While exploring the branches of the Germanic language tree, I was shocked to see that English has at least one sister language.
I was not surprised to see that Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish came from the North Germanic branch, but when I looked at the West Germanic branch, I saw that it separated into two subcategories: Netherlandic-German (which produced Dutch and German) and Anglo-Frisian (which produced English and Frisian).
This was an enormous revelation to me, because it meant that English is much more related to at least one other language than I had previously thought; I used to believe that English was unlike any other language in all of history, which is partially true, however, Frisian comes from the same Germanic branch that English comes from, which makes the two of them sister languages.
Truthfully, I wasn’t aware that Frisian existed until I looked at that language tree. It turns out that Frisian is a language that is still spoken in some northwestern regions of the Netherlands and Germany, particularly the Dutch province of Friesland.
Upon learning this astounding fact, I quickly opened Google Translate, and sure enough, Frisian is one of the languages that the application has offered this whole time. I then translated the United States’ official motto to Frisian, Dutch, and German to see if these languages really are as similar to each other as the internet claims; I also included Old English, because Old English can be much more similar to other Germanic languages than Modern English. Here is the comparison that I made.
| English | In God we trust |
| Old English | In Metod we trūwodon |
| Frisian | Op God fertrouwe wy |
| Dutch | Op God vertrouwen wij |
| German | Auf Gott vertrauen wir |
Amazingly, Frisian is somewhat understandable to an English reader; my studying of German and Dutch also help me to understand most of what is being said in Frisian without knowing the language.
The Verb To Be
One of the simplest and best examples that I found demonstrates the similarity between these languages is the verb to be (i.e. am, is, are). Here is a breakdown of the verb to be in the previously mention languages in the present simple tense.
English
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | I am | we are |
| 2nd Person | you are | you are |
| 3rd Person | he, she, it is | they are |
Old English
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | ic eom | wé sindon |
| 2nd Person | þú eart | gé eart |
| 3rd Person | hé, héo, hit is | híe sindon |
Frisian
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | ik bin | wy binne |
| 2nd Person | do bist | do bist |
| 3rd Person | hy, sy, it is | sy binne |
Dutch
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | ik ben | wij zijn |
| 2nd Person | jij bent | jij bent |
| 3rd Person | hij, zij, het is | zij zijn |
German
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | ich bin | wir sind |
| 2nd Person | du bist | ihr seid |
| 3rd Person | er, sie, es ist | sie sind |
There really is a lot of similarity between all of these western Germanic languages. Just for fun, I decided to write the first sentence of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence in these five languages to further show their similarities.
English
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Old English
Wé hælda þá sōþa tó béon self-eald, þæt eall menn sind gecreat eald, þæt híe sind ángeféngen fram hyra Scyppende mid séon unálícé Riht, þæt on þám sind Līf, Friþdóm, and þæt forþfēran of Sǣles.
Frisian
Wy hâlde dizze wierheden as fanselssprekkend, dat alle minsken lyk makke binne, dat se troch har Skepper begiftigd binne mei bepaalde ûnferfrjemde Rjochten, dat ûnder dizze Libben, Frijheid en it stribjen nei Gelok binne.
Dutch
Wij beschouwen deze waarheden als vanzelfsprekend: dat alle mensen gelijk geschapen zijn, dat zij door hun Schepper begiftigd zijn met bepaalde onvervreemdbare Rechten, waaronder het recht op Leven, Vrijheid en het nastreven van Geluk.
German
Wir halten die folgenden Wahrheiten für selbstverständlich: dass alle Menschen gleich geschaffen sind und dass sie von ihrem Schöpfer mit bestimmten unveräußerlichen Rechten ausgestattet sind, zu denen Leben, Freiheit und das Streben nach Glück gehören.
When I look at this sentence in those languages, I see a lot of similarities between them, not only in their structure and spelling, but also in their pronunciation, however, it does appear that, of all the germanic languages, modern English is the one that has strayed the furthest from its roots, which is likely due to the fact that English has become intertwined with many foreign languages, including Latin, Greek, and French.
Wat fynsto oer it Frysk? (What do you think about Frisian?)
Onward American 