The cind of Atheist I am.

[Puddleglum]

HI Mate.

presumably you aren't actually Dutch at all but Frys

Frys is the closest language to English. It s linguitsically closer to English than Modern Nederlands

[Fryslân]

Yo are absolutly right mate! Did my name give it away a little? I am actually Frisian and the language we speak is quite similar to old English indeed. The language is called "Frysk" pronounced as "Freesk" in English but with the "rolling R". All though over the decades, it has been modernized. The language actually contains German (see Ost Friesland, use to be a part of Fryslân) and some scandinavian words got lost in it. So i guess it would be an old celtic lauguage of some sort. How did you find this out or why? haha you suprized me a bit

[Puddleglum]

In English the Language is called Friesian. It is not part of the Celtic Language group and bears no Celtic markers.

Friesian is Part of the Germanic langauge group - The Germanic Langauge group is broken into serval parts, some have died out but there are 3 main branches - North germanic - Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, 'new' Norwegian and Swedish, east germanic ,which is now extinct and West Germanic.

West Germanic has 3 distinct parts -there are technical terms for these but for simplicity they are The 'german' sub group (Modern german, Yiddish Swiss-German etc) The Dutch Subgrouo (Dutch, Limbuurgse and Afrikaans) and the North Sea Sub Group (English, Friesian, Lallans (which is the langauge of Southern Scotland as spoken by Robert Burns) and Plaats (the Language of the Ems region of Germany).

Friesian is therefore more similar to English than it is to Dutch , indeed the local dialects of some parts of Norfolk in the east of England can be understood by friesan speakers with no trouble whatsoever.
You are the same people as the people in South-east England

[Fryslân]

Thanks for your info. Celtic was the wrong word for me to use. But our history goes way back. It is even said the Frisians landed on England soil long before the Viking did. If you are really interested try and look up "Grutte Pier". He was a brute like a Viking. Also the Vikings and the Frisians were an alience at some point. I don't know if you can find this info on the internet, but there is a lot of information about this, wich all the children get tought in high school. It's a part of our culture and many Frisians are verry verry pround of what our ancestors did. We even had a Frisian political party a couple of years ago called "Fryslân Frei" wich stood for the independance of Friesland. But obveously didn't pull through.
I think it's quite amazing seeing what we've lost in wars that the laguage even still exists. This is why many Frisians are so pround. Most of them remind me of the southern American people in how patriotic they are and you really better not mess with most of the diehards. But it's great here. And yes, it is different to the rest of the Netherlands in a sence that it's the only part of the Netherlands that has it's own bit of culture.

[Puddleglum]

Not quite true. There is the southern ' Limburgse' Dialect from Maastricht which has a distinct Identity as well.

the Friesians landed 300 years at least before the Vikings did. They came first as Mercenaries under Hengist and Horsa in the early 5th century whilst the Vikings didn't arrive until about 800

[Fryslân]

Not quite true. There is the southern ' Limburgse' Dialect from Maastricht which has a distinct Identity as well.

the Friesians landed 300 years at least before the Vikings did. They came first as Mercenaries under Hengist and Horsa in the early 5th century whilst the Vikings didn't arrive until about 800

Well, Limburgs now a days is a mixture of German, Belgium and Dutch. But the laguage isn't taught in schools like they teach Frisian. Also it is not reconized as an official laguage by the goverments, where Frisian is. I'm not proving you wrong. In my oppinion it is a separate language because what they speak isn't Dutch nor German nor Belgian therefore a language. But it isn't reconized as one. Like you said, it's a dialect. But if every dialect would become a language we would have loads in the Netherlands.

Tell you something funny though. Do you know where Tipton is? It's near Birmingham/Dudly in the west midlands. In The Tipton dialect sounds so much like Frisian it's unbelievable. I know it's also know for "The Lost City" but still, quite amazing people there!

[Puddleglum]

there is no real definition of what the difference between a dialect and a language is. A Language has often been referred to as a dialect with an army. Scandanavian languages are mutually intelligible but Chinese 'dialects ' are not. When Scandinavians talk to each other they just use their own languages

The Scots Glaswegian dialect is incomprehensible to most English speakers..really its a separate language called 'lallans'

[Fryslân]

I think you´ll find Liburgs more of a dialect then a language if you understand it. Cause I do understand it and it doesn´t give me the feeling that I can´t understand a word thei´re saying. Unlike other languages.

[Puddleglum]

But Swedes understand Norwegians and they are classed as languages. There is no clear line.

[Fryslân]

But Swedes understand Norwegians and they are classed as languages. There is no clear line.

No it's the same as a southern Englishman speaking to a northern Englishman. Thats how much Limburgs is the same to Dutch. They just have some different words and a dialect. Where Frisian has a different word for every other word. And there is a pretty clear line between Norwegian and Swedish. Most Dutch understand and/or speak German, it's because we're neighbours. Same with Swe and NW. This is probably the reason why most English don't speak another language. Because you don't realy have "neighbours" exept for the Welsh that speak another language. Even if they do they still speak English anyway. And probably because almost every other country around England speaks English because it's an easy language to learn.