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The Anglo-Frisian languages are the group of West Germanic languages that includes Anglic (or English) and Frisian.

Linguistic classification Indo-European
Glottolog angl1264[1]

Anglic (or English):



Hatched areas indicate where multilingualism is common.

The Anglo-Frisian languages are distinguished from other West Germanic languages by several sound changes: the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, Anglo-Frisian brightening, and palatalization of /k/:


The early Anglo-Frisian and Old Saxon speech communities lived close enough together to form a linguistic crossroads which is why they share some of the traits otherwise only typical of Anglo-Frisian languages.[2] However, despite their common origins, English and Frisian have become very divergent, largely due to the heavy Old Norse and Norman French influences on Modern English and similarly heavy Dutch and Low German influences on Modern Frisian. The result is that Frisian now has a great deal in common with Dutch and the adjacent Low German dialects, bringing it into the East Germanic dialect continuum, whereas English has stronger North Germanic and Romance influences than the languages on the mainland.



The Anglo-Frisian family tree is:

Anglo-Frisian developmentsEdit

The following is a summary of the major sound changes affecting vowels in chronological order.[3] For additional detail, see Phonological history of Old English.

  3. The present and preterite plurals reduced to a single form
  9. OE breaking; in West Saxon palatal diphthongization follows
  12. Smoothing and back mutation


Numbers in Anglo-Frisian languagesEdit

These are the words for the numbers one to ten in the Anglo-Frisian languages:

Language 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
English one two three four five six seven eight nine ten
Scots[4] ane
twa three fower five sax seiven aicht nine ten
Yola oan twye dhree vour veeve zeese zeven ayght neen dhen
West Frisian ien twa trije fjouwer fiif seis sân acht njoggen tsien
Saterland Frisian aan twäi
träi fjauwer fieuw säks soogen oachte njugen tjoon
North Frisian (Mooring dialect) iinj
fjouer fiiw seeks soowen oocht nüügen tiin

* Ae /eː/, /jeː/ is the adjectival form used before nouns.[5]

Words in English, West Frisian, Dutch and GermanEdit

English West Frisian Dutch German
day dei dag Tag
rain rein regen Regen
way wei weg Weg
nail neil nagel Nagel
butter bûter boter Butter
cheese tsiis kaas Käse
church tsjerke kerk Kirche
door doar deur Tür
fork foarke vork Gabel
sibling[note 1] sibbe sibbe (dated) Sippe
together tegearre samen
morn(ing) moarn morgen Morgen
until oant tot bis
key kaai sleutel Schlüssel
have been (was) ha west ben geweest bin gewesen
two sheep twa skiep twee schapen zwei Schafe
have hawwe hebben haben
us ús ons uns
horse hynder paard
ros (dated)
Ross (dated)
bread brea brood Brot
hair hier haar Haar
ear ear oor Ohr
green grien groen Grün
sweet swiet zoet süß
through troch door durch
wet wiet nat nass
eye each oog Auge
dream dream droom Traum
it goes on it giet oan het gaat door es geht weiter/los

Alternative groupingEdit

Ingvaeonic, also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that comprises Old Frisian, Old English[6] and Old Saxon.[7]



See alsoEdit




  2. ^ The German linguist Friedrich Maurer rejected Anglo-Frisian as a historical subdivision of the Germanic languages. Instead, he proposed North Sea Germanic or Ingvaeonic, a common ancestor of Old Frisian, Old English and Old Saxon.
  3. ^ Robert D. Fulk, “The Chronology of Anglo-Frisian Sound Changes”, Approaches to Old Frisian Philology, eds., Rolf H. Bremmer Jr., Thomas S.B. Johnston, and Oebele Vries (Amsterdam: Rodopoi, 1998), 185.
  4. ^ Depending on dialect 1. en, jɪn, in, wan *e:, je: 2. twɑ:, twɔ:, twe:, twa: 3. θrəi, θri:, tri: 4. 'fʌu(ə)r, fuwr 5. fai:v, fɛv 6. saks 7. 'si:vən, 'se:vən, 'səivən 8. ext, ɛçt 9. nəin, nin 10. tɛn
  5. ^ Grant, William; Dixon, James Main (1921) Manual of Modern Scots. Cambridge, University Press. p.105
  6. ^ Also known as Anglo-Saxon.
  7. ^ Some include West Flemish. Cf. Bremmer (2009:22).

Further readingEdit

  • Friedrich Maurer (1942), Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde, Strasbourg: Hünenburg.
  • Wolfram Euler (2013), Das Westgermanische [subtitle missing] (West Germanic: from its Emergence in the 3rd up until its Dissolution in the 7th Century CE: Analyses and Reconstruction). 244 p., in German with English summary, Verlag Inspiration Un Ltd., London/Berlin, ISBN 978-3-9812110-7-8.