The Frisian languages (/ˈfriːʒən/ FREE-zhən[1] or /ˈfrɪziən/ FRIZ-ee-ən[2]) are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 400,000 Frisian people, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.

It is also spoken on the islands of Heligoland (deät Lun) and Düne (de Halem) in the North Sea.

Surrounded by bogs, the four Saterlandic villages lie just outside the borders of East Frisia, in the Oldenburg Münsterland region.

Some linguists consider these three varieties, despite their mutual unintelligibility, to be dialects of one single Frisian language,[citation needed] whereas others consider them to be a number of separate languages equal to or greater than the number of main branches discussed here.

Frisian was spoken there at one time, only to have been gradually replaced by Low Saxon since the Middle Ages.

[8][page needed] An increasing number of native Dutch speakers in the province are learning Frisian as a second language.

Saterland Frisian has resisted encroachment from Low German and Standard German, but Saterland Frisian still remains seriously endangered because of the small size of the speech community and of the lack of institutional support to help preserve and spread the language.

According to the ISO 639 Registration Authority the "previous usage of [this] code has been for Western Frisian, although [the] language name was 'Frisian'".

The new ISO 639 code frr is used for the North Frisian language variants spoken in parts of Schleswig-Holstein.

The Ried fan de Fryske Beweging is an organization which works for the preservation of the West Frisian language and culture in the Dutch province of Friesland.

The Fryske Academy also plays a large role, since its foundation in 1938, to conduct research on Frisian language, history, and society, including attempts at forming a larger dictionary.

[7][page needed] Recent attempts have allowed Frisian be used somewhat more in some of the domains of education, media and public administration.

[7][page needed] Moreover, Frisian runs the risk of dissolving into Dutch, especially in Friesland, where both languages are used.

[13][page needed] In the Early Middle Ages the Frisian lands stretched from the area around Bruges, in what is now Belgium, to the river Weser, in northern Germany.

At that time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast.

Thus the two languages have become less mutually intelligible over time, partly due to the influence which Dutch and Low German have had on Frisian, and partly due to the vast influence some languages (in particular Norman French) have had on English throughout the centuries.

His example was not followed until the 19th century, when entire generations of West Frisian authors and poets appeared.

[20][page needed] Perhaps the most important figure in the spreading of the West Frisian language was minister Joost.

Us Heit, dy't yn de himelen is jins namme wurde hillige.

Jins wollen barre, allyk yn 'e himel sa ek op ierde.