Growing up with Frisian and Dutch: The role of language input in the early development of Frisian and Dutch among preschool children in Friesland

Bilingual acquisition largely depends on the input that children receive in each language. The more input in a language, the more proficient a child becomes in that language. The current project studied the role of language input among bilingual Frisian-Dutch preschool children (age 2.5-4 years) in Friesland. Friesland is a bilingual region in the north of the Netherlands where the minority language Frisian is spoken, next to the national language Dutch. In two longitudinal studies, the influence of home language and outside home exposure on the early acquisition of vocabulary and morphosyntax was investigated. The results presented in this dissertation showed that home language played an important role in the Frisian measures and, to a lesser extent, in Dutch. Outside home exposure had a strong influence on receptive vocabulary in both languages. Therefore, it can be concluded that the acquisition of the minority language, Frisian, does not harm the acquisition of the majority language, Dutch