Anglo-Frisian languages

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As Anglo-Frisian languages were referred to earlier one goes back to an assumed common proto-language sub-group of West Germanic languages consisting of Old English , Old Frisian and its successor languages. According to the opinion of the time, West Germanic consisted of an Anglo-Frisian and a (primordial) German branch.

This structure of the Germanic languages ​​has hardly been accepted since the 1960s. The idea of ​​an Anglo-Frisian original language has been replaced by the model of a North Sea Germanic ( Ingwaeonian ) language group to which several languages ​​with common characteristics belong. The close relationship between Old Frisian and Old English is not in doubt.

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 The assibilation the closure texts, k to a fricative ( . Dt cheese , . Ndl Kaas , . Nd Kees  : . Engl cheese , . Westfries tsiis ; dt. Church , ndl. Kerk , nd. Kark , Kerk  : engl. Church , Nordfries. Schörk , Westfries. tsjerke ). The omission of nasals before fricatives with substitute stretching is common to English and Frisian, but also occurs in Low German, Dutch and even in Alemannic (German five  : English five , westfries. Fiif , nd. Vief , ndl. Vijf , alem. five ).

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