Anglo-Frisian languages

The Anglo-Frisian languages are the West Germanic languages which include Anglic (English and Scots) and Frisian varieties. The Northumbrian Language Society also considers Northumbrian an Anglic language.[1]

Anglo-Frisian
Geographic
distribution		Originally England, Scottish Lowlands and the North Sea coast from Friesland to Jutland; today worldwide
Linguistic classificationIndo-European
Subdivisions
Glottologangl1264
Approximate present day distribution of the Anglo-Frisian languages in Europe.

Anglic:

  English
  Scots

Frisian:

  West Frisian
  North Frisian
  Saterland Frisian
Hatched areas indicate where multilingualism is common.

The Anglo-Frisian languages are distinct from other West Germanic languages due to several sound changes: besides the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, which is present in Low German as well, Anglo-Frisian brightening and palatalization of /k/ are for the most part unique to the modern Anglo-Frisian languages:

  • English cheese and West Frisian tsiis, but Dutch kaas, Low German Kees, and German Käse
  • English church and West Frisian tsjerke, but Dutch kerk, Low German Kerk, Kark, and German Kirche

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 and Old Frisian, and the third Ingvaeonic group at the time, the ancestor of Low German Old Saxon, 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,[2] a genetic unity of the Anglo-Frisian languages beyond that of an Ingvaeonic subfamily can not be considered a majority opinion. In fact, the groupings of Ingvaeonic and West Germanic languages are highly debated, even though they rely on a lot more innovations and evidence. Some scholars consider a Proto-Anglo-Frisian language as disproven, as far as such postulates are falsifiable.[2] 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.[2][3]

Geography isolated the settlers of Great Britain from Continental Europe, except from contact with communities capable of open water navigation. This resulted in more Old Norse and Norman language influences during the development of Modern English, whereas the modern Frisian languages developed under contact with the southernly Germanic populations, restricted to the continent.

Classification

The proposed Anglo-Frisian family tree is:

Anglic languages
See also: List of dialects of English and World Englishes

Anglic,[4][5] Insular Germanic, or English languages[6][7] encompass Old English and all the linguistic varieties descended from it. These include Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English; Early Scots, Middle Scots, and Modern Scots; and the now extinct Yola and Fingallian in Ireland.

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

Proto-Old English
Northumbrian Mercian and Kentish West Saxon
Early Northern
Middle English		 Early Midland and Southeastern
Middle English		 Early Southern and Southwestern
Middle English
Early Scots Northern
Middle English		 Midland
Middle English		 Southeastern
Middle English		 Southern
Middle English		 Southwestern
Middle English
Middle Scots Northern Early Modern English Midland Early Modern English Metropolitan Early Modern English Southern Early Modern English Southwestern Early Modern English, Yola, Fingallian
Modern Scots Northern Modern English East and West Midlands Modern English Standard Modern English Southern Modern English West Country Modern English

Frisian languages
Main article: 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 in the Netherlands and Germany. West Frisian, by far the most spoken of the three, is an official language in the Dutch province of Friesland and on two of the West Frisian Islands. North Frisian is spoken in the northernmost German district of Nordfriesland, in North Frisia, and on some North Frisian Islands. The East Frisian language is spoken in Saterland in Germany.

Anglo-Frisian developments

The following is a summary of the major sound changes affecting vowels in chronological order.[8] For additional detail, see Phonological history of Old English. That these were simultaneous and in that order for all Anglo-Frisian languages is considered disproved by some scholars.[2]

  1. Backing and nasalization of West Germanic a and ā before a nasal consonant
  2. Loss of n before a spirant, resulting in lengthening and nasalization of preceding vowel
  3. Single form for present and preterite plurals
  4. A-fronting: West Germanic a, ā → æ, ǣ, even in the diphthongs ai and au (see Anglo-Frisian brightening)
  5. palatalization of Proto-Germanic *k and *g before front vowels (but not phonemicization of palatals)
  6. A-restoration: æ, ǣ → a, ā under the influence of neighboring consonants
  7. Second fronting: OE dialects (except West Saxon) and Frisian ǣ → ē
  8. A-restoration: a restored before a back vowel in the following syllable (later in the Southumbrian dialects); Frisian æu → au → Old Frisian ā/a
  9. OE breaking; in West Saxon palatal diphthongization follows
  10. i-mutation followed by syncope; Old Frisian breaking follows
  11. Phonemicization of palatals and assibilation, followed by second fronting in parts of West Mercia
  12. 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:

Language 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
English one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve
Scots[note 1] ane
ae*
yin		 twa three fower five sax seiven aicht nine ten eleiven twal
Yola oan twye dhree vour veeve zeese zeven ayght neen dhen
West Frisian ien twa trije fjouwer fiif seis sân acht njoggen tsien alve tolve
Saterland Frisian aan twäi
twäin
twoo		 träi fjauwer fieuw säks soogen oachte njugen tjoon alwen tweelich
North Frisian (Mooring dialect) iinj
ån		 tou
tuu		 trii
tra		 fjouer fiiw seeks soowen oocht nüügen tiin alwen tweelwen
Dutch een twee drie vier vijf zes zeven acht negen tien elf twaalf
German eins zwei drei vier fünf sechs sieben acht neun zehn elf zwölf

* Ae [eː], [jeː] is an adjectival form used before nouns.[9]

Words in English, Scots, West Frisian, Dutch, and German
EnglishScotsWest FrisianDutchGerman
daydaydeidagTag
rainrainreinregenRegen
alonealaneallinnealleenallein
stonestanestiensteenStein
snowsnawsniesneeuwSchnee
summersimmersimmerzomerSommer
wayweyweiwegWeg
almightyawmichtiealmachtichalmachtigallmächtig
shipshipskipschipSchiff
nailnailneilnagelNagel
oldauldâldoudalt
butterbutterbûterboterButter
cheesecheesetsiiskaasKäse
appleaipleapelappelApfel
churchkirktsjerkekerkKirche
sonsonsoanzoonSohn
doordoordoardeurTür
goodguidgoedgoedgut
forkforkfoarkevorkGabel
Forke (dated)
sibsibsibbesibbe (dated)Sippe
togetherthegithertegearresamen
tezamen		zusammen
morn(ing)morn(in)moarnmorgenMorgen
until, tilluntil, tilloanttotbis
wherewhaurwêrwaarwo
keykey[note 2]kaaisleutelSchlüssel
have been (was)wisha westben geweestbin gewesen
two sheeptwa sheeptwa skieptwee schapenzwei Schafe
havehaehawwehebbenhaben
ususúsonsuns
horsehorsehynder
hoars (rare)		paard
ros (dated)		Pferd
Ross (dated)
breadbreidbreabroodBrot
hairhairhierhaarHaar
hearthertherthartHerz
beardbeardburdbaardBart
earear, lug (colloquial)earoorOhr
greengreengriengroengrün
redreidreadroodrot
sweetsweetswietzoetsüß
throughthrou[note 3]trochdoordurch
wetweetwietnatnass
eyeeeeachoogAuge
dreamdreamdreamdroomTraum
mousemoosemûsmuisMaus
househoosehûshuisHaus
it goes onit gaes/gangs onit giet oanhet gaat doores geht weiter/los
good dayguid daygoeie (dei)goedendagguten Tag

Alternative grouping
Main article: Ingvaeonic languages

Ingvaeonic, also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that encompasses Old Frisian, Old English,[note 4] and Old Saxon.[10]

It is not thought of as a monolithic proto-language, but rather as a group of closely related dialects that underwent several areal changes in relative unison.[11]

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 which had become popular following the work of the 19th-century linguist August Schleicher and which assumed the existence of an Anglo-Frisian group.[12]

See also

Notes
  1. Depending on dialect 1. [en], [jɪn], [in], [wan], [*eː], [jeː] 2. [twɑː], [twɔː], [tweː], [twaː] 3. [θrəi], [θriː], [triː] 4. [ˈfʌu(ə)r], [fuwr] 5. [faiːv], [fɛv] 6. [saks] 7. [ˈsiːvən], [ˈseːvən], [ˈsəivən] 8. [ext], [ɛçt] 9. [nəin], [nin] 10. [tɛn].
  2. Depending on dialect [kiː] or [kəi].
  3. Depending on dialect [θruː] or [θrʌu].
  4. Also known as Anglo-Saxon.

References
  1. "History & Evolution".
  2. Stiles, Patrick (2018-08-01). "Friesische Studien II: Beiträge des Föhrer Symposiums zur Friesischen Philologie vom 7.–8. April 1994" (PDF). www.academia.edu. doi:10.1075/nss.12. Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  3. Hines, John, 1956- (2017). Frisians and their North Sea Neighbours. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 1-78744-063-X. OCLC 1013723499.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Anglic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  5. Woolf, Alex (2007). From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070. The New Edinburgh History of Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-1234-5., p. 336
  6. J. Derrick McClure Scots its range of Uses in A. J. Aitken, Tom McArthur, Languages of Scotland, W. and R. Chambers, 1979. p.27
  7. Thomas Burns McArthur, The English Languages, Cambridge University Press, 1998. p.203
  8. Fulk, Robert D. (1998). "The Chronology of Anglo-Frisian Sound Changes". In Bremmer Jr., Rolf H.; Johnston, Thomas S.B.; Vries, Oebele (eds.). Approaches to Old Frisian Philology. Amsterdam: Rodopoi. p. 185.
  9. Grant, William; Dixon, James Main (1921). Manual of Modern Scots. Cambridge: University Press. p. 105.
  10. Some include West Flemish. Cf. Bremmer (2009:22).
  11. For a full discussion of the areal changes involved and their relative chronologies, see Voyles (1992).
  12. "Friedrich Maurer (Lehrstuhl für Germanische Philologie - Linguistik)". Germanistik.uni-freiburg.de. Retrieved 2013-06-24.

Further reading
  • Maurer, Friedrich (1942). Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde (in German). Strasbourg: Hünenburg.
  • Euler, Wolfram (2013). Das Westgermanische [West Germanic: from its Emergence in the 3rd up until its Dissolution in the 7th Century CE: Analyses and Reconstruction] (in German). London/Berlin: Verlag Inspiration Un Ltd. p. 244. ISBN 978-3-9812110-7-8.
  • Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014). The Development of Old English - A Linguistic History of English. 2. Oxford: University Press. ISBN 978-0199207848.
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