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I'm Frisian!

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Being interested in my family culture, Dutch/German, etc., I have heard the name Friesland, Frisian and Friesian pop up time and again.  Firstly, I heard of the region in association with the horse breed that originates from that region, the world famous Friesians.  They are beautiful black horses that trace their origins from the forest horses found in that area.  They were used as light war horses in medieval times and today they dominate in whatever equestrian field they are put in; they are to put it simply, fancy.
The second occurrence of the name Friesland comes from playing a very nerdy but oddly educational game which taught me the ancient provincial names of Europe, the Middle east, the Mediterranean and Northern Africa.  Friesland at one point in time was a power in and of itself.  They were originally called the "Frisii" and they inhabited the coastal Netherlands as well as northwestern Germany, they even had a distinctive pottery style called "Terp Tritzum" in the 4th century.   The Romans counted them as a separate Germanic group when they defeated them, whereupon the Frisii then became serfs and were relocated to the lands of the Anglos and the Saxons, where the Franks also lived which I have talked about before *cough* Charlemagne *cough*.  So Frisians today are a mixture of those cultures, in fact many people say that the Anglo-Saxon culture should be called Anglo-Frisian.  After that time of displacement the Count of Holland became very powerful and over hundreds of years Friesland has gained and lost control of their land from Holland/ the Netherlands. Today Friesland is a region of  the northeast Netherlands.
  So that's interesting about the history but what is actually more interesting to me is the language.  The Frisians and the Anglo-Saxons were very similar, nearly identical due to their time spent together.  Which goes to say that Old Frisian is the language the most closely related to Old English.  And in turn modern English and modern Frisian are the most closely related languages, Germanically speaking : ).  Today there are 3 types of Frisian:  West, North and Saterland.  The North and the Saterland dialect (only 2,000 speakers!) of Frisian are endangered languages.
One problem for the survival of Frisian language is its similarity with Dutch ( a different language) which most Frisians also speak fluently.  This similarity makes it easier for speakers of Frisian to veer away from "correct" Frisian.   There are not many language books or written material in Frisian and the language is not regulated in the province, like Welsh for instance is in England, although it seems it is starting to be.  Frisians have a culture of their own in which their language plays the key role.  And yes it sounds much like Old English (scroll to the bottom).              
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