WIKITONGUES: Sjoukje speaking West Frisian

This video was recorded by Guillem Belmar in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, where he and Sjoukje work at Afûk, a Frisian advocacy organization. West Frisian, also simply called Frisian, is spoken by as many as 470,000 people, primarily in the Dutch province of Friesland, where Leeuwarden (natively, Ljouwert) is the capital city. A Germanic language of the Indo-European family, West Frisian is the most widely spoken of the Frisian languages, which include North and Saterland Frisian; collectively, the Frisian languages are among the most closely related to English and Scots. A literary language since at least the 17th century CE, Frisian media became especially common in the nineteenth century. Thanks to a lively activist movement, it has been a regionally official language in the Netherlands since 1956, and enjoys special protection in the European Union today.

Help us caption & translate this video!

[joshuanezat]

So much of the English vocabulary is romance. That’s why it sounds so structurally English while still being completely unintelligible

[stevendunn]

I understood only a few words. Kudos for your contribution to language preservation!

[Banana_Split_Cream_Buns]

If you had told me this was Dutch, I would've believed you.

[DinosourousRexx]

I recognized “from Europa” if that’s what she said at one point 😅

[KiraPlaysGuitar]

"Promotional campaigns" sounded portuguese, so beautiful

[johnmcsusan]

Guys put the caption on and you start hearing the cognates

[OM-lnue]

I speak German and can tell that it's harder to understand than Dutch. Still some words are similar. Like she said some word that meant "We develop" in English. It sounded very similar to German Wir entwickeln

[aaronjameshorne]

The tone and flow is like english but I feel like I hear german a lot as well.

[geoffbenoy]

I'm a Fleming and is quite understandable for me.

[lilmee]

I'm German, grew up up north in Bremen. I actually understand about 70% simply from knowing some "Plattdütsch".

[chevinbarghest]

There are some top banana English wags posting on here. They have me in stitches... After14 years in the US with a postmenopausal woman, I am stitchless...

[johnreel]

Man, I’m sure my Old-English-speaking ancestors could understand you perfectly.

[have_a_good_day]

She sounds like that "what English sounds like to non english speakers" old school dance video.

[mysterycharm]

Just a humor, I hear a sim speaking. 🙂

[OpiZoid]

somehow by speaking english and german i can mostly get what shes saying

[joppemin]

For dutch people it's important to know this is not "West-Fries" but "Fries". just in english it's referred to as West Frisian. "West Fries" would be spoken in North Holland

[rigardt]

Ek het nooit geweet vries is so na aan Nederlands nie :), dink ek sal self goed vaar daarso.

[stevenleslie]

As an English speaker, i didn't understand anything she said except "and".

[aveyli]

Bruh I can understand everything with my very limited french and dutch knowledge, english and german, aswell as a bit of swedish which I heard a loanword(/cognate?) from

[funkmachine]

wikipedia says this is the closet language to english but for my ears it just sounds like dutch and nothing else