North Frisians are, in the wider sense, the inhabitants of the district of Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

. In a narrower sense they are an ethnic sub-group of the Frisians from North Frisia

North Frisia

North Frisia or Northern Friesland is the northernmost portion of Frisia, located primarily in Germany between the rivers Eider and Wiedau/Vidå. It includes a number of islands, e.g., Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, Nordstrand, and Heligoland.-History:...

 and on Heligoland

Heligoland

Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...

.

This people still uses to some extent the different dialects of the North Frisian language

North Frisian language

North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages.-Classification:...

, that belong to the group of Ingvaeonic languages. This language is specially protected by the Schleswig-Holstein state constitution

Constitution

A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

 and by the Friisk Gesäts (German: Friesisch-Gesetz or "Frisian Law").

North Frisians are counted as an autochthonic

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 minority in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is reckoned that there are about 50,000 members of the Frisian people in North Frisia and on Heligoland, of which about 10,000 still speak the North Frisian dialects. About 1,400 schoolchildren are being taught Frisian.

Around 800 the Frisians migrated into what later became Uthlande

Uthlande

Uthlande, Utlande is a term for the islands halligen and marshes off the mainland of North Frisia in modern Nordfriesland district, Germany.- History :...

 in the Duchy of Schleswig. Initially they only settled the offshore islands, but in a second wave of immigration around 1100 also populated the adjacent coastal strip between the rivers Eider

Eider

Eiders are large seaducks in the genus Somateria. Steller's Eider, despite its name, is in a different genus.The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern hemisphere....

 and Vidå

Vidå

The Vidå is a creek in Jutland, Denmark. The creek starts east of Tønder and flows to the west, ending in the North Sea. The Vidå is in parts border between Denmark and Germany .South of the river live the North Frisians....

(German: Wiedau) on the Germano-Danish border.

External links

• Information about the Frisian people (Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein)
• Friisk Foriining
• The North Frisian Society
• Nordfriisk Instituut