Groningen (Gronings

Gronings

Gronings, in the dialect itself called Grunnegs or Grönnegs, is a collective name for some Friso-Saxon dialects spoken in the province of Groningen and around the Groningen border in Drenthe and Friesland. Gronings and the strongly related varieties in East-Frisia have a strong Frisian influence...

: Grunnen, West Frisian

West Frisian language

West Frisian is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian,...

: Grins) is a municipality and the capital city of the province of Groningen

Groningen (province)

Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...

 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. With a population of around 190,000, it is by far the largest city in the north of the Netherlands. Groningen is a university city, inhabited on average by about 50,000 students.
The city was founded on the northernmost point of the Hondsrug

Hondsrug

thumb|300px|The Hoogstraatje in [[Groningen |Groningen]], the northernmost [[hill]] of the HondsrugThe Hondsrug is a Dutch ridge of sand that is mainly located in the province Drenthe and partly in the province Groningen...

 area. The oldest document referring to Groningen's existence dates from 1040.