Friesian Language

I was watching a program on TV the other night about the Friesian Language Spoken in parts of Holland and Germany. The program claimed the language was virtually identical to the English language as spoken 1,500 years ago. Apparently 30-40% of modern English words are derived from Friesian words and not just any words, the most common ones.

They put the theory to the test. They had a guy speaking the language (nothing too complex) and he just kept on doing so for 15 mins.

Before they stated if you listen carefully you will begin to understand it.

And hell it worked, no translation, after 5 minutes of getting used to the pronuciation I was getting 1/4 - 1/3 of the words in the sentence, more than enough to understand what was being said. It's akin to English almost in the way Spanish is to Italian.

A week in Schleswig-Holstein and I'd put money on the fact I could hold a conversation with the locals.

Can anyone tell me if a Dutch or German speaker who had no English whatsoever could understand Friesian in anyway.

I'm seriously considering Friesian lessons, just because it would be so simple.

I think with the prgram they were deliberately getting the guy to speak the 30% of words similar to English over and over. As you say the accent was strong and that was the problem not the the words themselves which were only slightly different to English. But accents can be got used to. It's going to see Chaucer, at first it's weird but in time with no training gradually you get it. In fcat that's probably a good example I guess Chaucer's about 1/2 way between Friesian and English, but without the accent.

1st time I went to Durham and spoke to someone I was really prepared for what I would hear, I opened my ears listened carefully, was prepared for most potential replies, asked a question, asked it again, said it a third time, then realised I wasn't even going hear them speak because they could understand a word I was saying. Accent can be bigger problems than dialects themselves.

Hmm, the following is an audio clip of Old English, about 1050, more preciself the Our Father prayer. Do you find it close to Friesian?

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/oe/paternoster-oe.ht ml

The Luxembourgish for cabbage is kabbitsch (not sure of the spelling). Where does that come from? Any other languages have the same or a similar word for it?

I've noticed watching Swedish films I can quite often understand short sentences of dialogue.

And some years ago I was working in Denmark and staying in a hotel in the north of Jutland, where - wonder of wonders in Denmark - the porter didn't speak English. so I asked a colleague how to say 'Can you ring for a taxi for me' in Danish.

It comes out as 'Kan du ringe p� en taxa til mig?'

Given that � is pronounced 'aw' more or less, it comes out sounding pretty much like English.

I don't think the program was saying Frisian derived from English. More the English and Frisians spoke the same language but English changed more over time than Frisian.

Most English words are neither, French, Latin or Greek, they're modern inventions. But the basic works spoken in every sentence and most frequently are old English.