sunds like afrikaans im an afrikaaner myself so it was easier to understand than dutch and flemish a bit weird but quite similar. Also they speak slower and pronounce clearer than both of the 2 and we use the same accents in our respective dutch dialects
Please don't put up false information. Frisian is NOT part German, Dutch and English, but a seperate Germanic language that is older than those three languages. It is the other way around, English was influenced by Frisian and the old versions of both languages were very similar.
Close your eyes and listen carefully. You''d be amazed at how similar everything sounds. I wonder if this is how people who don't speak English think we sound. I've always wondered.
Frisian and English are twin sisters in that both developed from the same language and a variation of the language travelled to Great Britain in 1066 and evolved into Old English, which eventually developed into the English we speak today. If a variation of Frisian did not cross the English Channel to Great Britain, this is the language we would be speaking today.
Frisian is part English, Dutch, and German spoken in Friesland (formerly) which is part of Germany, NW, and Holland, NE. Many Americans are decendants of Frisians who moved here.
I'm learning Dutch now, don't really like the harsh "g" sound, but I really like the way Frisian sounds. Makes me imagine this is very close to the sound of Old English.
sounds pretty. I only speak English. sadly though, this is as close as I will come to knowing to true beauty of the English sound. I wander if it is possible to move to a non-germanic country, speak somthing else and forget english. then come back and see what it sounds like. dam how sad is my curiosity. I think im gonna try this
@Gilmourist Try listening to this song. Many non-native English speakers have told me that this is what English sounded like to them before they learned it. YouTube -> /watch?v=FcUi6UEQh00
It is a mix of all Germanic languages, even Scandinavian 'influences' can be found. It's obvious influenced by Dutch lately but linguistic it's closest related to English. 'Dream, bring, ride, bite, hear, seine, boat, it, as, swim, him, swan, loft, side, bean etc' are Frisian words. Close are 'dea' (death), tegearre (together), skeep (sheep), fiel (feel), plúm (plume), reid (reed), hawwe (have), weet (wheat) and many, many others ;-).
* The Frisian languages, a closely related group of three Germanic languages:
o West Frisian language (fy), spoken in the Netherlands and often known there simply as the Frisian language o Saterland Frisian (frs) or East Frisian language, spoken in Lower Saxony, Germany o North Frisian language (frr), spoken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
* East Frisian Low Saxon, the West Low German dialect of East Frisia, Lower Saxony, Germany
does Frisian have a strong " g" pronunciation like in Dutch, for example, the " g" in the name " Van Gogh"?? I don't like that strong throat sound in Dutch, in this video it seems that they don't make that harsh throat "g" sound.
@Cybopath "But I do and I couldn't understand a word." - Right? A lovely language. I doubted sometimes that Scots is a true, full, language, but I'm starting to lean towards the independent language side now, though the dialect vs. language issue is still apparently debatable. It seems far too divergent to be a mere dialect; plus, it branched off from the tree a very, very long ago time, no? Yes, yes, it must be a true language, not just a politically fluffed-up dialect. Don't let it die out!
Yea I understand what you meant, like to me all Scandinavian languages sound the same. I do believe that it is fluffed up to dialect for political reasons as if you keep the Idea that Scots is just a Dialect (Improper) of English then you keep up the idea that Scotland is 'just' a region of Britain.
@Cybopath Oh, I don't believe that it's improper English (or the other thing you said). I actually detest such ideals of sociolectical supremacy. This even extends to how American English speakers call Black English (also known as African American Vernacular) just improper English. Yes, there's a standard for AE, but Black English is a dialect; it's not better or worse, just perceived as worse... Anyways, let's keep talking via inbox. I don't have enough room in these text boxes anyway.
Being fluent in both German and English, I didn't understand very much of this the first time around. However, I'm sure if I was able to compare a written transcript with the spoken language it would be a different story. The sounds themselves were for my ears alot like those found in English, moreso than in German, which sounds much harsher. Or can a Frisian say "Das ist schwierig auszusprechen" with any less difficulty than a native speaker of English?
Okay, auf Friesisch it's much easier than all those harsh consonants. I'm assuming the pronunciation is similar to Dutch, like "út" being somewhere between "out" and "uit".
Everybody craps on about how the English language is the stranger of the germanic language community, But I bet my bottom dollar that native english speakers could learn frisian just as easily if not quicker than continental germanic peoples. At a theoretical level, structurally and in written form, English and Frisian are like identicle twins. Mainly because english and frisian employ silent letters, casing etc
Well,I love Frisian ( try to learn it with the few books I have on it and the sites available)but you should also take a look at Northumbrian (and Scots and Cumbrian),they are languages,too,sisters of English as well,not dialects,as mainstream scholar want them to be.
english is a "stranger" to the german families (east branch of Western germanic), and scandinavia (east germanic), but Frisian and English are sisters -- i know i'm preaching to the choir
Doesn't matter. English is not a romance language. Its structure did not come from Latin. There are many Latin based cognates, but there are also quite a few that are from Greek words! does this mean it is also a Hellenic language as well? no. the language descended from the same language that all other Germanic languages descended from. Spanish and Portuguese have a ton of Arabic influence. Are they Semitic languages because the Moors occupied the Hispanic peninsula? No.
actually they are a result of perisans(caucasian) and hungarians(uralic and altaic asian) mixing together, same with slavs i speculate, we don't know how the languages were born but it's an assumption.
Accoriding to maps during the emergance of slavic and german.....
spaniards like you also have mongoloid blood, the mongoloid-ish visigoths took spain, then muslims took it , then , french people are mixed german too so they got mongolized too... ancient rome was sacked by german invaders, pretty much all of europe had a taste of mongoloid blood, a big taste, like in basque, it's close to turkic langages , since where is nona dago, in turkish where is ner ede, the words are close-ish, proving that even spain is mongolized , but not the language :P
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Germanic languages are barbarian, aside from English because English has a lot of French and Latin words and that makes English the only nice sounding Germanic language and sophisticated. This is a fact.
There is no scientifid linguistic truth in the term "barbarian" appllied to a language(or a culture) but I do believe in ethical values,of course.
By the way,I´m Brazilian and love germanic languages,specially the softer ones.English "r" and it´s evolution has actually softened even the harsh latin words which entered it and standard north-american is the softest of all germanic dialects so far,that´s the truth.
Update: When I posted a year ago, I only had enough understanding of this to just know what was going on but missed many of the details. After simply fine-tuning my ears to the Frisian "accent" from teaching myself Frisian, I get a majority of the details here. The thing about English and Frisian mutual intelligibility is that they're like Spanish and Portuguese, where the speakers can understand each other fairly well if they speak in a slow, controlled manner but miss things if they talk fast
As a native English speaker , it is hard to fully understand the notion of 'mutual intelligibility-simply because English has become so far removed from its cousins. West Frsian is supposedly the twin sister of English, but when one listens to it on youtube one comes to the conclusion that he or she cant make out sweet FA .
'Brea, butter en gren chieese' may be good English and good frise but thats where it ends, try the 'scots' language for a mutual inteligibility trip
The Normans weren't "French" as we know it now. They were Nordic descendants who had taken over the North of France.
In any case, if you concentrate and think laterally, you can comprehend bits of what is said in this video. Frisian has been influenced by Dutch a lot. But Dutch, Frisian, and English have a lot in common anyway.
Yes , this is true, yet the continental germanic countries conveniently forget this when they mock our latin influences.
I am a white australian, 80% anglo 20% german from a grandfather, yet I know that my paternal decentants were jutes, owning to my last name, some hopefully I don't have a touch of latin in me!
Well, I am part latin (Italian) and other parts of my family haven't been researched properly, but there are rumours they weren't all north European. Doesn't bother me. I'm looking at this whole Frisian thing from a linguistic POV. "Mixing the blood" is generally considered a healthy thing, in the field of genetics at least.
heheh, what you really want to say, and what we all want to say is that our genetic purity (blonde, blue eyes) and our germanic language has been corrupted by brown eyed, black haired latin types !
I think so,too.I´m highly mixed,have a blond aunt (that´s typical in Brazil) and,though I love germanic peoples and their languages,I loath Nazism deeply.
Germania, germanic,,,these are ancient terms refering to a time and place before the current geo-political climate. Germanic or germania simp,y refers to the proto culture and language of the germanic tribes of northern europe. When we talk about germnaic countries, we mean scandinavia (not finland), germany, the netherlands, england and Austria. Only two of those germanic countries embraced the NAZIS..the others were fighting them . Germanic, Germanic, terms not related to 2009 geo map
@RNB6190 You make it sound like there's something wrong with being a National Socialist...Do you have anything against communists? You should, but I bet you don't. Heil Hitler, great video.
Unfortunately,maybe only a bit more,as linguistic evolution changes languages a lot,but I think Anglo-Saxon would sound much nicer.I wish we could get more from Northumbrian and Scots on the web,too,it´s closer sisters in the Islands.
Hadn't the French-speaking Normans invaded England....all depends on that battle at Hastings. Ever since English has gradually shifted from Germanic to French (Latin-derived). It would be great to figure out a fully Germanic country closer in roots to Dutch and Northern German,I think it would have led to a series of mutually intelligible dialects. Yes, I do believe history could have followed a different path without William the Conqueror.
regardless of the french influence on english, it remains a germanic language. the only thing that would make it a romance language is if it were to have descended directly from latin, or if it had been a pidgin of a latin language and something else.
that being said, i find Frisian to be an "easy to listen to" language. it doesn't have the tonal rhythm of the nordic languages, and is not as "harsh" as german or dutch.
acutally many teachers of mine tried to tell us that english was half a romance and half a germanic language, which is absolute nonsense and makes me quite angry every time i hear it :)
Tell them that the other Germanic languages have also had Romance influence and ask them if German, Dutch, and Frisian are also half Romance language for borrowing loanwords out of French and Latin.
One weird talent of mine is being able to understand something English-like by taking it apart word by word (especially written), think what English word it's probably like, think of it in that context, and decide that's what the word means. Of course, I didn't have a great understanding of this video, but I did get a very basic comprehension. Still, tougher to understand than even Middle English, but easier than Old English.
Amazingly, I'm not that great at learning other languages.
Yyeah, actually, Frisian has held out pretty well. English has a vocabulary primarily made up of anglicized Latin derivitives. Even though 80 percent of the most commonly used words in English have Germanic roots. On another note, Flemish and Dutch are not the same. You get someone speaking really informal Dutch and really informal Flemish and you're gonna have a few problems. However what's learn in school in both Flanders and the Netherlands is kind of like Hochdeutsch for German...
I can understand a bit, but unfortunately only the heavy germanic roots which English lost... I guess, given the lack of resources for learning Frisian on the net, that the only way into languages like this is to take the 'back door' (aka Dutch)
People are depressed about not being able to understand this video, but never mind. It may be because of colloquial pronunciation. I watched the documentary series "Mongrel Nation" on Discovery Channel, presented by Eddie Izzard, which was about immigration into Britain over about the last 2,000 years. There was a section about the Frisian language. Eddie Izzard had a crash course in basic Old English, then used this vocabulary to buy a cow from a Frisian farmer.Has anyone got a copy?
thats really interesting, if it wasnt for the norman invasion i bet English speakers could probably understand this and perhaps even dutch in the 21st century
to those curious the normans, who spoke old french, set up their own people to be nobility in England after the invasion in 1066 so the nobility spoke norman french while the peasants still spoke old english, by the late 15th century the two had merged to form the the first stages of early modern english which Shakespeare would write in
If you think you can understand Spanish better, what you're getting is false intelligibility because of the heavy exposure to the Spanish accent and the introduction of Spanish words into the American English lexicon. Your ears are entirely untrained to Frisian, but even a little exposure to it, or even Middle English (which at first sounds like gibberish to most who hear it at first, like with the Canterbury Tales recitation) will allow you to easily hear Frisian as a "dialect" of English.
i thought english and frisian were mutually intelligble. i thought americans, canadians and english people cojld say..."yeah i understand Frisian" STUPID FLANDERS...yeah i know its Flemish spoken in Flanders, not Frisian...get a life, Loser
Yeah it is disappointing that it's not fully intelligible. But it is fun to watch. They just sound like us, don't ya reckon? I heard only one phoneme foreign to my native language and that was the tapped 'r' like in spanish 'gRacias' that we can ALL do (even though some CLAIM otherwise).
And he says 'and' exactly the same as i would, that's the spin-out.
But of course we weren't gonna be able to understand it, English and Frisian haven't lived together for about 1000 years, more even. Do you know what English has been through all that time. It's travelled the world and back, but Frisian has just hung out there on it's islands, bossed about by Dutch for the last millenium.
Ok rephrasing what i last said I can understand a lot and I only speak English lol
cheeveka3 2 weeks ago
Can't understand a lot of that that's crazy cause I only speak english lol
cheeveka3 2 weeks ago
Hmm, it sounds to me very much like dutch, but less guttural, kinda like Flemish but then it also sounds a little bit like British English at times.
Kreloar 4 months ago
this does sound like english! did that lady in pink say "54" at 0:15!?
& that guy sounded like he said "and get that back" around 0:40!
MyMonkeylover123 8 months ago
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MyMonkeylover123 8 months ago
Frisian is supposed to be related with (old) English...
Plastrio 8 months ago
sunds like afrikaans im an afrikaaner myself so it was easier to understand than dutch and flemish a bit weird but quite similar. Also they speak slower and pronounce clearer than both of the 2 and we use the same accents in our respective dutch dialects
alexveeuk 8 months ago
@BCboy65
Please don't put up false information. Frisian is NOT part German, Dutch and English, but a seperate Germanic language that is older than those three languages. It is the other way around, English was influenced by Frisian and the old versions of both languages were very similar.
Sydebern 9 months ago
sounds like scottish
Bregowald 9 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Close your eyes and listen carefully. You''d be amazed at how similar everything sounds. I wonder if this is how people who don't speak English think we sound. I've always wondered.
Ricalloo 10 months ago
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Ricalloo 10 months ago
Good luck with that! Let me know if I can help out with anything.
tseadbruinja 10 months ago
I got a small research on Old Frisian and Germanic languages today. ^^
huyendieutr 10 months ago
It does sound a lot like Scots or English, in terms of the pronunciation.
LinkK2B 10 months ago
Frisian and English are twin sisters in that both developed from the same language and a variation of the language travelled to Great Britain in 1066 and evolved into Old English, which eventually developed into the English we speak today. If a variation of Frisian did not cross the English Channel to Great Britain, this is the language we would be speaking today.
themafia306 1 year ago
Frisian is part English, Dutch, and German spoken in Friesland (formerly) which is part of Germany, NW, and Holland, NE. Many Americans are decendants of Frisians who moved here.
BCboy65 1 year ago
I'm learning Dutch now, don't really like the harsh "g" sound, but I really like the way Frisian sounds. Makes me imagine this is very close to the sound of Old English.
Nice vid, thanks!
CodaJohnPaul 1 year ago
I came here after reading that Frisian is the second closest language to English after Scots and it does sound very similar.
Gareth2Jones 1 year ago
sounds pretty. I only speak English. sadly though, this is as close as I will come to knowing to true beauty of the English sound. I wander if it is possible to move to a non-germanic country, speak somthing else and forget english. then come back and see what it sounds like. dam how sad is my curiosity. I think im gonna try this
Gilmourist 1 year ago 16
@Gilmourist I don't remember ever thinking English sounded pretty... sorry.
MrLuisc7 1 year ago
@Gilmourist Try listening to this song. Many non-native English speakers have told me that this is what English sounded like to them before they learned it. YouTube -> /watch?v=FcUi6UEQh00
EquidemDico 11 months ago
@Gilmourist Check out: Prisencolinensinainciusol. Youtube It!
60708 6 months ago
my japanese friends thought this was english
mamushi72sai5575 1 year ago 2
I'd like to see this video with English subtitles.
ajs41 1 year ago 2
To me, it sounds like German and English mixed up together. It's very pretty.
taffy2003 2 years ago
actually, it sounds alot like dutch to me.
thecritiquevirtuoso 2 years ago
It is a mix of all Germanic languages, even Scandinavian 'influences' can be found. It's obvious influenced by Dutch lately but linguistic it's closest related to English. 'Dream, bring, ride, bite, hear, seine, boat, it, as, swim, him, swan, loft, side, bean etc' are Frisian words. Close are 'dea' (death), tegearre (together), skeep (sheep), fiel (feel), plúm (plume), reid (reed), hawwe (have), weet (wheat) and many, many others ;-).
Sel1R 2 years ago
It does, but so do many languages.
tseadbruinja 2 years ago
What a beautiful sounding language. It seems very... Mountainous in its' rhythm to me.
CannibalWyrm 1 year ago
Yeah I knew it was a language, but doesn't Frisian come in a wide variety of dialects?
ajoajoajoaj 2 years ago
From Wikipedia:
* The Frisian languages, a closely related group of three Germanic languages:
o West Frisian language (fy), spoken in the Netherlands and often known there simply as the Frisian language o Saterland Frisian (frs) or East Frisian language, spoken in Lower Saxony, Germany o North Frisian language (frr), spoken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
* East Frisian Low Saxon, the West Low German dialect of East Frisia, Lower Saxony, Germany
123pelerin 2 years ago
It's a language and it's spoken in the Northern part of the Netherlands.
tseadbruinja 2 years ago
@tseadbruinja
does Frisian have a strong " g" pronunciation like in Dutch, for example, the " g" in the name " Van Gogh"?? I don't like that strong throat sound in Dutch, in this video it seems that they don't make that harsh throat "g" sound.
lightsky587 1 year ago
Which dialect is this?
ajoajoajoaj 2 years ago
Sounds a lot like Scots to me.
ajoajoajoaj 2 years ago 11
@ajoajoajoaj That's what I thought, but I heard enough German words and Dutch sounds to make me doubt.
tenhirankei 1 year ago
@ajoajoajoaj i bet they are like the scots of NL
colenbrak 11 months ago
@ajoajoajoaj It's Much much closer to English than anything, which is odd because I can't understand a word of it.
chodaboy51500 6 months ago
@ajoajoajoaj
I can sort of understand that if you didn't speak Scots this is what it may sound like. But A dae an A coudnae unnerston yin wird.
Cybopath 6 months ago
@Cybopath "But I do and I couldn't understand a word." - Right? A lovely language. I doubted sometimes that Scots is a true, full, language, but I'm starting to lean towards the independent language side now, though the dialect vs. language issue is still apparently debatable. It seems far too divergent to be a mere dialect; plus, it branched off from the tree a very, very long ago time, no? Yes, yes, it must be a true language, not just a politically fluffed-up dialect. Don't let it die out!
phr4nk3rd00d13 4 months ago
@phr4nk3rd00d13
Yea I understand what you meant, like to me all Scandinavian languages sound the same. I do believe that it is fluffed up to dialect for political reasons as if you keep the Idea that Scots is just a Dialect (Improper) of English then you keep up the idea that Scotland is 'just' a region of Britain.
Cybopath 4 months ago
@Cybopath Oh, I don't believe that it's improper English (or the other thing you said). I actually detest such ideals of sociolectical supremacy. This even extends to how American English speakers call Black English (also known as African American Vernacular) just improper English. Yes, there's a standard for AE, but Black English is a dialect; it's not better or worse, just perceived as worse... Anyways, let's keep talking via inbox. I don't have enough room in these text boxes anyway.
phr4nk3rd00d13 4 months ago 2
@phr4nk3rd00d13
Eng. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog
Sco. The swipper broon tod lowpt o'er the cauldrife dug
Ger. Der schnelle braune Fuchs sprang über den faulen Hund
Dut. De snelle bruine vos sprong over de luie hond
Afri. Die vinnige bruin jakkals spring oor die lui hond
Dan. Den hurtige brune ræv hoppede over den dovne hund
Nor. Den raske brune reven hoppet over lat hund
Sw. Den snabba bruna räven hoppade över den lata hunden
Cybopath 4 months ago 2
Being fluent in both German and English, I didn't understand very much of this the first time around. However, I'm sure if I was able to compare a written transcript with the spoken language it would be a different story. The sounds themselves were for my ears alot like those found in English, moreso than in German, which sounds much harsher. Or can a Frisian say "Das ist schwierig auszusprechen" with any less difficulty than a native speaker of English?
MeinnameistDreck 2 years ago
Auf Friesisch, that would be:
Dat is dreech om út te sprekken.
tseadbruinja 2 years ago
Okay, auf Friesisch it's much easier than all those harsh consonants. I'm assuming the pronunciation is similar to Dutch, like "út" being somewhere between "out" and "uit".
Thanks for the reply!
MeinnameistDreck 2 years ago
ú is more like the u in the french duré
tseadbruinja 2 years ago
It's a pleasure listening to this video, I would love to learn Frisian.
baddave62 2 years ago 2
Everybody craps on about how the English language is the stranger of the germanic language community, But I bet my bottom dollar that native english speakers could learn frisian just as easily if not quicker than continental germanic peoples. At a theoretical level, structurally and in written form, English and Frisian are like identicle twins. Mainly because english and frisian employ silent letters, casing etc
folkard84 2 years ago 2
Well,I love Frisian ( try to learn it with the few books I have on it and the sites available)but you should also take a look at Northumbrian (and Scots and Cumbrian),they are languages,too,sisters of English as well,not dialects,as mainstream scholar want them to be.
Gwynsek 2 years ago 2
english is a "stranger" to the german families (east branch of Western germanic), and scandinavia (east germanic), but Frisian and English are sisters -- i know i'm preaching to the choir
123pelerin 2 years ago
I thought Scandinavian languages were North Germanic?
musubi69 2 years ago
you're completely right--i don't know why i said that :)
123pelerin 2 years ago
@musubi69
They are ;p.
MorrisMerkx 9 months ago
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CueWunAye 1 year ago
@CueWunAye - "No its not." What is not? Sorry I didnt understand you
123pelerin 1 year ago
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CueWunAye 1 year ago
People are forgetting that britain was part of the Roman Empire before anglo saxons took over!
rday18 2 years ago
Doesn't matter. English is not a romance language. Its structure did not come from Latin. There are many Latin based cognates, but there are also quite a few that are from Greek words! does this mean it is also a Hellenic language as well? no. the language descended from the same language that all other Germanic languages descended from. Spanish and Portuguese have a ton of Arabic influence. Are they Semitic languages because the Moors occupied the Hispanic peninsula? No.
jdheinold 2 years ago 4
Was there a significant Frisian presence among proto-Afrikaners in South Africa? This sounds much more like Afrikaans than Dutch to me.
Lewis1711 2 years ago
I'm Frisian too but there are different dialects of Frisian. I always talk very different Frisian.
GoodLegoInventions 2 years ago
Frisians sound like Geordies.
AidanMclaren 2 years ago
French is nasal as well idiot.
And that's not a Germanic language.
NeoFalcon69 2 years ago
fuck english is tooooo romanized, i can't understand their big german words !!
fuck!
papasmurfXXX 2 years ago
germanic peoples are not european, they have mongoloid (asiatic) blood.
pterodactilo 2 years ago
actually they are a result of perisans(caucasian) and hungarians(uralic and altaic asian) mixing together, same with slavs i speculate, we don't know how the languages were born but it's an assumption.
Accoriding to maps during the emergance of slavic and german.....
papasmurfXXX 2 years ago
spaniards like you also have mongoloid blood, the mongoloid-ish visigoths took spain, then muslims took it , then , french people are mixed german too so they got mongolized too... ancient rome was sacked by german invaders, pretty much all of europe had a taste of mongoloid blood, a big taste, like in basque, it's close to turkic langages , since where is nona dago, in turkish where is ner ede, the words are close-ish, proving that even spain is mongolized , but not the language :P
papasmurfXXX 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Germanic languages are barbarian, aside from English because English has a lot of French and Latin words and that makes English the only nice sounding Germanic language and sophisticated. This is a fact.
pterodactilo 2 years ago
Comment removed
folkard84 2 years ago
There is no scientifid linguistic truth in the term "barbarian" appllied to a language(or a culture) but I do believe in ethical values,of course.
By the way,I´m Brazilian and love germanic languages,specially the softer ones.English "r" and it´s evolution has actually softened even the harsh latin words which entered it and standard north-american is the softest of all germanic dialects so far,that´s the truth.
Gwynsek 2 years ago
No, this is only your opinion represented as fact. English is not the nicest sounding Germanic language. THere are others.
MeinnameistDreck 2 years ago 2
This sounds so much like Swiss German! Ahhhhhh!
ToastMuncher2 2 years ago
Update: When I posted a year ago, I only had enough understanding of this to just know what was going on but missed many of the details. After simply fine-tuning my ears to the Frisian "accent" from teaching myself Frisian, I get a majority of the details here. The thing about English and Frisian mutual intelligibility is that they're like Spanish and Portuguese, where the speakers can understand each other fairly well if they speak in a slow, controlled manner but miss things if they talk fast
MVillani1985 2 years ago 2
Comment removed
folkard84 2 years ago
As a native English speaker , it is hard to fully understand the notion of 'mutual intelligibility-simply because English has become so far removed from its cousins. West Frsian is supposedly the twin sister of English, but when one listens to it on youtube one comes to the conclusion that he or she cant make out sweet FA .
'Brea, butter en gren chieese' may be good English and good frise but thats where it ends, try the 'scots' language for a mutual inteligibility trip
folkard84 2 years ago 3
I really wish the Normans would have just strayed away!. Our mother tougne English has been diluted from its germanic purity.
If it wasn't for the F'ing French, we'd have mutual intelligibility with this unique anglo language!!...... Hahaha, we are ' British', not European.
French are Latin, ie in the same class as the southern italians, spanish greek etc (eww YUCK!)
We'd be classed as a nordic country if it wasnt for the fucking french!!!
folkard84 2 years ago
The Normans weren't "French" as we know it now. They were Nordic descendants who had taken over the North of France.
In any case, if you concentrate and think laterally, you can comprehend bits of what is said in this video. Frisian has been influenced by Dutch a lot. But Dutch, Frisian, and English have a lot in common anyway.
leeroy77 2 years ago
Yes , this is true, yet the continental germanic countries conveniently forget this when they mock our latin influences.
I am a white australian, 80% anglo 20% german from a grandfather, yet I know that my paternal decentants were jutes, owning to my last name, some hopefully I don't have a touch of latin in me!
folkard84 2 years ago
Well, I am part latin (Italian) and other parts of my family haven't been researched properly, but there are rumours they weren't all north European. Doesn't bother me. I'm looking at this whole Frisian thing from a linguistic POV. "Mixing the blood" is generally considered a healthy thing, in the field of genetics at least.
leeroy77 2 years ago 2
You do relise you geogthaci location and where the anglo saxons came from. Oh yeah germany
rday18 2 years ago
It's a shame English speakers lost their Germanic roots... If English hadn't lost that, we would most likely be able to understand more of this. =/
RNB6190 2 years ago
heheh, what you really want to say, and what we all want to say is that our genetic purity (blonde, blue eyes) and our germanic language has been corrupted by brown eyed, black haired latin types !
folkard84 2 years ago
Woah... no that's not what I think. There is nothing wrong with the Latin peoples. There is nothing superior about Germanic people.
As a matter of fact, I'm half Chinese, half Irish, and I love who I am. I cherish the part of me that isn't Celtic/Germanic a whole lot.
It's a shame English hadn't stayed "pure", but that doesn't give you the right to bash the Latin peoples... You sound a bit Nazi, to be honest.
RNB6190 2 years ago 3
I think so,too.I´m highly mixed,have a blond aunt (that´s typical in Brazil) and,though I love germanic peoples and their languages,I loath Nazism deeply.
Gwynsek 2 years ago
Germania, germanic,,,these are ancient terms refering to a time and place before the current geo-political climate. Germanic or germania simp,y refers to the proto culture and language of the germanic tribes of northern europe. When we talk about germnaic countries, we mean scandinavia (not finland), germany, the netherlands, england and Austria. Only two of those germanic countries embraced the NAZIS..the others were fighting them . Germanic, Germanic, terms not related to 2009 geo map
folkard84 2 years ago
I know,don´t worry about it! I love the peoples who speak germanic languaes,they are great!
Nazism could have happened to any people, just need to remember the almost total genocide of the tustsies by the Hutus.
I just used the term because in linguistic terms,they are called germanic languages up to this day,a branch of the indo-european languages.
I just criticized the racist comment of the other guy here!
Gwynsek 2 years ago
@RNB6190 You make it sound like there's something wrong with being a National Socialist...Do you have anything against communists? You should, but I bet you don't. Heil Hitler, great video.
Kanadischer1488 1 year ago
Unfortunately,maybe only a bit more,as linguistic evolution changes languages a lot,but I think Anglo-Saxon would sound much nicer.I wish we could get more from Northumbrian and Scots on the web,too,it´s closer sisters in the Islands.
Gwynsek 2 years ago
it sounds a little bit like Dutch but it's completely intelligible to me, a learner of Dutch
kiliodoulos83 2 years ago
well if they were speaking in dutch you'd find that intelligigle also.
Two completly different things.....reading a phrase or sentence from a book and listening to it being spoken in realtime ;)
folkard84 2 years ago
I agree! There's beauty in every kind of language and things that can't be said in any other language.
tseadbruinja 2 years ago
Que volem ua television entarà lenga occitana en Bearn.
We would like to have a tv network for our language in Bearn and other occitan speaking provinces.
Every language in Europe is a treasure.
OCSIGEN6424 2 years ago
Hadn't the French-speaking Normans invaded England....all depends on that battle at Hastings. Ever since English has gradually shifted from Germanic to French (Latin-derived). It would be great to figure out a fully Germanic country closer in roots to Dutch and Northern German,I think it would have led to a series of mutually intelligible dialects. Yes, I do believe history could have followed a different path without William the Conqueror.
Frauenheld1 3 years ago
That is true, but French also influenced Frisian to a lesser extent, and to an even lesser extent, Dutch.
MVillani1985 3 years ago
regardless of the french influence on english, it remains a germanic language. the only thing that would make it a romance language is if it were to have descended directly from latin, or if it had been a pidgin of a latin language and something else.
that being said, i find Frisian to be an "easy to listen to" language. it doesn't have the tonal rhythm of the nordic languages, and is not as "harsh" as german or dutch.
jdheinold 2 years ago
@jdheinold
acutally many teachers of mine tried to tell us that english was half a romance and half a germanic language, which is absolute nonsense and makes me quite angry every time i hear it :)
rgur90x 2 years ago
How would you define the Romance influence on English? And the Celtic, if any?
lizajeans 2 years ago
Tell them that the other Germanic languages have also had Romance influence and ask them if German, Dutch, and Frisian are also half Romance language for borrowing loanwords out of French and Latin.
MVillani1985 2 years ago
One weird talent of mine is being able to understand something English-like by taking it apart word by word (especially written), think what English word it's probably like, think of it in that context, and decide that's what the word means. Of course, I didn't have a great understanding of this video, but I did get a very basic comprehension. Still, tougher to understand than even Middle English, but easier than Old English.
Amazingly, I'm not that great at learning other languages.
MVillani1985 3 years ago
Yyeah, actually, Frisian has held out pretty well. English has a vocabulary primarily made up of anglicized Latin derivitives. Even though 80 percent of the most commonly used words in English have Germanic roots. On another note, Flemish and Dutch are not the same. You get someone speaking really informal Dutch and really informal Flemish and you're gonna have a few problems. However what's learn in school in both Flanders and the Netherlands is kind of like Hochdeutsch for German...
Valicore 3 years ago
I can understand a bit, but unfortunately only the heavy germanic roots which English lost... I guess, given the lack of resources for learning Frisian on the net, that the only way into languages like this is to take the 'back door' (aka Dutch)
ceigered 3 years ago
You can buy books from the Frisian Academy and try Pete Kramer´s free course on the web(message me and I´ll give you the link).Love Fryslân!
Gwynsek 2 years ago
"Bread, butter and green cheese is good English and good Friese"
"Brea, bûter, en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk."
tricky778 3 years ago
People are depressed about not being able to understand this video, but never mind. It may be because of colloquial pronunciation. I watched the documentary series "Mongrel Nation" on Discovery Channel, presented by Eddie Izzard, which was about immigration into Britain over about the last 2,000 years. There was a section about the Frisian language. Eddie Izzard had a crash course in basic Old English, then used this vocabulary to buy a cow from a Frisian farmer.Has anyone got a copy?
Roughcut2001 3 years ago
thats really interesting, if it wasnt for the norman invasion i bet English speakers could probably understand this and perhaps even dutch in the 21st century
to those curious the normans, who spoke old french, set up their own people to be nobility in England after the invasion in 1066 so the nobility spoke norman french while the peasants still spoke old english, by the late 15th century the two had merged to form the the first stages of early modern english which Shakespeare would write in
tothsi 2 years ago
early modern english was 500 years after the normal invasion ,,,,middle english is the first hybrid of english and french
folkard84 2 years ago
Nah it's got a sort of English feel about it, even if English has diverged significantly.
NeglectedField 3 years ago
i thot english and frisian were the same thing. I cant understand shit. I understand spanish better with english then this shit.
drwuggles 3 years ago
If you think you can understand Spanish better, what you're getting is false intelligibility because of the heavy exposure to the Spanish accent and the introduction of Spanish words into the American English lexicon. Your ears are entirely untrained to Frisian, but even a little exposure to it, or even Middle English (which at first sounds like gibberish to most who hear it at first, like with the Canterbury Tales recitation) will allow you to easily hear Frisian as a "dialect" of English.
MVillani1985 2 years ago
i thought english and frisian were mutually intelligble. i thought americans, canadians and english people cojld say..."yeah i understand Frisian" STUPID FLANDERS...yeah i know its Flemish spoken in Flanders, not Frisian...get a life, Loser
philly282 4 years ago
Yeah it is disappointing that it's not fully intelligible. But it is fun to watch. They just sound like us, don't ya reckon? I heard only one phoneme foreign to my native language and that was the tapped 'r' like in spanish 'gRacias' that we can ALL do (even though some CLAIM otherwise).
And he says 'and' exactly the same as i would, that's the spin-out.
danylls 4 years ago
But of course we weren't gonna be able to understand it, English and Frisian haven't lived together for about 1000 years, more even. Do you know what English has been through all that time. It's travelled the world and back, but Frisian has just hung out there on it's islands, bossed about by Dutch for the last millenium.
danylls 4 years ago 2
Flemish and Dutch are the same thing.
millos71 4 years ago