Old Frisian was a
West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the
Rhine and
Weser on the European
North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Friesland) also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known. The language of the earlier inhabitants of the region between the
Zuiderzee and Ems River (the
Frisians famously mentioned by
Tacitus) is attested in only a few personal names and place-names. Old Frisian evolved into
Middle Frisian, spoken from the 16th to the 19th century.