Anglo-Frisian languages

As Anglo - Frisian languages ​​were referred earlier one, going back to an assumed common proto-language sub-group of West Germanic languages ​​consisting of Old English, Old Frisian, and its successor languages. After view at that time consisted of a West Germanic Anglo- Frisian and a ( ur) German branch.

This classification of Germanic languages ​​is rarely adopted since the 1960s. In place of the idea of ​​an Anglo- Frisian original language of the model of a North Sea Germanic ( ingwäonischen ) came linguistic group consisting of several languages ​​with common characteristics. The close relationship of the Old Frisian with the Old English is not doubted.

Common features

The English and its closely related varieties share with the Frisian languages ​​some characteristics that distinguish them from other West Germanic languages.. Particularly striking is the assibilation the closing text k to a fricative (Eng. cheese, kaas ndl, nd Kees: engl cheese, western fries tsiis; German church, kerk ndl, nd Kark, Kerk: .. Engl church. ., north fries. schörk, western fries. tsjerke ). Also, the elimination of nasal before fricatives under compensatory lengthening is English and Frisian mean, but also comes in Low German, Dutch, and even in the Alemannic before (Eng. five. Engl five, western fries fiif, nd Vief, ndl vijf, alem. .. füüf ).