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AFAIK, they are trying to get Frisian added to the "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages", not the official language list. They get certain reco

AFAIK, they are trying to get Frisian added to the "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages", not the official language list. They get certain recognition, but they are not official in Europe. For example, just from Spain there are 13 languages on that list.

trollbridge 1y ago
To be fair to the Frisians, there are around 40,000-80,000 native Irish speakers and 500,000+ native Frisian speakers.
- aprilthird2021 1y ago
  Unfair comparison, imo. Irish (Gaelic) is a language which was intentionally suppressed for centuries.
  - dbspin 1y ago
    What relevance does that have? I'd say it's more important to acknowledge the fact that there are zero Irish speakers who don't also speak English. Including it as an official EU language is an ideological project rather than a pragmatic one.
    - aprilthird2021 1y ago
      Because there is a cause to revert the intentional damage done to Irish by the former rulers of the land. With Frisian there was no resistance to it. I think official language status helps provide resources to conservationists of various languages. And trying to conserve a language most of the speakers don't care about us a lot different than trying to conserve a language people do care about but we're forced to suppress for many years so have less ability to conserve it
- igravious 1y ago
  Irish is an official language of Ireland (there is signage and instructions in Irish up and down the Republic) , Frisian is not an official language of the Netherlands to the best of my knowledge Irish is certainly not a robust vigorous language but your 40,000-80,000 numbers downplay it I'd suggest. Here are some statistics from Deepseek Category Region Number of Speakers Source & Year Some Ability Republic of Ireland 1,873,997 (40% of population) 2022 Census Some Ability Northern Ireland 228,600 (12.4% of population) 2021 Census Daily Speakers Republic of Ireland 71,968 2022 Census Daily Speakers Northern Ireland 43,557 2021 Census Native/Fluent Global Estimate ~80,000-170,000 Various Sources Speakers U.S. United States ~20,000+ Estimate
  - tripzilch 1y ago
    > Frisian is not an official language of the Netherlands to the best of my knowledge Sorry, but it is.
    - Freak_NL 1y ago
      Correct. Frisia (or Fryslân) is a bilingual province. Frisian is an official language of the Netherlands. Someone called in front of a judge in the north of the Netherlands has the right to be heard in Frisian, for example. Fun fact: villages, towns, and cities in Frisia often have names which differ in Frisian and Dutch. In those cases the signs at the place limits will have both names listed; the official one on top (which in some cases is the Dutch name (e.g., Leeuwarden/Ljouwert) and in some cases the Frisian (e.g., Gytsjerk/Giekerk)).
      - tripzilch 1y ago
        I really like that the intercom announcement voice in our trains (and also buses?) is bilingual. And huh interesting, I didn't know that for some places with bilingual names, the Dutch name is official and for others the Frysian is? Who gets to decide that, the municipality?
Zenst 1y ago
So same as Esperanto then.

trollbridge 1y ago

To be fair to the Frisians, there are around 40,000-80,000 native Irish speakers and 500,000+ native Frisian speakers.

aprilthird2021 1y ago
Unfair comparison, imo. Irish (Gaelic) is a language which was intentionally suppressed for centuries.
- dbspin 1y ago
  What relevance does that have? I'd say it's more important to acknowledge the fact that there are zero Irish speakers who don't also speak English. Including it as an official EU language is an ideological project rather than a pragmatic one.
  - aprilthird2021 1y ago
    Because there is a cause to revert the intentional damage done to Irish by the former rulers of the land. With Frisian there was no resistance to it. I think official language status helps provide resources to conservationists of various languages. And trying to conserve a language most of the speakers don't care about us a lot different than trying to conserve a language people do care about but we're forced to suppress for many years so have less ability to conserve it
igravious 1y ago
Irish is an official language of Ireland (there is signage and instructions in Irish up and down the Republic) , Frisian is not an official language of the Netherlands to the best of my knowledge Irish is certainly not a robust vigorous language but your 40,000-80,000 numbers downplay it I'd suggest. Here are some statistics from Deepseek Category Region Number of Speakers Source & Year Some Ability Republic of Ireland 1,873,997 (40% of population) 2022 Census Some Ability Northern Ireland 228,600 (12.4% of population) 2021 Census Daily Speakers Republic of Ireland 71,968 2022 Census Daily Speakers Northern Ireland 43,557 2021 Census Native/Fluent Global Estimate ~80,000-170,000 Various Sources Speakers U.S. United States ~20,000+ Estimate
- tripzilch 1y ago
  > Frisian is not an official language of the Netherlands to the best of my knowledge Sorry, but it is.
  - Freak_NL 1y ago
    Correct. Frisia (or Fryslân) is a bilingual province. Frisian is an official language of the Netherlands. Someone called in front of a judge in the north of the Netherlands has the right to be heard in Frisian, for example. Fun fact: villages, towns, and cities in Frisia often have names which differ in Frisian and Dutch. In those cases the signs at the place limits will have both names listed; the official one on top (which in some cases is the Dutch name (e.g., Leeuwarden/Ljouwert) and in some cases the Frisian (e.g., Gytsjerk/Giekerk)).
    - tripzilch 1y ago
      I really like that the intercom announcement voice in our trains (and also buses?) is bilingual. And huh interesting, I didn't know that for some places with bilingual names, the Dutch name is official and for others the Frysian is? Who gets to decide that, the municipality?

Zenst 1y ago

So same as Esperanto then.