Indo-European · ISO 639-3 fry · fy
Western Frisian Language Frysk
Western Frisian is an Indo-European language spoken by about 845,100 people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Western Frisian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Western Frisian
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- North Sea Germanic
- Anglo-Frisian
- Frisian
- Modern West Frisian
- Westlauwers-Terschelling Frisian
- Western Frisian
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Western Frisian language
Western Frisian (Frysk) is spoken by about 845,100 people, which makes it the 487th most spoken language in the world — just behind Welsh (850,000) and ahead of Ga (820,000). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Westlauwers-Terschelling Frisian group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Western Frisian spoken?
Western Frisian is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Netherlands (764,213).
Western Frisian is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in Netherlands.
Writing system and status
Western Frisian is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Northern Frisian, English, Nigerian Pidgin, Krio, Tok Pisin, Ghanaian Pidgin English and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 fy, ISO 639-3 fry.
Frequently asked questions about Western Frisian
How many people speak Western Frisian?
Where is Western Frisian spoken?
What language family does Western Frisian belong to?
What is Western Frisian called in Western Frisian?
Is Western 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.