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Concept
Frisia
Summary
Frisia is a cross-border cultural region in Northwestern Europe. Stretching along the Wadden Sea, it encompasses the north of the Netherlands and parts of northwestern Germany. The region is traditionally inhabited by the Frisians, a West Germanic ethnic group.
The contemporary name for the region stems from the Latin word Frisii; an ethnonym used for a group of tribes in modern-day Northwestern Germany, possibly being a loanword of Proto-Germanic *frisaz, meaning "curly, crisp", presumably referring to the hair of the tribesmen. In some areas, the local translation of "Frisia" is used to refer to another subregion. On the North Frisian islands, for instance, "Frisia" and "Frisians" refer to (the inhabitants of) mainland North Frisia. In Saterland Frisian, the term Fräislound specifically refers to Ostfriesland.
During the French occupation of the Netherlands, the name for the Frisian department was Frise. In English, both "Frisia" and "Friesland" may be interchangeably used to refer to the region.
Frisia is commonly divided into three sections:
West Frisia in the Netherlands roughly corresponds to the province of Friesland (Fryslân). In a broader sense, it also includes West Friesland in northern North Holland and the Ommelanden in the province of Groningen, though the West Frisian language is only spoken in Friesland proper. Dialects with strong West Frisian substrates, including Low German and Low Franconian, are also spoken in West Frisia. In the province of Groningen, people speak Gronings, a Low Saxon dialect with a strong Frisian substrate. Rural Groningen originally belonged to the Frisian lands "east of the Lauwers" and is therefore more closely linked to East Frisia than to the west. In West Friesland, West Frisian Dutch – a Hollandic dialect with strong Frisian influences – is spoken.
East Frisia in Lower Saxony, Germany roughly corresponds to the historical regions of East Frisia (Aurich, Leer, Wittmund and Emden) and Oldenburger Friesland (Friesland and Wilhelmshaven), and the municipality of Saterland.
Official source
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