The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.
SIL code: FRR
ISO 639-2: gem
| Population | 10,000 speakers out of 60,000 population (1976 Stephens). Language of the home for 10,000 (1977 SIL). |
| Region | Schleswig-Holstein, on the coastal strip between the rivers Eider in the south and Wiedau in the north, and adjacent islands of Föhr, Amrum, Sylt, Norstrand, Pellworm, the ten islands of the Halligen group, and Helgoland. |
| Alternate names | NORDFRIESISCH |
| Dialects | MOORINGER (MOORINGA, MAINLAND FRISIAN), FERRING (FOHR-AMRUM), SÖLRENG (SYLT), HELGOLAND. |
| Classification | Indo-European, Germanic, West, Frisian. |
| Comments | The first 3 dialects listed are different enough that more than one set of literature would be needed. Ferring dialect is actively used. Not intelligible to Eastern Frisian of Germany or Western Frisian of the Netherlands except to a few educated bilingual speakers of West Frisian. Mooringer has 70% lexical similarity with Standard German, 55% with English, 66% with Eastern Frisian; Föhr has 69% with Standard German, 62% with English, 68% with Western Frisian, 73% with Eastern Frisian, 86% with Mooringer, 91% with Amrum; Sylt has 64% with Standard German, 61% with English, 79% with Mooringer, 85% with Föhr. Standard German, Low Saxon, and some English are used as second languages, but fluency is limited. Few children speakers. The Sölreng dialect is nearly extinct. There is ethnic pride, efforts to revive Frisian literature and bilingual education. Education is in Standard German only. Business and church services in German. Investigation needed: intelligibility with 3 dialects, BLN German, Low Saxon. Grammar. Literacy rate in first language: Few read Frisian. Bible portions 1954. |
