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| East Frisian | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Germany |
| Region | East Frisia |
| Ethnicity | East Frisians |
Native speakers | 2,000 (2015)[1] |
| Dialects |
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| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | Germany |
| Regulated by | Seelter Buund in Saterland/Seelterlound (unofficial) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis)Individual code: stq – Saterland Frisian |
| Glottolog | sate1242 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ACA |
 Present-day distribution of the Frisian languages in Europe: East Frisian | |
East Frisian is one of theFrisian languages. Its last surviving dialect isSaterland Frisian spoken inSaterland in Germany.
There once were two main dialects,Ems [nl] andWeser. Weser, including theWursten,Harlingerland andWangerooge dialects, held out until the 20th century. Ems continues with a couple thousand adult speakers of the Saterland dialect. The other member of the Ems dialect,Upgant Frisian, is extinct.
The phonology of Eastern Frisian is linguistically conservative with regards toOld Frisian.[2]
Old East Frisian used to be spoken inEast Frisia (Ostfriesland), the region between the Dutch riverLauwers and the German riverWeser. The area also included two small districts on the east bank of the Weser, the lands of Wursten and Würden. The Old East Frisian language could be divided into two dialect groups: Weser Frisian to the east, andEms Frisian to the west. From 1500 onwards, Old East Frisian slowly had to give way in the face of the severe pressure put on it by the surroundingLow German dialects, and nowadays it is all but extinct.[clarification needed]
By the middle of the seventeenth century, Ems Frisian had almost completely died out. Weser Frisian, for the most part, did not last much longer, and held on only until 1700, although there are records of it still being spoken in the land of Wursten, to the east of the river Weser, in 1723. It held out the longest on the island ofWangerooge, where the last Weser Frisian speaker died in 1953. Today, the Old East Frisian language isno longer spoken within the historical borders of East Frisia; however, a large number of the inhabitants of that region are still Frisians, referring to their dialect ofLow German asFreesk.[citation needed] In this dialect, referred to inStandard German asOstfriesisch, the Frisiansubstratum is still evident, despite heavy Germanisation.
The last remaining living remnant of Old East Frisian is an Ems Frisian dialect called Sater Frisian or Saterlandic (its native name beingSeeltersk), which is spoken in theSaterland area in the formerState of Oldenburg, to the south of East Frisia proper.Saterland (Seelterlound in the local language), which is believed to have been colonised by Frisians from East Frisia in the eleventh century, was for a long time surrounded by impassable moors. This, together with the fact that Sater Frisian always had a status superior to Low German among the inhabitants of the area, accounts for the preservation of the language throughout the centuries.
Another important factor was that after theThirty Years' War, Saterland became part of the bishopric ofMünster. As a consequence, it was brought back under control of the Catholic Church, resulting in social separation from Protestant East Frisia since about 1630. Catholic religious law demanded a confirmation of the non-Catholic partner and this condition prevented contact, so marriages of Saterlanders were seldom contracted with East Frisians for some ages.
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