Verbix -- Verbix, Germanic languages -- Verbix, Germanic language, German
Frisian is the first language of 55 per cent (350,000) of the population of the province of Friesland in the Netherlands. 74% of the inhabitants of Friesland are able to speak Frisian, 64% are able to read it and 17% able to write it. In 1956 the government of the Netherlands formally recognized Friesland as a bilingual community. Over the years, a steadily growing number of measures have been prepared to implement this policy in fields such as education, public administration and the judiciary.
Some 3,000 Frisian speakers live in a few villages just over the provincial border where Frisian does not have any status. The use of Frisian in education has been allowed since 1938 and it has been compulsory in primary education since 1980. It became compulsory in the first year of secondary education in 1993. Frisian is a Germanic language, historically related to English.
Regular verbs
Infinitive: fraage
Present
1sg ik fraage
2sg dü fraagest
3sg hi/hat/at fraaget
1pl wi fraage
2pl jam fraage
3pl jo fraage
Irregular verbs
Infinitive: drank
Past participle: dronken
Present Past
1sg drank droonk
2sg drankst droonkst
3sg drankt droonkt
pl drank droonk
Infinitive: wees
Past participle: ?
Present Past
1sg san
2sg beest
3sg as
pl san