How to Learn Frisian for English Speakers

[@alansmithee8831]

Hello Hilbert. Since I have no need of a brown cow, I will leave the learning to those who have more time and wish you and them good luck. I was one of those who learned French and German. I turned eighteen under the Eiffel Tower, but the French tended to just have no time for their language in a Yorkshire accent, Ripping Yarns style. I had more success with my less proficient German, but was always being confused for a Holländer, since no English speaker could obviously speak another language. I challenge you to get hold of a recording of "Teach Thyssen Tyke" and have a good laugh. Growing up speaking dialect, I always considered English like a second language, which the Geordie in you will appreciate.

[@kebman]

Wolst dyn brune koe fan my keapje?

[@alansmithee8831]

@kebman 'Aye. 'Appen.

[@Pieter_7]

Dit kanaal is zo extreem belangrijk en mooi. Dankewol Hilbert❤️⚪️🔵

[@cory.doras69]

american/canadian here but my Pake was born in Tytsjerksteradiel and i've had the pleasure of visiting family there a couple times. everyone always switched to English when i was growing up, so i never had the chance to formally learn Frisian. i'm so excited to watch your videos, i've already burst out laughing and i'm just a few minutes in :)

[@lukefriesenhahn8186]

6:05 is literally how I felt when Dueling did not have Frisian.

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

I know, what a joke. If we gain some traction here I think we should start a campaign to petition them to add it ;)

[@billbaker3357]

I can't wait for the Frisian cultural video(s) that go over Frisian food, traditions, events and celebrations; especially ones that differ from their Dutch counterparts. Elfstedentocht as an example.

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Great! I've recorded two of these already and have several more planned to be released in the near future :)

[@binchamers]

@@FrisianWithHilbertif you make a high quality video explaining kaatsen that would literally be the only one on youtube. I’ve been searching for ways to get into watching that sport for years

[@lukefriesenhahn8186]

I would be interested in a video or two on Frisian culture and food.

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Re language difficulty level and similarities, I must point out that Dutch is objectively the language that is the closest to Modern English, both in spelling (both have the lightest spelling ever) and in sound / pronunciation rules / intonation etc, while Frisian languages are closer to Middle English and Oud English, which are different languages, though all Germanic languages are very close, anyway, and, in Modern English most words were modified from Latin-based words, so Modern English has more words than Latin languages as it has more words than any other languages and most of its technical terms and scientific terms and most verbs were created based on Latin words, but Proto Germanic was modified from Latin as its creator created it by modifying Latin words and giving them new meanings and by creating lots of new words, so Germanic languages come directly from Latin, as do Celtic languages and Slavic languages, and these languages are all very closely related, so most words are cognates, and a lot of the cognates are not a modern loanword, though the source of most words doesn’t determine the type of language, and it is the aspect and the sound of the language that do, including things such as spelling rules and letter combinations and word endings as well as the intonations and the pronunciation rules and the sounds etc, though modifying the spelling rules of a previous language or multiple previous languages automatically creates a new language, so all the previous versions are different languages with different spelling rules, including the different versions of Middle English, and this can be confusing to a lot of ppl, as many don’t know that Middle English is not the same language as Modern English, which is where the confusion re similarities between English and West Frisian stems from, but they are in fact referring to Middle English and Early Middle English, not Modern English - the easiest language ever created is Modern English, and after Modern English, the modern versions of Dutch and Norwegian and Danish are the easiest to learn, though Norwegian and Danish are even easier than Dutch grammatically as they have a normal word order like English and Norse and only one conjugated verb form for all pronouns, and then Norse and Gothic and Icelandic, which are almost as easy to learn as Dutch, these languages have the words that are the easiest to memorize, while the Frisian languages are like between German and Dutch, so, they are all easy to memorize, though there aren’t many vocab videos and many other videos teaching the Frisian languages, which can make the learning process more complicated, so, the hardest thing about learning languages that aren’t as known as English and Dutch etc is, trying to find vocab videos and other resources, but they can still be learnt, especially the ones that are on G translate and yt subtitles and on the Wkp dictionary, and they can be learnt together, as Germanic languages are the easiest language ever created and they are all category 1 languages, and, most Celtic languages and Slovene and Latin languages are also category 1 languages, so, these languages, and the other easy languages that are category 2 languages such as Latgalian and Hungarian and Latvian and Finnish and Estonian and category 3 languages such as Irish and Gaelic, can all be learnt together, which saves a lot of years and is a lot more fun, so I highly recommend learning as many of these pretty languages as one can handle at the same time, and, I would recommend learning them for their pretty words that are so cool and so poetic, as this is the strongest motivation to learn pretty languages, and it is also why I decided to learn all the pretty languages, to be able to understand the lyrics and poetry and text in those languages and to write lyrics and other writings in those languages, plus language learning is great for the hern and memory, and it also helps improve one’s pattern recognition skills, so it is one of the best hobbies for lyricists / writers and analysts and also for others, plus it just feels so great to know all those pretty words and to be able to type them and to show off in front of others, and, it can even be used as a job, so, one can also teach the languages one learns on yt and on the Net etc, and one can even find a good job as a translator or subtitle editor or interpreter etc, so there are lots of benefits to it!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

I would suggest some video ideas for West Frisian, for example, a series of vocab videos with the most used words, a series of videos with idioms and phrases and slang etc in Frisian, and a series of videos on different preposition / conjunction uses, and series of videos with all verbs in Frisian and their different uses, with example sentences maybe, especially if it’s a more confusing verb, a series of videos on grammar, and a series of vocab videos with hundreds or thousands of words, kinda like the videos that have over a thousand Icelandic words, and, if possible, also including the Middle West Frisian and the Oud West Frisian words under the Modern West Frisian word, so that learners can also learn the other two West Frisian languages together with the Modern one, to bring them back, as all the ancient Germanic languages should be brought back, as they are also gorgeous like the Modern ones, so I am trying to learn them all, both the newer languages and the ancient languages, including all the Norse-based languages and all the Dutch-based languages and all the Frisian-based languages and all the German-based languages and all the Celtic languages as well as the Latin languages and even some of the Slavic languages and a few other different languages, having maybe about one hundred target languages - am learning over 30 languages at the same time at the moment, including my target languages that have already been added to G translate, and, I am already advanced level in Icelandic and Dutch and Norwegian and also almost advanced level or upper intermediate level in Norse and Danish and Faroese and Swedish and German (at least vocab-wise and when it comes to understanding the written language) and writer level in English and native speaker level in Spanish and intermediate level in Italian and French and Galician and Welsh and Portuguese and a few others and beginner level in Gothic and the Frisian languages and Oud English and Latvian and Slovene and Latgalian and Gaelic and Cornish and Manx and Breton and Irish and Hungarian and Esperanto and Hunsrik and Venetian and Sicilian and Pretarolo etc and the other target languages, though I can understand most or at least many of the words I see in all Germanic languages (and in the other Latin languages that haven’t been officially recognized as a language yet tho they are different languages with different spelling rules) due to my level in some of them, so my level of understanding the written language is kinda intermediate in most of those, so I can do without individual translation for each word many of the times when I read new text or subtitles or song lyrics in those languages!

[@kebman]

Frisian is pretty awesome tbh. Skål from Norway!

[@SamTurtonsamsamsam999]

Just seen this channel. Not even planning to learn Frisian but I just like your videos lol

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Much appreciated Sam! What aspect of Frisian are you interested in?

[@SamTurtonsamsamsam999]

@@FrisianWithHilbert I just enjoy learning about other cultures. I think maybe one day I would like to learn the language but I’m just too busy learning Russian atm

[@joshadams8761]

Same. I am a linguistics/philology enthusiast.

[@h0sfs11]

Mijn pake is blij met dit, ga zo door!

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Machtich moai dat jim pake bliid is. Silst ek in bytsje Frysk leare en mei him prate?

[@commonundergroundpodcast3763]

Lil Pier is a friend of mine. I got content on Frisian history too.

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Sick! Give him my best - he's a top lad.

[@krzykkrzykkrzyk]

I wish you had mentioned some books originally written in Frisian as a motivation or in learning materials section, unless you're going to make a whole another video about it. When I start learning a language I always look forward to reading something longer to really test my proficiency.

[@daquandoolie]

I don't speak dutch but I speak afrikaans so Frisian already seems very familiar

[@hrenes]

als ik naar Afrikaans luister (en lees) dan hoor ik in mijn hoofd altijd mijn Friese opa Sneekers praten

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

Whenever I think of Afrikaans i automatically think of Die Antwoord.

[@liggie60]

That's quite logical. After all Afrikaans is derived from the Dutch spoken by the settlers in the 16th and 17th centuries. Whenever I hear or read Afrikaans I can understand almost 95% of it without using a dictionary. I'm Dutch by the way. For a while my life's motto has been: Ons is op aarde geplaats om een bepaald hoeveelheid werk te verrig. Op die oonblik is ek so ver agter dat ek nooit sal kan doodgaan nie 😂. Sorry for any misspellings, I remember the text by heart, but not the exact spelling.

[@matthiesbrouwer6604]

Jooo dit is geweldich! Graach fierder mei it

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Tige! Ik sil eltse wike in nije fideo útbringe :)

[@learnfrisian]

Tige tank foar de fideo!

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Tank foar it sjen en al dyn wurk mei de app!

[@wclk]

I think I'll give Frisian a shot. I've been learning German for about two months and suck at it, mostly pronunciation. Old English has been a fun to learn, but it is it's own beast to tame with very little resources. Frisian may trigger something, like my Dutch and English ancestry fusing to make it stick. I doubt it though. 😅

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Awesome! Let me know if you have any questions. For pronunciation, I recommend doing as much immersion as possible: radio, podcasts, KZbin, music, and then repeating what you hear. With Frisian, it's good getting to grips with three types of sounds: -short vowels -long vowels -diphthongs These are generally spelled differently so: -wit (know) - short vowel [as in "if"] -wyt (white) - long vowel [as in "feet"] -wiet (wet) - diphthong [like saying "real": ee-uh] I believe in you!

[@wclk]

@@FrisianWithHilbert Tankewol! Frysk will probably get me as close as possible to my nearest ancestors who most likely spoke Hogelandsters.

[@markgreen950]

I would certainly be interested in giving Frisian a go. I'm only 10 months into learning Dutch though so I need to give that more time before I add in another course :). Bedankt voor je (jouw?) video's.

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Great! Fair enough if you've started Dutch - it's a great base to learn Frisian from once you're a bit more familiar :) So both je/jouw are applicable. "Je" is the unstressed, informal form of the possessive pronoun, while "jouw" is the stressed, formal version. You can compare it with saying: "that's yer mate" vs "that's your piece" where the second emphasises who it belongs to more.

[@redbad2652]

Thanks for the video!

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Thanks for watching! Honoured to have such a famous Frisian among my viewers ;)

[@ChiefMeow]

Love the video!

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Thank you!

[@AngloSaxonElf]

I will give it a go, Frisian is a very interesting language. I have experience with Norwegian and "Anglish", and can pick out many similarities between them all. Thanks for this introduction!

[@comeintotheforest]

Wouldn’t be too bad to impress that Frisian speaking girl. Don’t mind that at all, Thanks 😉👍

[@joshadams8761]

Baldrs Draumar is on Apple Music and excellent. Reminds me of Brobdingnagian Bards and Dropkick Murphys.

[@A_Anitmated_Idiot]

This Frisian Discord place sounds cool! By the way I have no afflation with Frisian, questions, and getting Frisian wrong. (Goed wurk!)

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Certainly is! Dan giet it allegear bêst, net?

[@H.Wannop927]

Thank you !!!! ❤

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Thanks for watching! Let me know how learning goes!

[@stefanocapparelli4997]

Would you maybe have resources to learn Brabants? 👉🏻👈🏻

[@GrimLordofOregon]

I am learning to read Old English right now and am wanting to get better at German, but for sure I do want to learn myself some Frisian (and Old Frisian too!).

[@michaelchen8643]

Probably about three decades ago I had a friend More of a convenient acquaintance here in the United States ( He’s an American like I am) Who was quite unusual as he himself is from an unbroken line of Friesian descendants here in the US from the 1600s and he looks he’s probably in his mid 60s now He used to mention the frisians And his own ethnic background ( Initially, I thought he was talking about a tasty ice cream treat when he said Friesian) He would tell me about his family history and background that came from the 1600s and was so far back that it was just basically family folklore and then he also would mention the Ore Linda bok Which itself has a lot of history and controversy. Through the wonders of KZbin, I started listening to Friesian music and the first duo that I listen to was twarres Here I am, I’m listening to this music and it’s so English like but yet barely comprehensible so I figured I might as well go along and see if I can actually pick up words here and there and grammar if it wasn’t so bad Alledagenigh “ all day and night “ As I would read and hear omrup fryslan Channel posted on the KZbin recordings I’ve gone as far as I can go just listening to music and conversations. I don’t know if I’m gonna go any farther. In reality, the Scots Languages closer to modern English and functions almost like a like that’s interchangeable But it’s nice to know that I can find that’s on the continent of Europe. It’s so close to English. I understand whole phrases and quite a few words and actually pick up grammar and vocabulary just by listening Couple of hens Cup of coffee Is spoken and frisians just like it’s spoken by English-speaking people Through KZbin messaging service I build up a friendship and a penpal rapport with a woman in freeze as she would spoonfeed a lot of culture in history to me and this was over 10 years ago

[@toranshaw4029]

Do you have a Spotify playlist of the various Frisian bands you've mentioned?

[@LewisWirth]

In eerste instantie had ik deze video niet verder gekeken omdat Nederlands mijn eerste taal is maar het advies blijkt niet dusdanig af te wijken van advies voor Nederlands sprekers heel verschillende voorbeelden die je hebt gegeven voor leer materialen die alleen in het Nederlands verkrijgbaar zijn. Maar goed ik droom soms van het idee om verschillende titels te kunnen testen net als het testen van verschillende thumbnails

[@lukefriesenhahn8186]

I'm looking foreward to learning Frisian, despite not being Frisian. There's a chance that part of my ancestry came from the Frisii tribe, as my Dutch ancestry comes from north western South Holland. There, Frisian was spoken before Dutch.

[@Nasraniksatria]

6:03 Me when Duolingo has no, Frisian:

[@Nasraniksatria]

1:52 Actually it’s because The Frisii have kept their identity since the Romans days, like the Bavarii.

[@hrenes]

Het zou leuk zijn als er een Duo cusrus Frysk kwam (Memrise is mij eigenlijk te strict met letters - inlusief commentaar en zo) Maar ik probeer je Memrise cursus maar. Misschien en video over het Friese volkslied? Groeten!

[@Shinathen]

Is Frisian similar to a strong Geordie accent? (I hope it is, and I’m also guessing this is why you decided to stick at it because it would be easier for us)

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

In some ways, aye, but not always. In vowels like out - oot - út And in some forms: go - gan - gean I found knowing Dutch made learning Frisian easier, although knowing Geordie was useful for understanding certain grammar features, for instance in referring to familiar members with the third person plural pronoun rather than the third person singular pronoun: my brother/Jelle - wor brother/wor Jelle - ús broer/ús Jelle.

[@Shinathen]

@@FrisianWithHilbert I think that makes sense with Dutch since it would be the country with the most influence, I was just thinking back to Scandinavian influence (ik dutch isn’t Scandinavian but it’s in fairly close proximity)

[@thelad1970]

W video

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

W comment

[@sebastienmossoux5919]

It is a shame that the Frisians spoke Dutch in the movie 'Redbad' instead of Frisian. And if you think about it it's the Franks that actually should've spoken Dutch since Dutch is descendent from Frankish. Nevertheless I find Frisian a fascinating language that should have more representation in entertainment. EDIT: And more popular books should be translated into Frisian. And not only West Frisian.

[@onnofeldmann4282]

Fan d' kwalitäit is Baldurs Draumar wal däi bäest fräisk bend, ook in däi interfräisk sicht, däi upstünds biistaajt. 2022 heb ik höör soo gor live bii dat Fräisendräepen up Hilğland säin. Pieter Zijlstra was fanjoer in Warns as künstler - was ook echt gaud - häi is ook wies net un wii hebbent us noch 'n setje mit hum unnerhollen - haarent hum al 2023 in Auerk al bii 't Fräisendräepen an d' Upstalsboom kennenleert.

[@VolkerWendt-vq8pi]

Since I'm East Frisian it shouldn't be that hard. Our Language isn't part of the Frisian family any more, but still has quite some Frisian words. And is pretty close to dutch, too

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Let me know how you get on with it! I'll have a video on East-Frisian-Low-Saxon in the future as well :)

[@VolkerWendt-vq8pi]

@@FrisianWithHilbert Oh really? That's nice. I'll let you know. Eala frya Fresena 😊(that slogan is in the foyer of our house in East Frisia)

[@aronb03]

Kest oek Liwadders?

[@666Maeglin]

De bêste manear om frysk te learen is liuw ik hoe ik it leart ha. Ik bin berne in Aldeboarn. It is it plakje dat in sintrale rol spile yn de dtriid foar de fryske taal. Myn âldomke wie ien fan de trije molkboeren dyt Sûppe yn ste as karnemelk op harren molkbussen stien hie as se molke oan it sutteljen wienen. Ik bin trije talig opwaakse praate frysk meri myn heit en leech saksisk (fan e kop fan Oeryssel) mei myn mem. Dernei nei de legere skoalle waat ien van de 3 prosjektskoallen wie wer de earste klaase alles yn it frysk wie, sa yn de 2e klasse kaam der noch Nederlansk by. Dat ik derneist noch Ingelsk Dútsk en Fransk op skoalle hie letter hat it makkelik foar my makke om oarew talemn op te nimmen. Doe ik yn denemarken deenske les hie bin ik starte in stream 3 rang 5 Dat wie it examen klasse niveau foar de deenske "Folkeskole" as 15 -16 jierigen. Ik wie teste folle heeger as ik sels foar moochlik halden hie. Sels tocht ik 3-3 hier misskien 3-4 mar minstens mear as in jier fuort fan it examen.

[@SpankyBudder]

i swear this guy sounds exactly like the famous actor Castro Supreme 🤔

[@faramund9865]

En als Hollander?

[@peterkralt2478]

Zet een wasknijper op je neus en probeer zo plat mogelijk Katwijks of Schevenings te praten!

[@justintroyka8855]

I appreciate learning more about Frisian from this video! However, I thought the closest language to English is Scots, not Frisian.

[@sjuns5159]

I you count Scots as a language (which not everyone does, I myself have no opinion), then yes, obviously. Scots evolved directly from the same Middle English (which is already basically understandable English), Frysian did not. I suppose it's more of a "the closest language that you might not have thought about and that has a significantly different background". It's like saying Afrikaans is the closest language to Dutch isn't particularly interesting: it practically *is* Dutch. At least it doesn't really differ more from it than some regional dialects do.

[@BigLemonSlice]

Right now I'm learning Welsh and planning on getting as close to fluency as possible, but as soon as Frisian is on Duolingo I would start learning it too

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Diolch yn fawr! Learning Welsh is also a noble endeavour! I hope to grind Duolingo down one day ;)

[@songsnewsmienskipbyarendar9064]

Lots of attention for songs. This is good, songs are essential. Regarding the songs: it took some decades, yet a Frisian rap-scene is emerging. Like, several rappers are active now. It doesn't get a huge crowd yet, the highest position rap has in the YT Top 1000 is nr 70, yet it's the music-style which IMO has the most pontential for the younger generations of Frisian. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZu5pWOvlNOZnJI. Make a list of Rapsongs in Frisian is on my to-do list. For not Frisian speakers it wont help all to much for getting the hang of the langauge, it's a lot harder to get then far most other styles. It would be good if there would be a Frisian version of this..... www.youtube.com/@101Barz/videos .

[@Daniel-jk7pe]

Why learn if its essentiallu english?

[@joshuaswart8211]

It’s not “essentially English”.

[@jacobpast5437]

mienskip = mean sheep

[@5_gyy697]

mienskip = my ship

[@jacobpast5437]

@@5_gyy697 I just realized - 'mean' _is_ actually the closest cognate 🤔

[@FrisianWithHilbert]

Haha I see what you did there. Mien skip - average ship Myn skip - my ship Min skiep - mean sheep

[@jacobpast5437]

When I wrote the original comment I did not realize that the word 'mean' (in the sense of unkind, unpleasant etc.) goes back to "Old English _gemæne_ 'common, public, general, universal, shared by all'", to "Proto-Germanic _*ga-mainiz_ 'possessed jointly'", and ultimately to "PIE _*ko-moin-i-_ 'held in common'", from which, via French, English also got 'common' (all quotes from Etymonline). I assume that 'mien' in 'mienskip'-like 'gemein' in German 'Gemeinschaft'-traces back to this root.

[@theChaosKe]

Could also be "mean scape" which sounds a bit closer. Compare to german gemeinschaft - mienskip freundschaft - friendship landschaft - landscape

[@Tino262d]

Stap één; krijg een beroerte

[@mediumsizedgrape]

Feanster?

[@LewisWirth]

In eerste instantie had ik deze video niet verder gekeken omdat Nederlands mijn eerste taal is maar het advies blijkt niet dusdanig af te wijken van advies voor Nederlands sprekers heel verschillende voorbeelden die je hebt gegeven voor leer materialen die alleen in het Nederlands verkrijgbaar zijn. Maar goed ik droom soms van het idee om verschillende titels te kunnen testen net als het testen van verschillende thumbnails