Indo-European · ISO 639-3 frr
Northern Frisian Language Nordfriisk
Northern Frisian is an Indo-European language spoken by about 10,000 people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Northern Frisian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Northern Frisian
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- North Sea Germanic
- Anglo-Frisian
- Frisian
- Northern Frisian
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Northern Frisian language
Northern Frisian (Nordfriisk) is spoken by about 10,000 people, which makes it the 545th most spoken language in the world — just behind Tuvalu (13,000) and ahead of Niuean (10,000). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Frisian group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Northern Frisian spoken?
Northern Frisian is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Germany (10,094).
Northern Frisian is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in Germany.
Writing system and status
Northern Frisian is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as vulnerable, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Western Frisian, English, Nigerian Pidgin, Krio, Tok Pisin, Ghanaian Pidgin English and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 frr.
Frequently asked questions about Northern Frisian
How many people speak Northern Frisian?
Where is Northern Frisian spoken?
What language family does Northern Frisian belong to?
What is Northern Frisian called in Northern Frisian?
Is Northern Frisian an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.