Editing Friesland (section)

=== Languages ===
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Sjoukje speaking West Frisian.webm|thumb|A West Frisian speaker, recorded in the [[Netherlands]].]]

Friesland is one of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands to have its national language that is recognized as such, [[West Frisian language|West Frisian]]. Before the 18th century, varieties of Frisian were also spoken in the provinces of [[North Holland]] and [[Groningen]], and together with the Frisian speakers in [[Ost-Friesland|East Friesland]] and [[North Frisia|North Friesland]] a continuous linguistic area existed between Amsterdam and the present day Danish-German border.

The [[mutual intelligibility]] in reading between Dutch and Frisian is limited. A [[cloze test]] in 2005 revealed native Dutch speakers understood 31.9% of a West Frisian newspaper, 66.4% of an [[Afrikaans language|Afrikaans]] newspaper and 97.1% of a Dutch newspaper.<ref>{{cite journal |title=How easy is it for speakers of Dutch to understand Frisian and Afrikaans, and why? |first1=Renée van |last1=Bezooijen |first2=Charlotte |last2=Gooskens |journal=Linguistics in the Netherlands |volume=22 |date=2005 |url=http://www.let.rug.nl/gooskens/pdf/publ_lingneth_2005.pdf |pages=18, 21, 22 |access-date=11 December 2022 |archive-date=16 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221016135157/http://www.let.rug.nl/gooskens/pdf/publ_lingneth_2005.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2007, [[West Frisian language|West Frisian]] is the native language of 54.3% of the inhabitants of the province of Friesland, followed by [[Dutch language|Dutch]] with 34.7%, and speakers of other regional languages, most of these restricted to Friesland, with 9.7%, and in the end other foreign languages with 1.4%. Frisian speakers are traditionally underrepresented in urban areas, and predominant in the countryside.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://docplayer.nl/69343301-Rapportage-quick-scan-friese-taal-2007-provincie-fryslan.html |title=Rapportage quick scan Friese taal 2007 Provincie Fryslân - PDF |website=docplayer.nl |access-date=10 June 2018 |archive-date=21 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221005817/https://docplayer.nl/69343301-Rapportage-quick-scan-friese-taal-2007-provincie-fryslan.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

West Frisian is also spoken in a small adjacent part of the province of [[Groningen (province)|Groningen]]. Up to the 18th century Frisian was spoken in the, at that time Prussian and Hanoverian, lordships of [[Ost-Friesland|East Friesland]]). Since then the East Frisian population switched to [[East Frisian Low Saxon|East Frisian (''Ostfriesisch'')]], a [[Low German]] dialect. Only in some, formerly remoted, East Frisian villages ([[Saterland]]) a variety of historically [[Saterland Frisian language|East Frisian]] (''Seeltersk'') is still in use but by an older generation. A collection of dialects named [[North Frisian language|North Frisian]], is or was spoken in [[North Friesland]], alongside the North Sea coast and on the islands of [[Schleswig-Holstein]]. The named Frisian languages are historically related to [[Old English]], which points towards the fact that [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]] and [[Saxons]], eventually accompanied by Frisians, came from these areas.

In [[Stellingwarfs|Stellingwerf]], in south-east Friesland, a dialect of [[Dutch Low Saxon|Low Saxon]] is spoken,<ref>{{Glottolog|stel1238|Stellingwerfs}}</ref> as is in the northeast in [[Kollumerpomp]].

In the former municipality of [[het Bildt]] the Hollandic dialect of [[Bildts]] is spoken. It contains a lot of Frisian influence. In most of the cities of Leeuwarden, [[Town Frisian]] is spoken. As with Bildts, these variants are Hollandic dialects with Frisian influence.

The language policy in Friesland is preservation. West Frisian is a mandatory subject in Friesland in primary and secondary schools of the Frisian speaking districts. Bilingual (Dutch–Frisian) and trilingual (Dutch–English–Frisian) schools in the province of Friesland use West Frisian as a language of instruction in some lessons, besides Dutch in most other lessons and alongside them English. Literacy in Frisian however, is not often a core aim and that makes the number of Frisians speakers able to write in Frisian only 12%.<ref>(Hilton, 2013)</ref>

The provincial government takes various initiatives to preserve the West Frisian language. All parents in Friesland receive, at their children's birth, information about language and multilingualism (e.g. 'taaltaske'{{clarify|date=May 2021}}). To support the use of Frisian in public and at public events, the province also invests in the development of speech pathology materials and strives to create information technology devices for the West Frisian language. The Frisian government subsidizes the ''Afûk'' organization, which offers language courses and actively promotes Frisian in all sectors of society as well as the corporate domain which as a rule is dominated by Dutch and English.<ref>(Afûk 2011)</ref> The province also promotes a wide range of art and entertainment in Frisian.<ref>Hilton, N. H., & Gooskens, C. (2013). Language policies and attitudes towards Frisian in the Netherlands. Phonetics in Europe: Perceptions and production, 139-157.</ref>