowel # Single form for present and preterite plurals # ''A-fronting'': West Germanic ''a'', ''ā'' > ''æ'', ''ǣ'', even in the diphthongs ''ai'' and ''au'' (see Anglo-Frisian brightening) # palatalization of

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...

and before front vowels (but not phonemicization of palatals) # ''A-restoration'': ''æ'', ''ǣ'' > ''a'', ''ā'' under the influence of neighboring consonants # ''Second fronting'': OE dialects (except

West Saxon West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

) and Frisian ''ǣ'' > ''ē'' # ''A-restoration'': ''a'' restored before a back vowel in the following syllable (later in the

Southumbrian The Southumbrians or 'Suðanhymbre' were the Anglo-Saxon people occupying northern Mercia. The term might not have been used by the Mercians and was instead possibly coined by the Deiran or Bernician people as a territorial response to their own ...

dialects); Frisian ''æu'' > ''au'' > Old Frisian ''ā''/''a'' # OE breaking; in West Saxon palatal diphthongization follows # ''i''-mutation followed by syncope; Old Frisian breaking follows # Phonemicization of palatals and assibilation, followed by second fronting in parts of West Mercia # Smoothing and back mutation

Comparisons

Numbers in Anglo-Frisian languages

These are the words for the numbers one to 12 in the Anglo-Frisian languages, with Dutch and German included for comparison: * ''Ae'' , is an adjectival form used before nouns.

Words in English, Scots, Yola, West Frisian, Dutch, and German

Alternative grouping

Ingvaeonic, also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that encompasses

Old Frisian Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Fries ...

,Also known as ''Anglo-Saxon''. and

. It is not thought of as a monolithic

proto-language In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unattes ...

, but rather as a group of closely related dialects that underwent several areal changes in relative unison. The grouping was first proposed in ''Nordgermanen und Alemannen'' (1942) by the German linguist and philologist Friedrich Maurer (1898–1984), as an alternative to the strict tree diagrams that had become popular following the work of the 19th-century linguist August Schleicher and which assumed the existence of an Anglo-Frisian group.

Classification

Anglic languages

Frisian languages

Anglo-Frisian developments

Comparisons

Numbers in Anglo-Frisian languages

Words in English, Scots, Yola, West Frisian, Dutch, and German

Alternative grouping

See also

Notes

References

Further reading