Frisian

Family/group: Indo-European (Germanic)

Number of speakers: 250-300,000

Where spoken: Netherlands (Friesland), Western Germany

Script: Roman

Frisian is chiefly spoken in Friesland, in the far north of The Netherlands. A Frisian academy was set up in 1938, and the language has been taught in schools since 1955. The first Frisian translation of the Bible was published in 1943. Frisian is much closer to English than Dutch and is classed as a language rather than a dialect of Dutch. The fight is on to save the language from dying. Some of the measures taken are similar to those found in Wales in the UK - bilingual road signs, publishing, radio and tv programmes all in Fries.

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nothing is more important than stopping fascism because fascism will stop us all