Frisian

Frisian is a Western Germanic language that was once spoken along the North Sea coast from present-day Holland to southern Denmark, but nowadays, apart from a few remnants of its eastern dialects in Northwest Germany, it is only spoken in the Dutch province of Frisia, where it is co-official with Dutch.

Frisian is closely related to Dutch and has been heavily influenced by it. Nevertheless, it is clearly a separate language that some consider to be the closest living relative of English. Whether this is true is debatable. Frisian is certainly much closer related to Dutch and German than it is to Modern English. Still, there are some Frisian words that are more similar to their English than to their Dutch or German cognates.

Here are a few examples of such words:

EnglishFrisianDutchGerman
cheesetsiiskaasKäse
daydeidagTag
goosegoesgansGans
throughtrochdoordurch
yesterdayjustergisterengestern